LA Mayor Bass issues order banning ICE from staging on city property

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is directing staff to keep ICE off of city property and asking the Los Angeles Police Department to increase its monitoring of federal immigration agents.

The mayor issued the instructions in an executive directive Tuesday. She's also directing the Los Angeles Police Commission to ensure the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies operating in the city are complying with new state laws attempting to reign in federal immigration enforcement.

The move comes after a public showdown between the police chief and public officials over the LAPD's response to federal immigration agents. Chief Jim McDonnell faced heat after recently saying his department would not enforce a new California law banning federal agents from wearing masks.

That ban was temporarily blocked by a federal judge yesterday — but the mayor wants the police chief to issue guidance to his department complying with the law once legal concerns are resolved.

Mayor directs city departments to ban ICE

The mayor is ordering all city departments to identify property that could be used as staging areas for the Department of Homeland Security, and asking them to put up signs banning federal agents.

She's also directing the city to lock gates and doors where possible to block agents from gathering in city-owned spaces like parking lots and garages. The order gives departments less than a month to make the changes.

"The City has a responsibility to continue to safeguard public spaces," Bass wrote in her directive. "Now, we must assert our authority and actively guard against acts of brazen federal overreach."

The city already bars federal agents from non-public city spaces without a judicial warrant or court order. This executive directive takes aim at public spaces where ICE might gather before conducting immigration enforcement, such as a parking lot at a public park.

L.A. County passed similar guidance last month, designating county property as "ICE Free Zones" and directing county staff to put up signs on county property.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli responded at the time on X, saying that the county cannot exclude federal agents from public spaces.

Mayor asks LAPD to step up monitoring of federal agents

The mayor's directive also asks the Los Angeles Police Department to increase its monitoring of federal agents detaining people, including by recording the name and badge number of the supervising officer at the scene.

The directive requests that the Board of Police Commissioners update the LAPD's guidance for interactions with federal immigration officers. Those updates include requiring that LAPD officers turn on their body cameras when they are at the scene of an immigration enforcement action and inform members of the public at those scenes that they are not there to assist the operation.

Bass is also asking the LAPD to regularly issue public data reports of incidents in which police officers witness or receive reports of federal agents acting unlawfully.

The LAPD did not respond to LAist's request for comment on the mayor's new executive directive.