LA City Council considers proposals to protect unauthorized immigrants from deportation

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday considered a series of motions designed to protect immigrants from the Trump administration’s planned mass deportations, including more funding for nonprofit legal services and a citywide “know your rights” campaign.

The proposals follow the council’s decision in December to declare L.A. a sanctuary city and come as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, launches raids to deport unauthorized immigrants across the country.

“This legislation sends a clear message: Los Angeles will not be complicit in Trump’s dehumanizing agenda — we will fight back and protect our community,” said Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who introduced the proposals.

He made the comment at a news conference before the vote.

“My own parents were undocumented, and they built a life here without the constant fear that a trip to work or taking me to school could tear our family apart,” he said. “Every Angeleno deserves that same safety and dignity.”

The proposals will now go to the Civil Rights and Immigration Committee for further consideration. They are expected to come back to the City Council for a vote.

The proposals

One proposal directs city officials to identify $540,000 for three months of stop-gap funding for legal service providers whose federal funding has been frozen by the Trump administration.

For decades, the Department of Justice funded legal programs to provide basic legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation. Last week, the department informed these legal service providers to “stop work immediately,” according to the motion.

Another proposal asks officials to report back on the feasibility of requiring employers to inform city authorities of any federal raids or audits in L.A. The program would include a reporting schedule to provide public reports about when, where and what industries are being targeted by ICE.

In addition, the proposal calls for a comprehensive "know your rights" campaign to use city facilities and community partnerships to inform L.A. residents about immigration protections, nondiscrimination policies and the city’s sanctuary ordinances.

Sanctuary city protections

In December, the City Council made L.A. a sanctuary city, prohibiting city resources from being used to enforce federal immigration law in the absence of a court warrant.

“We must do more if we are serious about being a sanctuary city,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said Tuesday at the news conference.

Immigrant rights activists applauded the effort.

“We’re living a nightmare,” said Martha Arevalo, executive director of the Central American Resource Center. “Our communities and immigrant families are under attack.”

“We’re going to be facing incredibly challenging times, continuous anti-immigrant attacks, and fast-changing laws but we will not stand down,” she added.

Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding to cities that do not cooperate with ICE’s deportation efforts, which could jeopardize wildfire relief funding. These latest proposals could further complicate that funding.

One proposal calls for LAX to explore providing space for nonprofit legal service providers to support immigrants. It anticipates future federal immigration or travel bans.

In his first term, Trump barred citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States and indefinitely suspended the entry of Syrian refugees. Many immigrants were left stranded at LAX with no legal representation.

So far, federal authorities have not conducted high-profile immigration raids since Trump took office in January, like they did in Chicago. But immigrant rights lawyers say their clients are worried.

“There’s so much fear in the community right now,“ said Cynthia Anderson Barker of the National Lawyers Guild. “These motions serve the purpose of ‘all hands on deck,’ [and] 'let’s get our city government involved.'”

It's not yet clear when the proposals will return to the City Council for a final vote.