By JOSÉ HERRERA

Following meetings with immigrant rights groups over the weekend, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto worked to expedite delivery of a proposed “sanctuary city” ordinance to the City Council, his office announced on Tuesday, November 12.

With President-elect Donald Trump set to take office in January, Los Angeles’ immigrant communities are preparing for his promised crackdown on undocumented immigrants. While the city of Los Angeles has prohibited the use of its resources to assist federal immigration authorities in recent years, a sanctuary ordinance would formally codify such policies.

“Especially in the face of growing threats to immigrant communities here in Los Angeles, I stand with the people of this city,” Bass said in a statement. “This moment demands urgency.”

The mayor added that the protection of immigrants strengthens “our communities and improves our city.” He also thanked Feldstein Soto for his work and said he looks forward to working with Council Speaker Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Council members Nithya Raman, Hugo Soto-Martínez, Eunisses Hernández and others to enact protections for the city’s immigrant communities. .

“Solidarity is an action, not a rhetoric. Los Angeles stands together,” Bass said in his statement.

Former Mayor Eric Garcetti issued an executive directive in 2019 that offered protections to the immigrant community. Additionally, the Los Angeles Police Department requires its officers not to ask about immigration status or make arrests related to the legal status of an immigrant, which is described in Special Order 40.

In part, the proposed sanctuary ordinance would enshrine such protections in the city’s books.

The ordinance would also prohibit “any city resources, property or personnel from being used for any enforcement of federal immigration law,” as well as the city’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities in the “execution of their duties” in regarding immigration law enforcement.

In June 2023, the City Council tasked the city attorney with preparing a draft ordinance.

On Monday, Trump’s new “border czar,” Tom Homan, said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” “Nothing will stop us from deporting migrant criminals.”

He also addressed sanctuary jurisdictions, noting that “if we can’t get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of officers we send to New York City. Because we are going to work with or without you.”

He also suggested that the president withhold federal funding for sanctuary jurisdictions.

Homan was the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the first Trump administration.

Pedro Trujillo, organizing director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, told City News Service that Los Angeles’ proposed ordinance is something his group “has always supported” and is now working to expedite Trump’s return to the White House.

Trujillo noted that when Trump first took office in 2017, he made some administrative changes that impacted immigrants, and CHIRLA expects similar actions this time.

“That’s why it’s important for the city to adopt the sanctuary ordinance and actually codify it into law,” Trujillo told CNS.

Regarding Homan’s statements, Trujillo said they were not new. He stressed that the concern is how the withholding of federal funds will also affect American citizens.

“This is not a small amount of funding, and all taxpayers contribute to it, including undocumented immigrants,” Trujillo told CNS. “It’s obviously alarming, but it’s also something everyone should be concerned about.”

He said the city’s passage of a sanctuary ordinance would serve as another layer of protection for immigrants.

“We need Los Angeles County and the Board of Supervisors to also review what they have and see what levels of protection they can provide,” Trujillo added. “And the same goes for the state.”