Shortly after President Trump took office, Los Angeles immigration groups demanded that City Hall label LA a

safe

haven for immigrants in the face of

are

promised repression.

The Los Angeles City Council eventually passed a resolution declaring LA a “sanctuary city,” a symbolic gesture that offered no legal protection.

Now Councilors Eunisses Hernandez, Hugo Soto-Martinez and Nithya Raman want to strengthen LA’s immigration laws.

She

announced

Tuesday

they would seek approval of an ordinance declaring LA a “sanctuary city” and prohibiting city personnel or resources from being used in federal immigration enforcement.

If passed, it would be law

largely

similar to one in San Francisco.

It

prohibits city employees from using city funds or resources to assist

US

Immigration and Customs Enforcers in the enforcement of federal immigration laws, unless such assistance is required by federal or state law.

Raman

she said

office worked with immigration lawyers and others on the proposed law. Some leaders of those groups told The Times they are looking forward to next year’s presidential election.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presumptive Republican nominee, has cracked down on people in the country

without permission

a focus.

“We want to make sure LA is ready for a worst-case scenario,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of programs and campaigns at the California Immigrant Policy Center.

The law sought by the three councilors

would codify

existing policies, including a 2017 executive directive issued by then-mayor Eric Garcetti prohibiting all city employees from using public facilities or resources to assist or cooperate with federal civilian immigration enforcement.

the

proposed law would

deny federal immigration authorities or other entities related to immigration enforcement access to city databases or anyone’s personal information.

The proposal follows steps taken by the LA County Board of Supervisors, which voted in 2020 to allow the transfer of inmates to

ICE

detention, unless the authorities have a court order.

The council members’ motion asks the city attorney to prepare within 60 days a draft ordinance prohibiting, to the extent permitted by law, the use of city resources, property or personnel

of being utilized

for any federal immigration enforcement.

Nearly 10% of the country’s 11.1 million immigrants who are in the country without legal permission live in Los Angeles and Orange counties, according to a

2017 Pew Research Center report

. At a press conference on Tuesday, Hernandez said it’s time for LA to “keep its promise to our immigrant communities.” “Symbolic gestures are not enough,” Hernandez said. “Internal policies that can be changed overnight are not enough.” Hernandez’s office said

in a press release that “city and internal LAPD policies still allow ICE officers to access city jails to question people in LAPD custody, and that LAPD officers may transfer individuals to ICE custody under certain circumstances, even when court orders have not been issued.” The new regulation tries to limit those interactions.

The Los Angeles Police Department declined to answer questions about its policy.

The Times also sent several questions to ICE about its practices. In response, the agency said its operations are “focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that protects the homeland through the arrest and removal of those who undermine the security of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws.”

Following Trump’s election and pledge to deport migrants, mayors in Boston, Chicago and elsewhere reaffirmed their cities as sanctuaries, and the California legislature passed a state law aimed at protecting immigrants.

LA’s efforts to establish itself as a haven have come in fits and starts. The city set aside $2 million for a legal defense fund in 2017 to pay attorneys for individuals and families who are detained or at risk of eviction.

City leaders also introduced a resolution that year to declare LA a city of refuge, citing this as a direct response to Trump’s efforts to wind down a program that protects immigrants illegally brought to the U.S. as children .

However, it took the city two years to vote on the resolution, and by then immigrant advocates said the statement had lost meaning.

President Biden has reversed a number of previous immigration policies, but also drew criticism for proposals that immigration groups say would mirror Trump’s crackdown.

At the same time, ICE’s monitoring capabilities have been expanded. The agency has partnered with third-party vendors to collect data from utilities and private databases, according to findings from a two-year study published last year by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology.

For example, the report found that ICE has driver’s license data

three 3 out of four

4 adults living in the US who can monitor vehicle traffic in cities where nearly 75% of adults live.

Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said sanctuary city label statements are empty rhetoric unless cities and counties also ensure that ICE cannot access large amounts of data collected by those municipalities.

The group has filed a lawsuit against a third-party supplier in a California federal case.

We encourage cities to analyze city data and how it is stored and whether it is susceptible to warrants, Cahn said.

In Los Angeles, for example, mobility data is collected by the city, Cahn said. Los Angeles Department of Transportation spokesperson Colin Sweeney said the city receives route or drop-off and pickup information from companies that provide scooters, bicycles and some taxis in LA to ensure operators are following city rules. The city does not collect information about riders, Sweeney said. The department is prohibited from sharing its mobility data with law enforcement unless required by a subpoena or warrant, Sweeney said.

No federal agency has ever accessed or sought to access this data, he added.

Ira Mehlman, spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, predicted that the proposal, if passed, would put a strain on education and health care in LA. People are flocking to areas where they know there is no cooperation with federal immigration authorities, Mehlman said, calling the proposal “costly” to taxpayers. The phrase “sanctuary city” dates back to the 1980s, when US immigration policy allowed some Central American immigrants but not others. In response, Berkeley and a few other municipalities declared themselves sanctuary cities to take in those migrants. A divided LA City Council passed a resolution in 1985 declaring Los Angeles a haven for immigrants fleeing political persecution and violence, particularly refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala. After a council member threatened a ballot measure to overturn the resolution, the council watered it down and dropped the term “city of sanctuary.”

reconfirm a policy instead

that prohibited city employees from considering anyone as “refugee or resident status” before providing city services.