On International Migrants Day, hundreds march through streets of downtown Los Angeles
Hundreds of people marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles Wednesday to mark International Migrants Day, sharing messages of hope, solidarity and resistance to the incoming presidential administration's promises of mass deportations.
As the demonstration wound through downtown, people held signs bearing messages like "No person is illegal" and "Education, Not Deportation" as they marched to the steps of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along North Los Angeles Street. There, CHIRLA, or the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, led advocacy groups, labor unions and other demonstrators in a rally calling on the Biden Administration and Congress to issue safeguards for immigrant families ahead of Donald Trump taking office.
It's part of a national week of action being led by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a coalition of two dozen immigrant rights groups across 26 states. Groups such as CHIRLA have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C. this week to vote against what the advocacy group describes as "anti-immigrant provisions" in future government budgets.
"We want to uplift the immigrant story," Pedro Trujillo, a member of CHIRLA, said from the march. He said CHIRLA and other organizations were looking to "...uplift immigration and migration and just the hope and the beauty that all brings and the culture that all brings — so that folks feel like they have someone that's backing them up."
In Los Angeles, more than 950,000 of the city's residents are undocumented immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Earlier this month, LA established a sanctuary city ordinance prohibiting city staff and resources from being used to assist federal immigration enforcement efforts. The new policy only allows such assistance in cases involving individuals convicted of serious felony crimes who were previously deported.
"Especially in the face of growing threats to the immigrant communities here in Los Angeles, I stand with the people of this city," Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement ahead of the ordinance being approved by the city council. "This moment demands urgency."
City officials said the election of Donald Trump spurred them to take action as the president-elect has promised the largest deportation in U.S. history. Tom Homan, the veteran immigration official Trump has tapped as "border czar" under his coming administration, has said he would bring back mass immigration-related arrests at workplaces, which ended under Biden.
Homan, who served as acting director of ICE during Trump's last presidency, was one of a handful of federal officials who signed off the memo approving the separation of migrant families at the border. He has warned sanctuary cities and states against not cooperating with federal authorities, addressing them directly as he spoke during a visit to the border in Texas last month.
"When people say they're going to get in our way... I've said 100 times in the last week: don't cross that line," Homan said. "Don't test us."
On Tuesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued two consumer alerts to the state's immigrant community, reminding them of state policies that bar state and local authorities from assisting federal agencies such as ICE with deportations and other enforcement.
SB 54, the so-called sanctuary state law also known as the California Values Act, went into effect in 2018 and restricts cooperation by local government agencies with federal immigration authorities.
In a statement, Bonta's office said the alerts are intended to "help California immigrants better understand their rights and protections under the law and avoid immigration scams by those seeking to take advantage of fear and uncertainty resulting from the President-elect's inhumane threats of mass detention, arrests, and deportation."
Gov. Gavin Newsom has stated he wants to "Trump-proof" California laws and has convened a special session to do just that, with legislation relating to immigration, climate change and abortion among those being addressed.
