Is Los Angeles a Sanctuary City?

So, is Los Angeles a sanctuary city?

In a word: no.

Contrary to what local right-wing radio shock jocks scream during the hot afternoon commute, Los Angeles is not a sanctuary city. Conservatives and liberals alike often think that LA is a sanctuary city. But in reality, it’s not.

We see casual examples of this all the time, like when Jeff Sessions visits LA, and there is clear and very literal coordination between local and federal law enforcement. Or when they coordinate for clearing the driveways and monitoring the Occupy Ice encampments. Or when the President calls it out on twitter:

But it’s true; Los Angeles doesn’t protect immigrants from harm – federal or otherwise – in any meaningful way. While the language in mandates like Special Order 40 appear to prevent LAPD officers from questioning people for the sole purpose of determining their immigration status, retired LA Police Chief Daryl Gates reassures the conservative critics of Special Order 40 that the order already mandates that when law violators are arrested, the first thing police are supposed to do is notify immigration if they believe they’re undocumented. Our local city government is teeming with #resistance warriors puffing up their chests about how they want to “keep families together” and provide a haven for some of our most vulnerable. Meanwhile, they’re propagating a for-profit detention and deportation scam on their constituents.

So what does sanctuary mean, specifically? And what does sanctuary mean in spirit, more broadly? We believe it means unabashedly protecting undocumented people and other immigrants in the same way we’d protect a documented, wealthy white person.

On a more technical level, sanctuary basically refers to municipal jurisdictions that limit state cooperation with the national government’s effort to enforce immigration law.

Many think that because California passed the Sanctuary State Bill (SB 54) last year, that means all localities in California are automatically now protecting their immigrants, which is misleading. There’s far more the city of Los Angeles and its various entities, agencies, and elected individuals can do to protect its people during this flagrant era of targeting immigrants.

What the passage of SB 54 did do is prevent local and state law enforcement from collecting immigration status and sharing it with federal agencies. The law still permits state prison officials to continue working with federal immigration agents on deportations through task forces. And immigration agents are still allowed to enter county jails to question immigrants. Since there’s still room for collaboration with cops, an arrest for something like blocking the sidewalk or loitering could end in deportation. A true sanctuary city must work to decriminalize such things as street vending, homelessness, poverty, and drug possession.

There’s far more the city of Los Angeles can do to protect its immigrant communities.

ICE Out of LA is a coalition of community members from Los Angeles county in opposition to deportations and criminalization of migrants. Their work centers around immigration and sanctuary in the region. Their recent report to the Los Angeles City Council outlined recommendations which have been co-signed by DSA-LA and which explain how Los Angeles will become a true a sanctuary city.

Sanctuary means protecting immigrants at risk of detention and deportation, and immigrant communities self-organizing to defend themselves. And while immigration policy is federal, there are myriad ways that local law enforcement and local policies put immigrants on the track for deportation. At a minimum, a sanctuary city bars its police force from carrying out or collaborating with immigration enforcement. Information that could be used for immigration enforcement – such as immigration status or place of birth – should not be collected or shared. Rampant criminalization and policing put immigrants in increased danger of deportation, in addition to the oppression suffered by everyone not of the ruling class.

Here are some concrete ways in which we could push LA to become a true sanctuary city, not just a mealy-mouthed “city of sanctuary,” as our absentee mayor refers to us.

1. Our City Council needs to enact a strong sanctuary ordinance that protects sensitive information of City residents. This would prevent the City from participation in immigration enforcement, protecting the City’s non-citizen residents and prevent City employees from being part of these disgusting deportations.
2. City personnel should not collect information related to immigration status, national origin, and place of birth, except where required by law. This would protect City workers from any moral disagreements that most people would have concerning family separation.
3. The City should not share sensitive information about individuals, including information in databases, for use in immigration enforcement, except where required by law.
4. City employees should prohibit ICE from accessing non-public facilities absent a court order. Schools specifically should be completely off limits as far as access considering the horrendous behavior reported regarding ICE agents and sexual abuse.
5. The City should prohibit local law enforcement from voluntarily participating in immigration enforcement. Any local law enforcement agent that does should be fined.
6. The City should require documentation and public accountability in connection with federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
7. City Council should enact urgent criminal justice reforms to protect public safety, enhance public trust, and make effective use of our scarce law enforcement resources.The City should decriminalize certain quality of life and other minor offenses, including vending in parks and “peddling.”
8. City Council should prohibit the booking of any offenses that may be filed as either infraction or misdemeanor offenses. It should also prohibit booking or fingerprinting for any person cited in lieu of arrest.
9. The City Council should allow personnel to verify a person’s true identity (e.g., telephone calls; student, consular or alternative forms of identification) in lieu of arrest or booking where they would be released on a citation.
10. The City Council should adopt a policy of own recognizance release for all misdemeanor and non-serious felony arrestees immediately following booking. This means that it would be unnecessary to hold any man, woman or child because they are not a threat to themselves or society.
11. The City should expand pre-charge and pre-plea diversion and treatment programs. These are reserved for individuals who are arrested for crimes involving alcohol or drugs. The intent is to keep those who commit low-risk offenses out of the criminal justice system. Those who need it will receive treatment for substance abuse humanely rather than be subject to violent incarceration and deportation.
12. The City should reject funding based on anti-Muslim animus, including funds from the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Program, which facilitates the targeting and criminalization of religious minorities.
13. Los Angeles should ensure parity for renters of mixed immigration status who receive or should receive housing assistance. Los Angeles should continue—and expand—its support of the L.A. Justice Fund, which should be used to provide both bond and removal defense services, with a particular focus on detained immigrants.
14. Los Angeles should ensure that any anti-discrimination ordinance include protections based on gender identity, gender expression, and HIV/AIDS status.

There are other ways to create more protections for vulnerable immigrant populations outside of city governance. One way is through community and workplace organizing where undocumented immigrants live and work. Immigration enforcement policy is already shifting from focusing on immigrants with criminal records to anyone in the U.S. without documentation, and even naturalized citizens – this is how a society slowly turns into a fascist state without unaffected people noticing. The police, of course, cannot be relied upon to stop ICE when they’re already resistant to the idea of stopping collaboration with them. It is up to us as concerned and compassionate citizens.

It is imperative to understand all the ways in which Los Angeles is not a sanctuary city and the ways in which Eric Garcetti, and other elected officials and civil servants, make sure immigrants are not protected. ICE and CBP regularly conduct sweeps and raids throughout Los Angeles: in our streets, in our businesses, on our public transit, outside our courthouses and schools. They do all of this with at least some degree of coordination with local law enforcement.

Not to mention Los Angeles will be host to many mega-events in the near future. And most of these mega-events will carry with them blanket National Special Security Event (NSSE) designations, which legally compel local and federal law enforcement to coordinate and share information with each other.

Of course, the 2028 Olympics is the most obvious example of the city agreeing to an NSSE in recent memory, but there’s also the likely World Cup in 2026, various All-Star games, and so many others looming.

Neither Garcetti, nor city council, LAPD, the Sheriff’s department, or anyone from the federal government will clarify when this collaboration period begins.

For all we know, it already has.