Los Angeles Mayor Pushes for Official Sanctuary City Status Before Trump Assumes Office

‘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 recent interview on KNX News, a local radio station, Bass mentioned that previous policies regarding Los Angeles being a sanctuary city were never officially made into law. She promised to advocate for a City Council vote to formally declare Los Angeles as a sanctuary city by the end of the year.

“I anticipate that the council will vote on sanctuary cities very soon,” she stated. “We will support the immigrant community and ensure that any policy put forth will protect the people of Los Angeles and prevent families from being separated.”

The City Council passed a motion in July 2023 directing city departments to work towards making Los Angeles a sanctuary city, which would prevent city cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In September 2024, some City Council members introduced a motion for a new law to legally establish Los Angeles as a sanctuary city. However, the law has not yet been brought back to the council for a vote.

Trump, who promised a tough stance on illegal immigration during his presidential campaign, recently stated that his administration must proceed with deportations regardless of the cost.

“It’s not about the cost,” Trump told NBC News. “We have no choice when people have been killed, drug lords have caused chaos in countries, and now they must return to their home countries. There is no price tag.”

The exact number of illegal immigrants in the United States is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 10 million to over 20 million. The American Immigration Council estimated that deporting 13 million immigrants could cost nearly $1 trillion over a little more than a decade.

Trump has appointed Tom Homan, a former ICE director, to lead mass deportations. Homan stated that the scale of deportations would depend on the budget, detention space, and officers available for the project. He emphasized that criminals and gang members would be the top priority for removal.

Homan also encouraged other illegal immigrants to leave the country voluntarily, warning that they will eventually be caught and deported.

Trump has also pledged to use federal authority against sanctuary cities, calling for a nationwide ban on them. In 2017, he signed an executive order withholding funds from sanctuary jurisdictions unless they cooperated with immigration officials. President Biden later revoked this order after taking office.