The L.A. City Council has taken a step toward reactivating a zoning code that could prohibit the construction and operation of private detention centers for unaccompanied children.
The ordinance is meant to prevent private facilities from contracting with federal law enforcement agencies like ICE, according to Councilmember Tim McOsker, who introduced the motion last Wednesday.
The zoning ordinance was first introduced in 2019 in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies during his first term. The file was drafted in 2021, but was never officially adopted, and therefore it expired in 2024.
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The City Council last week voted to revive the file and update the drafted zoning code in response to immigration raids.
“The concern, of course, was the worry that profiteers, private entities working with the federal government, were creating detention centers across the country,” McOsker said during the council meeting. “Those were creating human rights violations and poor living conditions, disease, death and harms that were unconstitutional to residents of the United States.”
Why it matters
The Department of Homeland Security reported it has detained more than 10,000 people in Los Angeles since raids started in June.
The raids have mostly upended immigrant, working-class communities and negatively hit the local economy, according to a recent L.A. County report.
In response to the raids, the city has limited power, but McOsker said it has authority over land use and he's asking the city to consider wielding that power.
“Do we want to prohibit private detention centers in every zone in the city of Los Angeles?” McOsker said.
He added that L.A. has an opportunity now to update its zoning laws to regulate private detention centers. McOsker said he doesn’t know of any proposed private detention centers in L.A., but that the facilities have been reported in at least eight states.
“Those states are blue, and those states are red, and what is uniform across is that local residents do not want to have private detention centers in their communities,” McOsker said.
What’s next?
The city attorney and the city’s planning commission will review the 2021 draft ordinance. It’s unclear when it will come back to the City Council for consideration.
