Democrat Mayor Karen Bass aims to have Los Angeles recognized as a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next year. She announced that the City Council is likely to vote on this proposal “very soon.” Bass is among numerous Democratic leaders who are working to counteract Trump’s stringent immigration policies.
“We will stand with the immigrant community and whatever policy they put forward, we will make sure that people in Los Angeles are not hurt and families are not separated,” Bass told KNX radio on Monday.
The mayor indicated that she was surprised to learn that Los Angeles does not currently hold a sanctuary city status. She stressed the urgency for city lawmakers to officially designate it as such before Trump takes office in January 2025.
“I was actually surprised about that because I thought we were a sanctuary city for years,” Bass said. “So, what the difference is, is the policies that were put in place, were not permanent policies. So, I imagine that the council will be voting on sanctuary cities hopefully very, very soon.”
Immigration was a central theme of Trump’s campaign, where he promised mass deportations and the revival of construction on his well-known border wall at the southern U.S. border. He has appointed Tom Homan, the former director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to spearhead these efforts. Homan remarked that the administration is prepared to proceed with deportations regardless of local cooperation.
Although Los Angeles lacks formal sanctuary city status, California has served as a sanctuary state for undocumented immigrants since 2014, and a significant number of officers on the LA police force do not work with federal immigration authorities.
In March 2017, former Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive order that barred local law enforcement from sharing information with federal immigration agents. The Los Angeles Police Department has refused to comply with ICE detainer requests since 2014 and follows a policy of not inquiring about individuals’ immigration statuses.
Jon Feere, director of investigations for the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), commented to the Daily Caller that sanctuary policies represent “a prohibition on information-sharing between local and federal law enforcement, for the benefit of criminals who have no authority to be in the United States.”
“Last year, Los Angeles complained about a lack of notifications from Texas when Gov. Abbott sent them buses of illegal aliens. Meanwhile, the entire state of California provides no notification to ICE when their officials release convicted illegal alien criminals back into our communities,” he continued. “More communication is better if public safety is the goal.”
