PLAYING DEFENSE: Los Angeles today passed a long-in-the-works sanctuary policy prohibiting the use of city resources for federal immigration enforcement, previewing a looming fight with Donald Trump’s incoming administration over potential mass deportations. It’s also the first major offensive against Trump in California over a key policy area that will divide the federal government and the nation’s largest population of undocumented immigrants — 1.8 million as of 2022. Major questions remain about how the Los Angeles Police Department will respond to the ordinance. “The city of L.A. will not allow city personnel, city funds to in any way support the incoming administration’s desires for a mass deportation mechanism,” Karla Aguayo, director of legal services for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, told Playbook. “Los Angeles will stand loud and proud against that.” But Aguayo said advocates will need to ensure Los Angeles County Police Chief Jim McDonnell — who was recently selected by Mayor Karen Bass and confirmed by councilmembers this month — operates in line with the ordinance. Some fear he may cooperate with federal immigration authorities as he did during Trump’s first term when he was L.A. County sheriff even though McDonnell pledged to protect immigrants during his confirmation hearing. Los Angeles has leaned on similar policies for decades. Although this ordinance is enshrined in city law, the practical effect is not a major change from what’s already in existence. It's been in the works for more than a year, but Bass moved to expedite it after Trump’s election, setting up a showdown with the president-elect who posted on Truth Social yesterday his plans to use the military for mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally. Former Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive directive with similar elements during Trump’s first term. In 2017, then California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a statewide sanctuary law barring state and local law enforcement from taking part in immigration enforcement and restricting cooperation with federal officials. The Supreme Court in 2020 declined to review a lower court ruling allowing the law. The current ordinance’s co-author Nithya Raman said Garcetti’s directive and internal Los Angeles Police Department policies currently shape the city’s relationship with federal immigration agencies. Councilmembers said the city needs the ordinance to ensure Los Angeles’ large immigrant population feels safe calling police to report crimes and other emergencies. About 35 percent of the city’s population is foreign-born, according to Census data. “We don’t have a safer city if people are living in fear and hiding in the shadows and unable to come forward and cooperate with law enforcement in manners that we need them to,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said. Outgoing Councilmember Paul Krekorian, anticipating the inevitable conservative media frenzy the ordinance will surely spark, emphasized the deep local history leading to this moment. Decades ago, the city enacted an order preventing police from questioning residents for the sole purpose of determining their immigration status. “I hope that the demagoguery that undoubtedly will begin at a national level as soon as we pass this ordinance will also be mindful of the fact that by enacting this ordinance — by the continuing practices that we’ve been engaged in in the city for 45 years — we are actually keeping Angelenos safer,” he said.
The City Attorney will finalize amendments before returning it to the council for a final vote. Bass will then have 10 days to sign it.
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