Thousands of Angelenos March to City Hall to Demand Sanctuary Policies

For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting
February 18th, 2017
Contact: Jose Eduardo Sanchez, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA), 323 905 4923; Armando Carmona, National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), 323 250 3018;

(Los Angeles) – Today, over 30 organizations join the people of Los Angeles in defining the term “sanctuary city” at the “Free the People Immigration March –  Sanctuary for All.” The groups are taking to the streets and call for sanctuary policies. Those targeted by the current federal government’s policies – including immigrants, Muslims, Blacks, LGBTQ individuals – are also declaring Los Angeles a sanctuary city.

“We are here today to issue an urgent call to Mayor Garcetti and to all of our elected officials to protect us with more than words – we demand action, and we have provided a platform of concrete policies that, together, would transform Los Angeles into a true sanctuary city,” said Ameena Qazi, Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild of Los Angeles (NLG-LA), one of the march sponsors.

A broad coalition of organizations, representing many facets of our diverse city, are presenting a slate of policy demands that reflect a community vision of safety and protection.

“We need bold leadership now from our elected officials. Los Angeles must be a beacon for its residents and for the nation by standing up to the Trump administration’s hateful agenda,” said Maegan Ortiz of the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), another of the dozens of march sponsors.

The Coalition demands that LA City and County leaders:

1. Enact unequivocal sanctuary policies that:
   a. Prevent collection of unnecessary information about immigration status;
   b. Protect private information collected about residents;
   c. Prohibit local resources (including law enforcement) from being used for federal immigration enforcement or the establishment of a Muslim registry; and
   d. Establish a body to monitor and oversee immigration enforcement actions locally.
2. Refuse to enact the forthcoming national stop-and-frisk policy, which will exacerbate the targeting of communities of color, place the most vulnerable communities under increased threat, and feed mass-criminalization and mass-incarceration.
3. Disentangle local law enforcement from federal immigration enforcement: Get ICE out of Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD) jails and modernize the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Special Order 40, the police policy intended to promote public safety by protecting immigrants.
4. Ensure that the LA Justice Fund is based on principles of universality and inclusiveness with the goal of ensuring critical due process rights for all people in deportation proceedings, including all individuals in immigration detention.
5. Oppose President Trump’s measures scapegoating and discriminating against Muslims, including by:
   a. Endorsing SB 31 (Lara), which would ensure that state and local personnel do not participate in the creation of a registry based on religion or national origin; and
   b. Declining grants received from the federal government to implement programs aimed to “Counter Violent     Extremism” (CVE) which play into harmful stereotypes and unwarranted targeting of the Muslim community.
6. Stand up to protect the rights of LGBTQ people and vigorously oppose any attempt by President Trump to institute a “license to discriminate” against LGBTQ people.
7. Ensure that the civil rights and well-being of residents are protected by establishing stricter fair hiring policies in public contracting and by investing in formal partnerships with state agencies to build comprehensive enforcement strategies to address heightened bias and discrimination through vigorous enforcement of Title VII and other fair hiring standards.
8. Protect street vendors from improper and damaging criminal prosecutions by ceasing enforcement actions against street vendors; pardoning past tickets; and creating an inclusive permit program that legalizes sidewalk vending and promotes economic opportunity for all.
9. Expand existing levels of funding for day labor centers to ensure access to jobs and to re-affirm the commitment to enforce labor violations regardless of immigration status.
10. Develop City and County budgets that fund housing, youth programs, mental health resources, crime prevention/intervention work, and living wage jobs at a level that exceeds funding for police and law enforcement.

These 10 policy points draw a roadmap to establishing a sanctuary city that can help to protect community members subject to the overlapping vulnerabilities they face under a Trump Administration. Sanctuary is more than a word, and the Coalition will not stop until it becomes a reality.

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