By JOSE HERRERA
In the wake of President Donald Trump‘s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration, a group of Los Angeles City Council members backed a package of legislation Tuesday aimed at doubling down on protections for the local migrant community.
Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced five proposals intended to strengthen labor and immigration protections, which he said would address renewed threats of mass deportations, work-site raids and targeted enforcement actions.
During a news conference outside City Hall, the council member was joined by council colleagues Eunisses Hernandez, Imelda Padilla and Ysabel Jurado, and several immigrant rights, labor, legal and community organizations.
“My own parents were undocumented, and they built a life here without the constant fear that a trip to work or taking me to school could tear our family apart,” Soto-Martinez said. “Every Angeleno deserves that same safety and dignity.
“This legislation sends a clear message: Los Angeles will not be complicit in Trump’s dehumanizing agenda — we will fight back and protect our community,” he added.
One proposal seeks to establish a “Know Your Rights Campaign,” a citywide public education effort to inform immigrants about their rights, nondiscrimination protections and other resources available to them.
Another proposal calls for policies requiring businesses to report Immigration Customs Enforcement actions to the city, and the third would create immigration support at LAX.
Non-profit legal service providers would be allowed to offer immediate assistance for travelers affected by potential federal immigration action or travel bans.
During Trump’s first presidency, he briefly implemented a ban in 2017 of visitors from a handful of predominately Muslim countries that he said were home to terror groups. Critics of the president dubbed it a “Muslim ban,” though the vast majority of the world’s Muslim nations were not included in the ban.
Soto-Martinez also called on his colleagues to support state legislation that aims to increase funding for deportation defense. The final proposal calls on city staff to identify $540,000 to provide three months of funding for immigration legal defense, in a bid to support organizations that had their federal support cut by the Trump administration.
The items are expected to be heard by the Civil Rights & Immigration Committee before coming to the full City Council for a vote.
If approved, the items would reaffirm the city’s commitment to protecting its migrant community from possible deportation. In November, the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass formally established Los Angeles as a so-called “sanctuary city.”
While the city already had certain policies in place to prevent departments from working with ICE, the designation formally created a policy that no city staff or resources can be used to collaborate with federal immigration authorities without a judicial warrant.
In his first week in office, Trump issued several executive orders targeting illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities such as L.A., Chicago and other Democrat-led jurisdictions, authorizing ICE enforcement in schools and churches, among other places.
The president has threatened to cut federal funds for sanctuary cities if they do not aid in ICE enforcement.
Organizations such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, Central American Resources Center, the Translatin@ Coalition, and other labor and legal groups supported the councilman’s initiatives.
“The set of proposals will ensure that worker rights are protected, accurate information on ‘know your right’ is disseminated, critical information for employers is available, and LAX is accessible should another Muslim-ban be instituted,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA.
Martha Arevalo, executive director of CARCEN-LA, called on “all of our representatives to leave no stone unturned in seeking ways to protect our communities.”
Yvonne Wheeler, president of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, said: “We will not allow fear and confusion to divide us or anyone to strip them of our rights.”
In an interview last month, Trump called illegal immigration “an invasion of our country,” and vowed to carry out his deportation plans regardless of cost.
“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump told NBC News shortly after his election. “It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
Trump insisted that voters — including Latinos — support his call for legal immigration only.
“They want to have borders,” Trump said. “And they like people coming in, but they have to come in with love for the country. They have to come in legally.”