The lawsuit argues that the federal agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act by deciding to move the collection without adequately weighing the effects on people and organizations that rely on it. California is asking the court to reverse the closure decision and halt the transfers.

The San Bruno facility holds more than 75,000 cubic feet of records documenting Northern and Central California, Hawaii, most of Nevada, Guam and American Samoa, according to the state. Its collections include immigration, court, prison and genealogical records, as well as documents related to Native American boarding schools, Chinese exclusion and the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans.

The National Archives told employees in June that it planned to close its San Bruno and Chicago facilities in the coming years and would begin moving records within months, the lawsuit says. In August, the agency announced that the San Bruno collection would be divided among five National Archives sites. The lawsuit says records could begin moving to Fort Worth, Texas, as soon as this week.

California says agencies and scholars use the San Bruno collection for work that depends on local access. The state points to research by the California Department of Parks and Recreation during refurbishment of the Angel Island barracks and to UC Berkeley professor Andrew Leong’s use of the records in Asian American history and language courses.

The lawsuit contends that relocating records away from the communities they document would make them harder to consult. Fewer than 4% of National Archives records nationwide have been digitized, according to the state, and some materials are too fragile to scan.

“California won’t stand idly by while the Trump Administration hauls away records that tell the stories of generations of immigrants, Tribal communities, and California families,” Bonta said in a statement.