‘I imagine that the council will be voting on sanctuary cities hopefully very, very soon,’ Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said on Monday that her city doesn’t have a law officially designating it as a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants and that this should be changed quickly before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office.
Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants and said he would push Congress to adopt legislation outlawing sanctuary cities, which enact policies that shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities.
In a Nov. 11 interview on KNX News, a local radio station, Bass said past policies related to the status of Los Angeles as a sanctuary were never codified into law. She pledged to push for a City Council vote that would formally designate Los Angeles as a sanctuary city before the end of the year.
“I imagine that the council will be voting on sanctuary cities hopefully very, very soon,” she told the outlet. “We will stand with the immigrant community and whatever policy they put forward, we will make sure that people in Los Angeles are not hurt and families are not separated.”
The City Council approved a motion in July 2023 calling on various city departments to take steps for Los Angeles to formally become a sanctuary city, which would prohibit city cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Later, in September 2024, several City Council members introduced a motion for a new sanctuary city law to legally codify Los Angeles’ status as a sanctuary city. The law has not yet returned to the council for a vote.
In addition to advocating for the City Council to finalize and enact the law before Trump assumes office, Bass also expressed doubt that the president-elect’s pledge to deport millions of illegal immigrants could be implemented.
Trump, who won the race for the White House vowing a vast crackdown on illegal immigration, said last week that his incoming administration has “no choice” but to press ahead with the deportations, regardless of the cost.
By Tom Ozimek
