The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday directed attorneys to draft a law that establishes “ICE-Free Zones” to prevent Los Angeles County facilities from serving as staging areas or processing centers for federal immigration enforcement activity.
According to the motion approved with a 5-0 vote and authored by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis, the forthcoming ordinance is based on an executive order in October by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The Chicago law was in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement commandeering several school and city-owned parking lots.
The LA County board’s approved motion noted an Oct. 8 ICE raid in San Pedro at the county’s Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center.
“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,” according to the motion. “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.”
In response to federal immigration law enforcement becoming part of everyday life in the region, supervisors decided “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 develop a draft ordinance within 30 days that prohibits all county property “from being used for other than county purposes” and “as a staging area, processing location or operations base for unauthorized civil law enforcement actions, including civil immigration enforcement.”
The ordinance would also require posted signs at county facilities indicating the property is county-owned and can’t be used for noncounty operations. Signs should also say the law “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,” according to the motion.
During the board meeting Tuesday, Horvath referred to the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis by an immigration enforcement agent, the shooting of two other men by ICE agents in Portland and the fatal shooting of Keith Porter Jr. in the San Fernando Valley on New Year’s Eve.
“Our federal government is killing its own citizens,” Horvath said. “Let that sink in, our federal government is freely, without cause, murdering its own citizens in broad daylight in front of witnesses and cameras. … People have been shot. People have been killed. Families have been shattered.”
Although 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,” Horvath added.
Solis said 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 (federal agents) are doing.”
She added, “What they’re doing is not making us safer, it is putting residents, citizens, children in danger.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles County, criticized the county’s action in an X post.
“Local jurisdictions cannot target and exclude federal agents from public spaces,” Essayli wrote. “We will use any public spaces necessary to enforce federal law. 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.”
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.
Hahn said ICE agents tried to detain two landscapers in Downey over the weekend, even though both are legally in the U.S.
“ICE is not just targeting undocumented immigrants,” she 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.”
