The county Board of Supervisors unanimously directed its attorneys Tuesday to draft an ordinance creating “ICE-Free Zones” to prevent county facilities from being used as staging areas or processing centers by federal immigration-enforcement authorities.
According to the motion authored by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, the move is modeled after an October executive order by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson designed to prohibit immigration authorities from using city-owned property during their operations — following the use of several school and city-owned parking lots by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
“On October 8, 2025, federal agents conducted a raid in San Pedro at Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center, a county park in Supervisorial District 4,” the motion states. “The agents arrested three people and threatened to arrest staff from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation who responded to the scene. Because of this raid, county residents avoided the park, were unable to access it and use it for recreation as intended, and county staff were diverted from their regular duties.
“As federal immigration actions are increasingly taking place in public spaces, it is imperative the County of Los Angeles take action to protect our spaces so that they can be accessed by the public and used for their intended county purposes, and to prohibit county property from being used as staging areas for these raids, or other operations, which may result in unlawful actions such as detaining U.S. citizens and denying due process to County residents of all immigration statuses.”
The motion directs county attorneys to return to the board within 30 days with a draft of an ordinance that prevents any county property “from being used for other than county purposes.” It would specify that no county-owned property can be used “as a staging area, processing location or operations base for unauthorized civil law enforcement actions, including civil immigration enforcement.”
The ordinance would also call for signs to be posted at county facilities making it clear the property is owned by the county and cannot be used for non-county operations. It would also have language noting that the ordinance “does not restrict or interfere with the execution of lawful judicial warrants or the enforcement of criminal law, nor does it limit the rights of any person or entity under state or federal law.”
Speaking in support of the motion, Horvath said during Tuesday’s meeting that “our federal government is killing its own citizens.”
“Let that sink in, our federal government is freely, without cause, murdering its own citizens in broad daylight in front of witnesses and cameras,” Horvath said, referencing the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis, the shooting of two other men by ICE agents in Portland and the fatal shooting of Keith Porter Jr. in Northridge on New Year’s Eve.
“… People have been shot. People have been killed. Families have been shattered,” Horvath said.
She said that under the proposed ordinance, “Los Angeles County will not allow its property to be used as a staging ground” for ICE activities. She said that while the county has no control over the actions of federal agencies, “we do control our own property, and we have the responsibility to act when lives are at stake.”
Solis added that the main thrust of the proposed ordinance is that “you don’t have the right to come in and harass people without a federal warrant. And if you use our property to stage, you need to show us documentation as to why — you need to have a warrant to back that up.”
Supervisor Janice Hahn said the county “cannot allow our county property to be a tool for the work they (ICE) are doing.”
“… What they’re doing is not making us safer, it is putting residents, citizens, children in danger,” Hahn said.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles County, took to X to condemn the county’s action, insisting, “Local jurisdictions cannot target and exclude federal agents from public spaces.”
“We will use any public spaces necessary to enforce federal law,” Essayli wrote. “Anyone who attempts to impede our agents will be arrested and charged, including county employees. We have already charged more than 100 individuals for similar conduct. Instead of making these meaningless motions, you should cooperate with federal law enforcement to help us target and remove criminal illegal immigrants.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller appeared on Fox News Tuesday, and while not directly addressing the Los Angeles County motion, he said, “To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. Anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties, and no one — no city official, no state official, no illegal alien, no leftist agitator or domestic insurrectionist — can prevent you from fulfilling your legal obligations and duties. The Department of Justice has made clear that if officials cross that line into obstruction, into criminal conspiracy against the United States or against ICE officers, then they will face justice.”
Federal officials have staunchly defended the actions of ICE, insisting they are taking violent criminals off the street while coping with increasing attacks on agents — particularly in Democrat-run states and cities.
“ICE isn’t the problem,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X on Sunday. “The problem is sanctuary politicians and the violent criminal illegal aliens they protect. President Trump and this administration work to protect every single American and make sure that they can live in a safe community and can raise their kids without fear.”
The Board of Supervisors move came on the heels of a series of recent ICE raids across the area, including reported actions in areas such as East Los Angeles, Eagle Rock, El Sereno and Highland Park, with local officials saying some of the actions occurred near campuses while students returned Monday for the first day of school.
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado gathered with local activists Monday to decry the actions, saying “parents were taken,” and that some students were going to return home from school missing a parent.
According to various media reports, several street vendors were detained Monday morning in the Highland Park area.
Hahn, meanwhile, said ICE agents tried to detain two landscapers in Downey over the weekend — even though both are living in the country legally.
“ICE is not just targeting undocumented immigrants,” Hahn said in a statement Monday. “For these agents, anyone who is Latino is fair game. These two landscapers are here legally — they did everything right. But that didn’t stop ICE from trying to drag them into an unmarked SUV. It could not be clearer they are racially profiling our residents, and this is an assault on our entire Latino community. I continue to call on Homeland Security (Secretary) Kristi Noem to pull ICE out of L.A. County.”