The United States Department of Justice on Tuesday released a new list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” it says could face legal action and other penalties for impeding the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement. Unlike the list it published in May, Long Beach’s name was nowhere to be seen.
Tuesday’s list is far shorter than the earlier one, which contained Long Beach along with more than 500 states, cities and counties.
It’s not clear why the city was removed. If anything, local leaders have taken a more aggressive stance against immigration raids since May, with the City Council voting to join a lawsuit that seeks to limit agents’ aggressive tactics and the mayor unveiling a budget proposal with millions of dollars in aid for immigrant families and those facing deportation.
A total of 37 cities, counties and states were on Tuesday’s list — including California and the city — but not the county— of Los Angeles. A statement from the Justice Department warned that this list was not exhaustive and could be updated.
Despite Long Beach’s absence, the city is still at risk of losing federal funds, city spokesperson Kevin Lee wrote in an email. It’s common for Long Beach to receive federal money that has been passed through the county or state. If that money is held up, Long Beach would suffer.
May’s list came as President Donald Trump attempted to pressure communities he saw as noncompliant with his mass deportation agenda.
The following month saw an unprecedented scene play out across Southern California, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents raided car washes and home improvement store parking lots, including some in Long Beach, in search of undocumented immigrants.
The initial list — which was called for in an April 28 Executive Order — named states, counties and cities that the administration believed “obstruct the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.”
After learning Long Beach was included, city officials said that they don’t obstruct federal law enforcement “in any way,” but they also do not assist in immigration enforcement.
And although local politicians have at times called Long Beach a sanctuary city, they said there has never been any official action to declare it a “sanctuary” — a term that has no specific legal definition.
The city has, however, passed local rules that are seen as in line with sanctuary policies, including barring police and other municipal employees from collaborating with federal immigration officials in most circumstances.
That includes the city jail generally refusing to honor detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who will often ask local jurisdictions to hold prisoners for extra time so agents can retrieve them for deportation. The city says it cooperates in a limited number of situations, such as when ICE has a judicial warrant for someone’s arrest, as required by state and federal law.
The local sanctuary law, called the Long Beach Values Act, prohibits the city from collecting any immigration-related data and bars the city from sharing any other data it does collect with federal immigration enforcement.
Some of its policies seem to fit within a list of criteria the Justice Department released outlining why jurisdictions were branded sanctuary jurisdictions.
In a statement published along with the list, Attorney General Pamela Bondi took aim at sanctuary policies as a whole.
Bondi said they “impede law enforcement and put American citizens at risk by design.”
The Department of Justice will “work closely” with the Department of Homeland Security “to eradicate these harmful policies around the country,” Bondi said.
The Trump Administration previously threatened to generally withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities, but May was the first time Long Beach was specifically named as a target.
In July, the Department of Justice sued New York City over its policy that prohibits its Department of Corrections from honoring ICE detainer requests.
Last fiscal year, Long Beach spent $315 million in federal funds, and it has pending grants for hundreds of millions more, including $400 million it hopes to win to build a replacement for the Shoemaker Bridge.
During Trump’s first term, his administration attempted to withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions, but California sued and a federal judge ruled in the state’s favor.