The council vote comes after President-elect Donald Trump confirmed he’s prepared to declare a national emergency to initiate mass deportations.
The Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance on Tuesday to prohibit the use of city resources and personnel for federal immigration enforcement in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to initiate mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
The ordinance was passed unanimously with a
13-0 vote on Nov. 19 and will now move to Mayor Karen Bass for signature. Bass had called for swift action to protect illegal immigrants ahead of the council meeting.
“This moment demands urgency. Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better,” the mayor said in a Nov. 12.
statement.
The city council’s vote came just a day after Trump
confirmed reports that he would declare a nationwide emergency and use military assets to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
Trump did not elaborate on his plans, but the vow to initiate mass deportations was a major part of his 2024 campaign messaging strategy. His inauguration is just two months away from now.
Under the sanctuary city
ordinance, city personnel are not allowed to inquire about a person’s immigration status or make arrests for purposes of enforcement of federal immigration law.
The ordinance will bar city personnel from participating in immigration enforcement activities or providing federal immigration agents with access to information on people’s immigration status.
City personnel are also prohibited from responding to any administrative warrant or request to detain, transfer, or notify federal immigration agents about the status or release of an illegal immigrant.
“This law is about making Los Angeles through law a sanctuary city and ensuring that all Angelenos can interact with our government without a fear that Donald Trump’s deportation squad is around the corner,” councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez
said during the council meeting.
The Los Angeles Unified School District also adopted a
resolution on Tuesday declaring itself a “sanctuary district” for students and families within the school district. The resolution includes training for teachers, administrators, and staff on how to respond to federal immigration agents who request information or try to enter school property.
The Los Angeles County Republican Party (LAGOP) has criticized the ordinance, saying that the city should focus on ensuring public safety instead of shielding illegal immigrants who committed crimes.
“So-called ‘sanctuary’ cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren’t for abuelas getting ice cream, they’re for people who’ve entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” LAGOP said in a
statement. “Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers.”
The state of California has similar protections. Former California Gov. Jerry Brown signed sanctuary state legislation in 2017 to bar police from asking people about their immigration status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities.
At the time, President Trump responded by attempting to withhold funding from so-called sanctuary cities and favor cities that pledge to cooperate with immigration enforcement for federal grants.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Jack Phillips and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
