L.A. 'sanctuary city' law won't prevent deportations. But 'we are hardening our defenses'

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles in 2020.

By Dakota SmithStaff Writer

Published Nov. 19, 2024 Updated Nov. 20, 2024 11:14 AM PT

Facing President-elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday tentatively backed a “sanctuary city” law that forbids city employees and resources from being involved in federal immigration enforcement.

The law would not stop the federal government from carrying out mass deportations in Los Angeles. Still, it is intended to signal that City Hall is standing with its large immigrant population in a deep blue city already well-known for resisting Trump.

Also on Tuesday, the Los Angeles school board affirmed the nation’s second-largest school system as a sanctuary for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who represents the central San Fernando Valley, said Tuesday that the city is “hardening our defenses” in the face of Trump’s election.

“We know there is a target on our back from this president-elect,” Blumenfield said.

The law, which passed unanimously, will be revised by the city attorney’s office after the council approved minor amendments. The council will then vote on the revised version.

Trump has promised to deport a vast number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, saying he would use military troops as well as state and local law enforcement.

During his last presidency, Trump deported about 1.5 million immigrants, according to a Migration Policy Institute analysis of federal figures, which the Biden administration is on pace to match. The last Trump administration sought to withhold money from Los Angeles over its long-standing policy of not allowing police officers to take part in immigration enforcement.

During his recent campaign, Trump said he would ask Congress to pass a law outlawing sanctuary cities nationwide.

The L.A. sanctuary city law, which was proposed in early 2023 — long before Trump’s election — aims to build a firewall between federal immigration enforcement and city agencies.

Under the law, city employees and city property may not be used to “investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person” for the purpose of immigration enforcement. An exception is made for law enforcement investigating serious offenses.

City employees may not seek or collect information about an individual’s citizenship or immigration status, unless the information is necessary to provide a city service. They must treat data or information that can be used to trace a person’s citizenship or immigration status as confidential.

At the same time, the city must comply with a valid warrant issued by a federal or state judge, or any other applicable order.

The law will have little practical effect, since Los Angeles already draws a line between city officials and immigration enforcement. The LAPD’s policy barring officers initiating contact with a person solely to determine their immigration status has been in effect since 1979.

In proposing the law, Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martínez and Nithya Raman sought to enshrine an order enacted by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti several years earlier.

Questions remained Tuesday about how the sanctuary city law would intersect with LAPD policies and three departments — Water and Power, the Port of L.A. and Los Angeles World Airports — that operate independently from the rest of city government.

One of the amendments passed by the council on Tuesday asks that city officials report back on how the LAPD and the three departments can adopt their own versions of the law.

An LAPD spokesperson, Sgt. William Cooper, told The Times on Tuesday that the new sanctuary law would apply to the Police Department.

About 800,000 of L.A. County’s nearly 10 million residents lacked legal status in 2023, according to the USC Equity Research Institute. More than 70% have been in the country for longer than a decade, according to the institute.

Already, a state law — pushed by then-state Sen. Kevin de León, now a council member who recently lost his reelection bid — limits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration agents unless the person has been convicted of certain crimes.

De León, speaking at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, said he is the youngest child of an immigrant mother with a third-grade education who came to the country illegally.

“She’s a woman who is just as American as anyone else,” said De León, who went on to blast Congress for failing to pass comprehensive immigration laws.

Even as De León backed the new law, he cautioned that he didn’t want to “mislead folks” into believing “a special force field” will protect them from deportation in Los Angeles.

Critics of the law pointed to Trump’s election as well as former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman’s recent victory over incumbent L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón as evidence that voters want tougher law enforcement. (California backed Harris over Trump.)

Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors stricter immigration controls, said the council is “ignoring a very clear message from the voters.”

“The voters are saying, enough of the lawlessness,” Mehlman said. “And the L.A. City Council doesn’t seem to be getting the message.”

“A country without secure borders isn’t a country at all,” said Roxanne Hoge, communications director for the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. “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 entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes.”

A representative for the Trump transition team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Dozens of immigration advocates and labor leaders gathered outside the City Council chambers before Tuesday’s vote, calling on the council to pass the sanctuary city law, which is modeled after a 1989 San Francisco law.

Mawuli Tugbenyoh, acting executive director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, told The Times that in his city, the law has strengthened trust between immigrant communities and local government, enabling migrants to report crimes and access services without fear of being deported.

Mayor Karen Bass, in a statement, said she looks forward to “reviewing the final ordinance and continuing our work to keep all Angelenos safe.”

“Los Angeles will always stand together, especially with our immigrant community,” Bass said. “We’ve been clear over the past weeks that the city of Los Angeles will protect all Angelenos and that’s exactly what we will do. Many of the immigrant protections here in Los Angeles have been in place for decades. Today’s action reinforces our commitment to protect our immigrant community and to keep all Angelenos safe.”

Tuesday’s vote marks another chapter in City Hall’s uneven efforts to declare itself a sanctuary city. In 1985, a divided City Council adopted a resolution declaring Los Angeles a city of sanctuary for immigrants fleeing political persecution and violence, particularly refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala.

But one council member threatened a ballot measure to overturn the resolution, prompting the council to drop the word “sanctuary.”

After Trump’s election in 2016, some L.A. council members introduced a resolution to declare L.A. a “city of sanctuary.” But the resolution took two years to come to a vote. By then, immigrant advocates said, it had lost its significance.

Hernandez, who represents neighborhoods near downtown with large immigrant populations, including Pico-Union, said Tuesday’s step toward codifying the city’s policies is meaningful.

“It’s going to be enshrined permanently and that’s important,” Hernandez said. “Because it means it can’t just change from one administration to another without a significant amount of work.”

Times staff writer Andrea Castillo contributed to this report.