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LA is exploring a citywide Know Your Rights campaign as federal immigration enforcement ramps up
Los Angeles City Council members Hugo Soto-Martinez, Eunisses Hernandez and Nithya Raman stand outside City Hall with pro-immigrant advocates. Soto-Martinez co-wrote a measure for a citywide "know your rights" campaign.
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Leslie Berestein Rojas
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LAist
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As the Trump administration pushes for ramped up immigration enforcement, the Los Angeles City Council is moving to shore up its sanctuary city status by exploring citywide education efforts to inform people of their rights.
On Wednesday, the council voted to look into a citywide "know your rights" campaign and have businesses report ICE raids to the city. The campaign, to be disseminated through city facilities, schools, community colleges, adult education centers and other venues, would help educate the public of their Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful searches and L.A.’s sanctuary city measures.
Officials will also look at how the city can inform workers of their immigration rights ahead of federal raids and fold that information into employee training programs. They'll also look into requiring all vendors in L.A. to provide that information to their employees.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, who co-wrote the motions, told LAist the measures send a clear message to the federal government that L.A. “is for everyone.”
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“In this moment, we have to live by our values and send a very clear message that we are not going to stand for this,” he said. “We're not going to pick and choose which communities we support or not. We're gonna support everybody because that's what L.A. is about.”
A separate proposal to fund immigration legal services that were cut by the federal government was directed to the Budget and Finance Committee for further deliberation.
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