The Brief

In recent weeks, Pastor Caleb Crainer began developing a plan in the event that immigration enforcement agents show up at the door of his congregation, a pressing concern after the Trump administration rescinded long-standing guidance advising them to avoid houses of worship.

"So we have three of these pink binders that are around the church," he says, pulling one off a shelf behind his secretary's desk and leafing through the pages.

Crainer points out the step-by-step response to people presenting themselves as immigration officers as he flips through the pages, which include examples of what official court orders should look like as well as "know your rights" materials and important phone numbers for church leaders and advocacy groups.

Other pink binders are located at the entrance to the sanctuary itself as well as in the fellowship hall, all places anyone is welcome to enter St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, in west Los Angeles.

Crainer created these folders in consultation with other clergy, lawyers and immigrant rights groups. He's also done role-play exercises with his congregation to help them practice their responses. So, if immigration agents show up, church staff, volunteer ushers, greeters or any church member will know what to do.

Scores of congregations around Los Angeles have taken similar measures as the federal government has been focusing on the region with regards to immigration enforcement.

While developing the plan, Crainer and his congregation have learned a lot about the law. "As a church, you need to know where your public spaces are and where your private spaces are," he says. "Because when ICE shows, they can go into any public space. But they are precluded from going into any private space without a warrant."

A public space in a house of worship is any place a visitor might be allowed to go, such as the sanctuary itself where liturgies take place or the fellowship hall where coffee and doughnuts are served after worship. Private spaces include areas such as the pastor's office or the sacristy, a room where ritual objects are stored.

Last year, St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in west Los Angeles decided to focus its ministry on immigration issues. As arrests and detention by federal immigration agents in the region have ramped up in recent weeks, so have the congregation's efforts to respond to the most vulnerable.

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Crainer says his congregation has also distributed "know your rights" brochures in English and Spanish to members, as well as houses in the surrounding neighborhood, and created a policy of not keeping records of any church member's immigration status.

People of faith stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable

Religious leaders in Los Angeles didn't wait for President Donald Trump's return to office in January to take action. Given the tone and rhetoric of the 2024 presidential campaign, they began their efforts months earlier.

"We started out right after the election doing a whole lot of 'know your rights' training, training with congregations on sanctuary, rapid response training," says Jennifer Gutierrez, executive director of the advocacy group Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. "That's still ongoing."

Gutierrez says things have also evolved since early June, when immigration agents began detaining more and more people in the region.

"We've been spending a lot of time in the streets," she says. "A number of rabbis or other clergy in their collars are out at actions trying to be a peaceful presence, but also just trying to show the community that we stand with them."

Her group also attends court hearings and holds a weekly vigil at the federal building in downtown L.A..

This past week, concerns over immigration arrests became so acute in neighboring San Bernardino County that the Catholic bishop of that diocese gave a special dispensation from attending mass to anyone too afraid to go to church because they feared being detained.

Gutierrez says some congregations with large immigrant populations have gone online, like they did during the pandemic, so that people who fear being seized by immigration agents don't have to travel to church. And she knows of some ministers bringing communion to their parishioners rather than asking people to risk showing up at worship services where they might encounter law enforcement.

For Pastor Caleb Crainer of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, all this reminds him of the early church when the faithful were hunted down and persecuted by the Roman Empire. During that time, people looked to the biblical stories of how communities cared for each other and sought solace in the life of Jesus as portrayed in the New Testament.

"Jesus was a vulnerable person who created a lot of enemies among the rich and powerful," he says. "And he was arrested. He was disappeared in the middle of the night and put through a sham trial and publicly executed. That's the core of our Christian story."
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Take accountability and move forward.

Those were the two points Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore hit repeatedly when speaking with LAist’s Larry Mantle this week.

On taking accountability, Moore said hazardous conditions and decisions made before the Palisades Fire erupted a year ago meant “our firefighters never had a chance” to arrest the fire that killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of structures.

On moving forward, he emphasized that reform is already in the works.

“Things have changed since the Palisades Fire, and we're going to continue making big changes in the Los Angeles Fire Department,” said Moore, who was selected for the LAFD top job by Mayor Karen Bass in November.

Here are three takeaways from the interview, which aired on AirTalk on Tuesday.

1. Staffing decisions hampered fire response

The LAFD uses a so-called pre-deployment matrix to set firefighter staffing levels ahead of high-risk weather.

According to the department’s after-action report, however, staffing levels on the day the Palisades Fire began fell short of the LAFD standard for extreme weather conditions. The National Weather Service had warned of low humidity, high winds and dry vegetation, what it calls a “particularly dangerous situation.” It’s the highest level of alert the agency can give.

Despite the high risk, the LAFD report said the decision not to deploy more firefighters in advance was in part made to save money.

Moore said Monday that the department has updated its policies to increase staffing for especially hazardous conditions, but he said he doesn’t believe additional resources would have stopped a fire of the magnitude that leveled the Palisades.

To suppress that kind of fire, he said, the department would need to pre-deploy resources across the city’s vast geography — to places like Baldwin Hills, Franklin Canyon, the Hollywood Hills, the Palisades, Porter Ranch and Sunland-Tujunga.

Moore said the department has already made new policies to call for more resources when the Weather Service issues a “particularly dangerous situation” alert.

2. LAFD is mostly an urban firefighting department

Moore referenced a key finding of the after-action report regarding a lack of training in wildland firefighting, which contributed to confusion and struggles to effectively utilize resources during the fire.

