Eight years ago, Los Angeles political leaders jumped into action on the issue of immigration, acting to protect the city’s undocumented population from the Trump administration.

City Council members allocate public money to lawyers to defend Angelenos facing deportation. They pushed to legalize the work of street vendors, many of whom lack citizenship. And they created a new committee focused on immigration.

This week, there was a sense of deja vu at City Hall as political leaders prepared for another round against President-elect Donald Trump.

Several council members said Friday they would expedite passage of the Los Angeles law. “sanctuary” lawwhich is still under review by city lawyers, in light of Trump’s promise to crack down on immigrants.

He ordinanceFirst proposed last year and based on a San Francisco law, it would prohibit federal immigration officials from accessing the city’s databases.

Seven council members also signed a resolution Friday urging President Biden to renew a program that allows undocumented people from Central America to temporarily remain in the United States. Los Angeles has the largest Central American population outside of Latin America.

One of the resolution’s supporters, Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, said his own family members, constituents in his east side district and immigrant rights groups are feeling “absolutely nervous.”

“More than anything, people are angry,” said Soto-Martínez, who chairs the city’s immigration committee. “They are agitated and ready to fight back, just like we did in 2016.”

Other council members said they feared funding for the homeless would be cut after Tuesday’s election. And some were concerned about the heavily Democratic city’s ability to get federal security and transportation funding for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Organizing the international sporting event already poses a financial risk because the city is responsible for cost overruns.

City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who traveled to Paris for the recent Summer Games, said Trump’s election left him anticipating “four difficult years for our city on multiple levels, including our access to federal funding for different programs and preparations for the Olympic Games.”

Los Angeles is expected to receive approximately $355 million in federal grants this fiscal year, according to the City Administrative Office.

That doesn’t include federal dollars that flow to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint city-county agency, or that would come to the region through the Federal Emergency Management Agency after massive disasters.

City officials expressed fear that Trump, a mercurial leader prone to grudges, would retaliate against California and Los Angeles because of their Democratic leadership.

Trump recently threatened to end federal disaster aid for the California wildfires, comments that were on the mind of Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who works closely with the city’s fire department.

“That’s not a democracy,” Rodriguez, whose San Fernando Valley district includes wildfire-prone areas, said Tuesday night. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”

Rodriguez was on the council during the last Trump administration, when the U.S. Department of Justice regularly fought with Los Angeles in court, including over whether federal funds could be withheld if city officials refused to cooperate with the immigration agents.

Mayor Karen Bass was a member of Congress during Trump’s first term and repeatedly criticized the then-president. In 2020, he called him a “lawless” president who wants to be an “authoritarian leader.”

Since winning the mayoral race in 2022, he has made ending street homelessness his priority and worked closely with the Biden administration to push for more housing vouchers and new rules that allow Homeless Angelenos be eligible for federally funded apartments.

Asked Thursday if he is concerned about losing federal funds with Trump in office, Bass spoke in broad terms.

Angelenos will not allow “anyone to divide us or pit groups against each other,” he said. “We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”

City Council Speaker Marqueece Harris-Dawson also tried to reassure Angelenos this week, telling reporters that it is the job of the City Council and the mayor to ensure “that everyone in this city feels protected and safe, and that includes to immigrants.”

Los Angeles County has about 800,000 undocumented residents, including many mixed-status families, according to USC’s Equity Research Institute. According to the institute, more than 70% of the county’s undocumented residents have been in the country for more than a decade.

Immigration will be the biggest source of tension between the city government and the Trump administration, said Manuel Pastor, director of the institute. At the same time, City Hall has become more progressive since 2016, he said.

City leaders routinely talk about immigration in personal terms. Councilwoman-elect Ysabel Jurado, a tenants’ rights attorney, won a seat this week representing parts of the Eastside after running a campaign that highlighted the undocumented status of her Filipino parents.

Despite their assurances, the City Council and Bass have limited power to stop deportations.

The city also faces a budget crisis that could limit its ability to pay for programs that immigrant groups are now seeking, including free lawyers for those at risk of deportation.

At a rally Thursday outside City Hall, some immigrant rights leaders urged city officials to fund efforts to alert communities about deportation raids.

Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, said Los Angeles needs to offer an “unprecedented investment” in such programs because of Trump.

Harris-Dawson noted Friday that the council could take more action on immigration in the coming weeks. He also suggested that some city officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude with Trump’s plans.

“Some of us, I don’t know why, want to give the president the benefit of the doubt and try to see what’s going to happen, instead of reacting before something actually happens,” he said.

Councilwoman Eunisses Hernández, whose district includes the immigrant-rich neighborhood of Pico-Union, was not among those expected. He told the Times that officials need to “retrain” on how to protect immigrant communities.

Trump “has been very explicit in what he wants to do,” he said.

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.