Law Enforcement and Civil Rights

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman told his staff that a member of his office was "wrongfully detained" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday and later released, calling the incident "unacceptable" and saying it caused distress to the employee, their family and the office. In an internal memo obtained by CBS and first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Hochman described the employee as a "dedicated public servant" and said he has contacted unspecified federal counterparts to demand greater respect for residents’ rights and to prevent similar conduct. The Department of Homeland Security, responding to questions, flatly denied the account, saying that neither ICE nor Customs and Border Protection has "any record" of detaining an LA County DA employee and branding any suggestion of racial profiling by its officers as "FALSE and disgusting." The DA’s office declined to provide additional details about the staffer, the circumstances of the stop, or what documentation they have of the detention, leaving an unresolved factual dispute between one of the nation’s largest local prosecutorial agencies and federal immigration authorities. The episode feeds into a broader national clash over ICE tactics, alleged profiling and local–federal cooperation in immigration enforcement, particularly in large, diverse jurisdictions like Los Angeles.