Eight years ago, Los Angeles political leaders took action on the issue of immigration, moving to protect the city’s undocumented population against the Trump administration.
City council members invested public funds in lawyers to defend Angelenos facing eviction. They pushed to legalize the work of street vendors, many of whom do not have nationality. And they created a new committee focused on immigration.
There was a sense of déjà vu at City Hall this week as political leaders prepared for another round against President-elect Donald Trump.
Several council members said Friday they would speed up passage of Los Angeles’ sanctuary law, which is still under review by city prosecutors, in the face of Trump’s promised crackdown on immigrants.
The ordinance, first proposed last year and modeled after a San Francisco law, would bar federal immigration enforcement agents from accessing city databases.
Seven council members also signed a resolution Friday urging President Biden to renew a program allowing undocumented people from Central America to temporarily stay in the United States. Los Angeles is home to the largest Central American population outside of Latin America.
One of the resolution’s supporters, City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, said members of his own family, voters in his Eastside district and immigrant rights groups are all 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, like we did in 2016.”
Other council members said they feared funding for the homeless could be cut to zero after Tuesday’s election. And some worry about this heavily Democratic city’s ability to secure federal funds for security and transportation for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Hosting the international sporting event already represents 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 “a difficult four years for our city on many levels, including our access to federal funding for different programs and preparations for the Olympic Games.”
Los Angeles is expected to receive about $355 million in federal grants this fiscal year, according to the city’s administrative office.
This does not include federal dollars that go to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a joint city and county agency, or that would come to the region through the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a result massive disasters.
City officials have expressed concern that Trump, a fickle and rancor-prone leader, could retaliate against California and Los Angeles because of their Democratic leadership.
Trump recently threatened to end federal aid for California’s wildfires — remarks that concerned Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who works closely with the city’s firefighters.
“This is not a democracy,” Rodriguez, whose San Fernando Valley district includes areas prone to wildfires, said Tuesday evening. “That’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
Rodriguez was on the board during the last Trump administration, when the U.S. Justice Department regularly battled with Los Angeles in court, including over whether federal funds could be withheld if city officials refused to cooperate with agents immigration.
Mayor Karen Bass was a member of Congress during Trump’s first term and repeatedly criticized the then-president. In 2020, she called him a “lawless” president who wants to be an “authoritarian leader.”
Since winning the 2022 mayoral race, she has made ending street homelessness her priority and worked closely with the Biden administration to push for more vouchers. housing and new rules allowing homeless Angelenos to become eligible for federally funded apartments.
When asked Thursday if she was concerned about losing federal funding with Trump in office, Bass responded in general terms.
Angelenos will not allow “anyone to divide us or pit groups against each other,” she said. “We have done it before and we will do it again.”
City Council Speaker Marqueece Harris-Dawson also sought 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.” security, including immigrants.
Los Angeles County has about 800,000 undocumented residents, including many mixed-status families, according to the Equity Research Institute at USC. More than 70 percent of the county’s undocumented residents have lived in the country for more than a decade, according to the institute.
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, the city council has become more progressive since 2016, he said.
City leaders regularly talk about immigration in personal terms. Council member-elect and tenant rights attorney Ysabel Jurado won a seat representing parts of the Eastside this week after leading a campaign highlighting the undocumented status of her Filipino parents.
Despite their assurances, the City Council and Bass have limited power when it comes to stopping evictions.
The city also faces a budget crisis that could limit its ability to fund programs now sought by immigrant groups, including free attorney services for people at risk of deportation.
At a rally Thursday outside City Hall, some immigrant rights advocates 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 must offer an “unprecedented investment” in such programs because of Trump.
Harris-Dawson signaled 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 when it comes to 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 happens,” he said .
Councilman Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes the immigrant-rich Pico-Union neighborhood, was not among those waiting. She told the Times that officials need to “retrain” themselves on how to protect immigrant communities.
Trump “has been very explicit about what he wants to do,” she said.
Times Staff Writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
