(Jacqueline Garcia/CALÓ News)
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On Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to establish Los Angeles as a sanctuary city. The ordinance will protect immigrants by prohibiting the use of local resources or personnel to help federal agencies working on the enforcement of immigration laws.
Although the council members voted on November 19 to approve the ordinance, there were some changes that required a second vote before being enacted. This included protections issued by former Mayor Eric Garcetti during the first Trump administration and aligned the language to California's sanctuary state law, SB 54, the California Values Act, which became law in 2018.
As in the November 19 council meeting, several speakers favored the ordinance and encouraged the City Council to vote in favor. The City of Los Angeles is home to more than 1.3 million immigrants.
The ordinance was voted with an urgency clause so it could take effect before the newly-elected President, Donald Trump, comes to office. During his campaign, Trump promised to deport all undocumented immigrants in the country. He didn’t specify how this will be done.
Last week, the Washington Post reported that Trump’s advisers are looking into how to strip federal resources from sanctuary cities if they refuse to take part in mass deportations. Meanwhile, the Republican Party of Los Angeles County said in a statement that a country without secure borders isn't a country at all.
“So-called sanctuary cities and states sound warm and fuzzy, but the protections they offer aren't for abuelas getting ice cream, they're for people who've entered the country illegally and committed additional crimes,” the party stated. “Whether drunk driving, robbery, sexual violence, assault or murder, none of those should go unpunished. Perpetrators should definitely not be protected by the largesse taken from hard-working taxpayers."
The ordinance now goes to be signed by Mayor Karen Bass and will go into effect within 10 days after it is signed.
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