Los Angeles works toward sanctuary city status after Trump promises mass deportation

Following President-elect Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations, Los Angeles is working toward officially becoming a "sanctuary city" — drafting an ordinance that would ban the use of city funds and resources to assist federal immigration-related investigations and arrests.

Mayor Karen Bass met with immigrants' rights groups over the weekend ahead of City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto writing up the ordinance, the drafting of which was approved more than a year ago through a city council vote. It prohibits city resources, property or staff from being used for federal immigration enforcement efforts, including the collection of information on an individual's immigration status and notifications to federal authorities about the release or detention of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

The draft of the new ordinance was released late Tuesday and must still be voted on at a future date. 

Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez plans to waive the ordinance's consideration by the Civil Rights and Immigration Committee to fast-track its vote before the full council. 

"As the son of immigrants in a city built by immigrants, I refuse to stand back while Donald Trump tries to deport our neighbors, family, friends, and coworkers," he said in a statement.

During his campaign, Trump has promised the largest deportation in U.S. history upon entering the Oval Office, and for border czar under his coming administration, he has tapped the former head of the deportation branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Obama Administration, Tom Homan, when ICE carried out a record number of formal deportations. 

Homan was also acting director of ICE under the Trump Administration and was one of a handful of U.S. officials who signed off the policy allowing migrant children to be separated from their families.

Since Trump was last in office, more Democratic politicians have advocated for tougher border security, with a bipartisan border security deal reached earlier this year being touted at the Democratic National Convention. In January, a CBS News poll found Americans are increasingly concerned about the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, with nearly half referring to it as a "crisis."

But some politicians and immigrants' rights groups in California have sounded the alarm over concerns about Trump's potential new policies. And some Democratic state policymakers who have called for tougher border security have also called for comprehensive immigration reform, which would create a pathway to citizenship for people such as farmworkers and Dreamers, who enter the U.S. illegally as children. 

In Los Angeles, Mayor Bass addressed the situation in a statement issued Tuesday.

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

"Immigrant protections make our communities stronger and our city better," her statement continues. "Solidarity is an action, not rhetoric. Los Angeles stands together."  

The new ordinance would codify the prohibition of the city of LA's cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. When Trump was last elected, California responded with its own "sanctuary state" law, also known as the California Values Act (SB 54), which ensures state resources aren't used for federal immigration enforcement. It went into effect on Jan. 1, 2018. 

It led to a bitter back-and-forth between the White House and the state, reaching a peak when the U.S. Justice Department sued the state of California, naming then-Gov. Jerry Brown and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra as defendants while the Trump Administration threatened to cut off federal funding to the state.

At the time, in March 2018, former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited California and spoke to law enforcement officers with the California Peace Officers Association, promising that the White House would continue challenging California's sanctuary state law as well as AB 450 and AB 103, two other state laws related to federal immigration enforcement.  

"The Department of Justice and the Trump Administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair, and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you," Sessions said. 

Brown, California's governor at the time, fired back later that day along with several other Democratic state lawmakers.

"It's not about the truth. It's not about protecting our state. It's about dividing America," Brown said from the state Capitol. "There's been a lot of concern about people, foreign people, who sow division and discord. Now, we have the Attorney General doing precisely that. This is a time to build bridges, not walls; to pull Americans together, not set us apart."  

Nearly a year later, when Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in January 2019, he delivered a speech vowing to ensure California is a "sanctuary to all who seek it." 

During an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Homan said deportations under the Trump Administration would consist of "targeted arrests" made following federal investigations.

"It's not gonna be — a mass sweep of neighborhoods. It's not gonna be building concentration camps. I've read it all. It's ridiculous," he said.  

A study published this year by the American Immigration Council found that the deportation of more than 11 million people, the estimated population living in the U.S. illegally, would result in an estimated loss of $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion — hitting key industries of agriculture, hospitality and construction.