City Councilman Gil Cedillo Friday intends to introduce a motion that would brand Los Angeles the nation’s newest and largest “sanctuary city.”
Cedillo’s move follows his receipt of a report that civil rights attorney Peter Schey sent to the Immigrant Affairs, Civil Rights, and Equity Committee, which Cedillo chairs. It included a series of recommendations for the city to undertake in response to recent immigration policies announced by President Donald Trump.
While there is no legal definition of a sanctuary city, it generally applies to municipalities that limit cooperation with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. Embracing the term has become a way for cities to openly defy Trump, who has threatened to cut off federal funding to sanctuary cities.
Cedillo said he intends to introduce the motion at Friday’s City Council meeting.
Although Los Angeles has long limited its cooperation with the feds on immigration, it has not taken on the official label of sanctuary city, and it is unclear how much support the motion will have from Mayor Eric Garcetti. The mayor has resisted calling for Los Angeles to embrace the term because he says it is often used by those looking to harm cities that have friendly immigration policies.
“It is not a term that has meaning,” Garcetti said in an interview on radio station KNX Thursday. “I’m not going to buy into a frame that somebody else who’s attacking immigrants uses.”
The Los Angeles Police Department has had a longstanding policy of not initiating contact with an individual based solely on his or her immigration status and does not give immigration agents access to its jails or inmates unless they have a federal warrant. Because of those policies, Los Angeles is often referred to as a sanctuary city, though it has never officially embraced the term as other cities have, including San Francisco and Santa Ana.
Schey, a civil rights attorney, argued in the report that Los Angeles has wide discretion in setting its own policies on immigration and that because none of its current laws are in violation of federal law, Trump’s “showboating about penalties against sanctuary cities has no basis in law and is primarily intended to dazzle his base and intimidate local officials.”
Schey also told the committee that embracing the term was an important symbolic move.
“People seem to have strong views on this name thing. My stance has always been that what’s important. Ultimately, yes, that sort of symbolic statement, `We are a city of sanctuary, we are a city of refuge,’ etc., I think it’s important. It sets a certain tone,” he said.
Schey’s report also recommended the city take steps to help immigrants in the country illegally from being detained by federal officials by facilitating legal advice and representation for them. The report also recommended the city enact a comprehensive pro-immigration ordinance and decriminalize minor offenses likely to be committed by low-income residents.
—City News Service