The Los Angeles City Council enacted a “sanctuary city” ordinance Tuesday that aims to shield the city from President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans.
The city will refuse to share information with federal immigration authorities and bar resources from being used for immigration enforcement.
“We’re going to send a very clear message that the city of Los Angeles will not cooperate with ICE in any way,” Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez said. “We want people to feel protected and be able to have faith in their government and that women can report domestic violence, crimes.”
Soto-Martinez said many of his constituents are “immigrants without legal status” and are “embedded in the larger community.”
The city council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance, which matches with several Democratic-led cities aiming to combat Trump’s policies. The ordinance will come back for a second vote as a formality before Mayor Karen Bass can sign it. She has signaled her support for the action.
“This moment demands urgency,” Bass said recently. “Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better.”
Los Angeles, however, already does not comply with federal immigration authorities, so it is unclear what the ordinance will change. The city’s police department has a policy that mandates officers not to ask about immigration status or make arrests based on that status.
In 2017, Trump tried to withhold funding from some sanctuary cities and favored cities that pledged to cooperate with immigration enforcement for federal grants.
Some cities have not responded the same as Los Angeles since Trump won the election.
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New York Mayor Eric Adams has said there should be more, not less, cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. However, he has said he does not support mass deportations.
“We can’t keep kicking the can, not down the road, but to cities,” Adams said. “Our immigration system is a failure, and, in fact, it’s an embarrassment, and we have to do a better job.”