America’s second largest city, Los Angeles, is at a standoff with President-elect Donald Trump over immigration.
On Tuesday, its city council is poised to pass a “sanctuary city” ordinance to ban the use of local resources to assist federal immigration officials.
LA’s public school system is also poised to declare itself a “sanctuary” for undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ students in a series of emergency resolutions.
Trump, who will be sworn in in two months, Mass deportations have been promised.Once he returned to the White House. His chosen “border czar,” Tim Homan, has urged sanctuary cities to “get the hell out of the way” of a federal immigration crackdown.
The term “sanctuary city” has been popular in the US for more than a decade to describe places that limit their assistance to federal immigration authorities. Because it is not a legal term, cities have taken various approaches to becoming “places”, such as codifying policies in laws or simply changing local policing practices.
During the campaign, Trump frequently targeted sanctuary cities, and Homan, former Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan, has repeatedly said that “sanctuary” city designations will help the administration meet its immigration policy goals. Will not be prevented from doing so.
In a Nov. 11 interview with Fox, Homan said “there is nothing stopping us from deporting criminal immigrants.”
“We’re going to work with you, or without you,” he said.
Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass released a draft of a sanctuary city ordinance that had been called for more than a year ago. The council has expedited voting on it.
The 2019 executive order, intended to turn into city law, would “prevent federal immigration enforcement agencies from accessing city facilities or using city resources to pursue immigration enforcement,” the council said. member Nithya Raman told CBS News, the BBC’s American partner. .
It will also restrict some data sharing.
Officials in several other cities, including Boston and New York City, have similarly pledged not to allocate local resources to help with federal immigration enforcement issues.
Since Trump was first elected, dozens of school districts have declared themselves “safe spaces” or “safe havens” to reassure students they won’t be deported.
The Los Angeles school district — about 140 miles (225 kilometers) from the country’s southern border with Mexico — will vote on a series of emergency resolutions apparently aimed at countering what the board president, Jackie Gould, said. Berg described as anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ sentiment. from the incoming president.
“We’re not going to run away from fear,” he said, according to the LA Times. “We will fight you, every inch of the way.”
A resolution affirming “our commitment to immigrant students, families and staff” describes this month’s presidential vote as “the choice of a candidate who campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ agenda.”
The board is also proposing a new high school course aimed at educating students about current events and expanding nondiscrimination policies that already apply to students, their families, as well as employees and their relatives. are applicable.
Under US federal law, public schools must enroll any student in their respective jurisdictions. But most oversight is left to states and local districts.
In California, home to a large population of blended families with undocumented members, officials are prohibited from asking students about their immigration status.
