Today the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance declaring L.A. a Sanctuary City. The ordinance is in response to President-elect Donald Trump saying he would use the military to carry out mass deportations.

Westside Councilmember Traci Park was absent from the vote.

Earlier this morning, immigrant rights groups and residents gathered inside City Hall to urge city council members to vote yes to pass the ordinance, codifying it into city law. The L.A. Unified School District is considering a similar measure for its undocumented students.

Boston, New York City, and several other U.S. cities have promised that local resources would not be allocated to helping federal immigration enforcement issues.

The term “sanctuary city” has been popular in the United States for years to describe places that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities.

Tim Homan, President Trump’s nominee for “border czar” has urged sanctuary cities to “get the hell out of the way” of federal immigration crackdowns.

In 2018, Senate Bill 54, “the California Values Act,” went into effect. It limits the use of state and local resources for federal immigration enforcement efforts, prohibiting local police agencies from making most immigration-related arrests such as carrying out deportation orders.

Last week, Mayor Karen Bass and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto met with immigrants’ rights groups before writing a draft ordinance adding Chapter 19 to Division 19 of the administrative code.

Chapter 19 will prohibit the use of city resources including property and personnel from being utilized for immigration enforcement or cooperation with federal immigration agents.

“Especially in the face of growing threats to the immigrant communities here in Los Angeles, I stand with the people of this city,” Bass said in a statement last week. “This moment demands urgency. Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better.

She added, “Solidarity is an action, not rhetoric. Los Angeles stands together.”

“Immigrant families are under attack and face the imminent threat of harm and separation,” Gina Amado, Directing Attorney at the Immigrant’s Rights Project said during the public comment period. “The City of Los Angeles must stand up, lead, and protect its people as we prepare for the real possibility of mass detention and deportation. It is imperative that the city commit to using none of its resources to collude with ICE and enforce federal immigration law.”

There are approximately 800,000 undocumented immigrants currently living in Los Angeles.

Sophia Wrench, an attorney with Public Counsel who works with the Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign representing street vendors, also spoke during public comment.

“Los Angeles must be a leader in defending immigrant communities. Passing this sanctuary law is more urgent than ever,” said Wrench.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose district covers a small portion of the Westside, said the timing of this couldn’t be more important.

“Angelenos deserve to be protected no matter who is in power at the local level and in the federal government,” she said. “These policies have been good and important to ensure that Angelenos feel safe here calling on the city for support, and calling on city resources to meet their needs. It does mean at the flip of a switch or the change of an administration can be rescinded.”

She added, “Immigrant communities are more reluctant to call on the city for help to ask our city for resources. Even in cases of domestic violence and other emergencies. Even in cases of urgent need, we must be a city that ensures that Angelenos are able to lean on it for help, and this new ordinance would codify this approach and give it the force of law.”

Former Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an executive directive in 2017 declaring Los Angeles a sanctuary city, though the policies were not codified into municipal law.

Councilmember Hugo-Soto Martinez, who also represents a portion of the Westside, said codifying into law that Los Angeles is a sanctuary city will ensure “that all Angelenos can interact with our government without the fear that Donald Trump’s deportation squad is around the corner.”

“As I was growing up in Los Angeles, my own parents were undocumented. At the time, when my dad dropped me off or picked me up from school, he wasn’t worried that ICE agents were going to be there,” said Soto-Martinez.

City officials will report back within 60 days with recommendations for enforcing compliance with this ordinance on an ongoing basis.

Photo by MattGush on iStockphoto.com