L.A. city leaders are limited in what they can do to stop deportations

Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, chair of the committee on immigration issues, at City Hall.

By Dakota SmithStaff Writer

Nov. 9, 2024 3 AM PT

Eight years ago, L.A.’s political leaders jumped into action on the issue of immigration, moving to protect the city’s undocumented population from the Trump administration.

City Council members put public money toward lawyers to defend Angelenos facing deportation. They pushed to legalize the work of street vendors, many of whom lack citizenship. And they created a new committee focused on immigration.

This week, there was a feeling of deja vu at City Hall as political leaders braced for another round against President-elect Donald Trump.

Several council members said Friday that they would hasten passage of L.A.’s “sanctuary” law, which is still under review by city attorneys, in the face of Trump’s promised crackdown on immigrants.

The ordinance, first proposed last year and modeled after a San Francisco law, would bar federal immigration enforcement officials from accessing city databases.

Seven council members on Friday also signed a resolution urging President Biden to renew a program that allows undocumented people from Central America to stay temporarily in the U.S. Los Angeles has the largest Central American population outside of Latin America.

One of the resolution’s backers, City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, said his own family members, constituents in his Eastside district and immigrant rights groups are all feeling “absolutely nervous.”

“More than anything, people are angry,” said Soto-Martínez, who chairs the city’s immigration committee. “They’re agitated and they’re ready to fight back, just like we did in 2016.”

Other council members said they feared that funding for homelessness would be choked off following Tuesday’s election. And some worried about the heavily Democratic city’s ability to obtain federal security and transportation funds for the 2028 Olympics in L.A.

Hosting the international sporting event is already a financial risk because the city is responsible for cost overruns.

City Councilmember Paul Krekorian, who traveled to Paris for the recent Summer Games, said Trump’s election left him anticipating “four difficult years for our city on multiple levels, not least of which is our access to federal funding for different programs, and preparations for the Olympics.”

L.A. is expected to receive approximately $355 million in federal grant funding this fiscal year, according to the City Administrative Office.

That doesn’t include the federal dollars that flow to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint city and county agency, or that would come to the region through the Federal Emergency Management Agency following massive disasters.

City officials expressed fear that Trump, a mercurial leader prone to grudges, would retaliate against California and Los Angeles because of its Democratic leadership.

Trump recently threatened to end federal disaster aid for California’s wildfires — remarks that were on the mind of Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who works closely with the city’s fire department.

“That’s not a democracy,” Rodriguez, whose San Fernando Valley district includes areas that are prone to wildfires, said Tuesday night. “That’s not how this is supposed to work.”

Rodriguez was on the council during the last Trump administration, when the U.S. Justice Department regularly battled with L.A. in court, including over whether federal funds could be withheld if city officials refused to cooperate with immigration agents.

Mayor Karen Bass was a member of Congress during Trump’s first term and repeatedly criticized the then-president. In 2020, she called him a “lawless” president who wants to be an “authoritarian leader.”

Since winning the mayor’s race in 2022, she has made ending street homelessness her priority and worked closely with the Biden administration to lobby for more housing vouchers and for new rules to allow homeless Angelenos to become eligible for federally funded apartments.

Asked Thursday if she is worried about losing federal funding with Trump in office, Bass spoke in broad terms.

Angelenos won’t allow “anyone to divide us or to pit groups against each other,” she said. “We’ve done that before, and we’ll do that again.”

City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson also sought to reassure Angelenos this week, telling reporters that it’s the job of the City Council and the mayor to ensure “that everybody in this city feels protected and safe, and that includes immigrants.”

L.A. County has about 800,000 undocumented residents, including many families with mixed status, according to USC’s Equity Research Institute. Over 70% of the county’s undocumented residents have been in the country for longer than a decade, according to the institute.

Immigration will be the biggest source of tension between the city government and the Trump administration, said Manuel Pastor, the institute’s director. At the same time, the City Council has grown more progressive since 2016, he said.

City leaders regularly talk about immigration in personal terms. Councilmember-elect Ysabel Jurado, a tenant rights attorney, won a seat this week representing parts of the Eastside after running a campaign that highlighted her Filipino parents’ undocumented status.

Despite their assurances, the City Council and Bass have limited power when it comes to stopping deportations.

The city is also facing a budget crisis that could limit its ability to pay for programs now sought by immigrant groups, including free attorneys for those at risk for deportation.

At a rally Thursday outside City Hall, some immigrant rights leaders urged city officials to fund efforts to alert communities of deportation raids.

Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, said L.A. needs to offer “unprecedented investment” in such programs because of Trump.

Harris-Dawson signaled Friday that the council may take more action on immigration in the following weeks. He also suggested that some city officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to Trump’s plans.

“Some of us, I don’t know why, want to give the president the benefit of the doubt and try to see what’s going to happen, as opposed to reacting before something actually happens,” he said.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes the immigrant-rich neighborhood of Pico-Union, wasn’t among those waiting. She told The Times that officials have to “re-train” themselves on how to protect immigrant communities.

Trump “has been very explicit in what he wants to do,” she said.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.