Wildland fires pose a number of challenges that are different from what firefighters face in urban environments. Those include the need to coordinate a large number of resources over vast areas, all while dealing with fast-moving flames that can rapidly tear through dry plants and structures.

The department found in its report that fewer firefighters were trained in fighting these wildland fires in recent years and that “leaders struggled to comprehend their roles.”

Some leaders in the department had “limited or no experience in managing an incident of such complexity,” the report said. And some reverted to doing the work of lower positions, leaving high-level decision-making positions unfilled.

“What we're doing now is really furthering that training and reinforcing that education with our firefighters so that they could be better prepared,” Moore said on AirTalk.

3. Changes to the after-action report

Early versions of the after-action report differed from the version released to the public in October, a fact that was first reported by the Los Angeles Times. The Times also reported that Battalion Chief Kenneth Cook, who wrote the report, wouldn’t endorse the final version because of the changes.

Moore acknowledged to the L.A. Board of Fire Commissioners at a Jan. 6 meeting that the report had been watered down.

“It is now clear that multiple drafts were edited to soften language and reduce explicit criticism of department leadership in that final report,” Moore told the commissioners. “This editing occurred prior to my appointment as fire chief, and I can assure you that nothing of this sort will ever again happen while I am fire chief."

Some changes were small but telling. A section titled “Failures” later became “Primary Challenges.”

Moore told LAist that changes between versions “ made it easier for the public to understand,” but an LAist review found the edits weren’t all surface-level.

In the first version of the report, the department said the decision not to fully pre-deploy all available resources for the particularly dangerous wind event “did not align” with their guidelines for such extreme weather cases. The final version said that the initial response “lacked the appropriate resources,” removing the reference to department standards.

The department also removed some findings that had to do with communications.

One sentence from the initial version of the report said: “Most companies lacked a basic briefing, leader’s intent, communications plan, or updated fire information for more than 36 hours.” That language was removed from the final report.

LAist has asked the Fire Department for clarification about why these assertions were removed but did not receive a response before time of publication.

Olympic organizers announced Tuesday that registration to buy tickets will run through March 18, with sales beginning in April. LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said that locals will get the first bite at the apple.

The registration period opens 7 a.m. Wednesday.

" Our host city communities here in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City will have the opportunity to be a part of a local presale," Hoover said outside the Coliseum while surrounded by Olympic athletes from Games past. "With our thanks and as part of our commitment to making sure that those who live and work around the games, where the games will take place, can be in the stands and cheer in 2028."

Olympic organizers also provided more details on ticket prices for the first time. One million tickets will sell for $28 a pop and around a third of tickets will be under $100, according to LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman.

That means the majority of tickets to the Olympic Games will run into triple digits. If the World Cup is any indication, some tickets could get astronomically pricey.

Interested fans can go to LA28.org to register. Those who are selected will get an email with a time slot to purchase tickets.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors took a step toward banning ICE from unlawfully operating on county-owned property and to post signage designating those spaces as “ICE Free Zones.”

The board unanimously approved the motion at Tuesday’s meeting, directing staff to draft the policy.

The draft could include requirements for county employees to report to their supervisor if they see unauthorized immigration activity on county property.

The city of Los Angeles passed a similar order last July, which strengthened protocols that prohibit ICE from operating on city-owned property. The agenda staff report points to an “ICE Free Zone” ordinance passed by the city of Chicago in October.

Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis co-authored the motion.

Horvath said the county will not allow its property to be used as “a staging ground for violence caused by the Trump administration."

Solis added that their action as a board could have a ripple effect on other city councils and local governments.

“Even though it's taken us this long to get here …I think it's really important for our communities to understand what we're saying is you don't have the right to come in and harass people without a federal warrant,” Solis said. “And if you use our property to stage, then you need to show us documentation as to why.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in an X post that the county cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces.

"Anyone who attempts to impede our agents will be arrested and charged, including county employees," Essayli said in the post. "We have already charged more than 100 individuals for similar conduct."

Since June, ICE raids have ramped up across the nation, heavily targeting certain immigrant communities like those in Los Angeles.

The motion directs the draft to include language that prohibits all types of ICE operations on county land, including staging and mobilizing without a warrant.

The motion cites an incident on Oct. 8, when county officials say federal agents raided the Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro, arresting three people and threatening to arrest staff.

The motion also requires that the county post 'Ice Free Zone' signage on all of its properties.

Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center of Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told LAist the policy is enforceable under Fourth Amendment case law.

“You have to make sure that when you post that signage … that means that you routinely, or semi-routinely, assess who's coming in to the property, so that you can control access,” Perez said. “But if ICE shows up with a warrant, with a subpoena, then all bets are off, and they can enter into the property and do what they need to do.”

Perez said the county has moved “incredibly” slow on this issue.

“It's embarrassing that the county is moving six months later, given how we've been facing violent, aggressive, invasive and illegal raids now for so long here in Southern California,” Perez said, adding that local governments have not been fast or creative enough in protecting immigrant and refugee communities.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, one of the region’s largest immigrant advocacy groups, supports the motion.

"We do not want our county resources being used for federal immigration enforcement activities, which disrupt, uproot, and terrorize our communities,” Jeannette Zanipatin, policy director for CHIRLA, said in a statement. “It is important for all public spaces to be really safe for all residents.”

County staff have 30 days to draft a plan to implement the new policy.