The Long Beach City Council passed new rules around its sanctuary ordinance on Tuesday that, among other changes, prohibits third-party contractors from sharing city data with federal immigration enforcement.
The move comes as Long Beach and other liberal cities nationwide try to signal their support for immigrant communities before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised mass deportations.
“Again, we find ourselves preparing for an administration that (has) outwardly challenged some of our beliefs,” Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said. “No matter who’s in power in Washington, I believe that we have a responsibility to stand firm on our principles.”
Though Long Beach already declared itself a sanctuary city in 2018, during Trump’s first term, activists have recently pushed to close legal loopholes they say allow for inadvertent cooperation with federal immigration agencies.
The ordinance passed on Tuesday reaffirms ongoing protections and adds more legal weight ahead of expected court challenges in the coming years, officials said.
It asks that the city’s Utilities and Harbor departments, along with the city clerk and leadership from city police, auditor and Long Beach’s various attorneys submit letters of support to uphold the sanctuary ordinance.
Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, in her first full council session, asked that letters of support be fielded by the Long Beach Unified School District as well as the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees.
The ordinance also allows the allocation of $200,000 to the Long Beach Justice Fund to pay for people’s legal defense in removal defense proceedings. Money will be supplied from last year’s budget, “should surplus funds be available.”
The fund, established in 2018, affords free legal representation to residents and workers facing deportation at the immigration Courts in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Santa Ana or the Adelanto Detention Facility. The allocation adds to a $1.1 million expansion of the program passed in September.
The ordinance also prohibits the sharing of city data accumulated by third-party companies contracting with Long Beach. An addendum will be added to future contracts that asks contractors not to share information they collect over the course of their work.
This comes after a 2020 report that found LBPD had mistakenly shared license plate data with ICE agents over a 10-month period.
“No more data sharing, no city funds to be utilized for immigration arrests, detention and deportation,” said Ana Mendez-Garcia, an operations specialist with ÓRALE, a local immigrant rights organization that pushed Long Beach to strengthen its sanctuary protections.
Gaby Hernandez, the executive director with ÓRALE, said the negotiations that led up to Tuesday were relatively easy and without much pushback from city officials.
“I think there is a willingness to be in an open conversation with us,” Hernandez said.
That said, the version approved Tuesday dropped two requests made by activists in a Dec 9 letter: the removal of exceptions that allow some limited cooperation with immigration agents and the ability for individuals or groups to sue the city in the event it does not uphold the sanctuary ordinance. A Dec. 26 memo by Deputy City Manager Teresa Chandler said officials are still reviewing the feasibility of these requests.
At the request of Councilwoman Joni Ricks-Oddie, the city will revisit the sanctuary ordinance in six months, to assess where further changes are needed. Hernandez and others said they hope to bring these two items up in the next round of negotiations.
“We’re going to celebrate this win. We’re happy that it’s happening, but we’re going to come back in a couple months to fight for something stronger,” Hernandez said.
The City Council’s unanimous vote comes weeks after the city of Los Angeles enshrined its own sanctuary law, as well as the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school system.
These actions signal a sense of urgency among the region’s top elected officials to shore up protections for their immigrant populations ahead of Trump’s inauguration in a few weeks.
Trump, since he announced his campaign in November 2022, has promised to pursue mass deportations of undocumented immigrants nationwide and to punish cities that do not comply with federal authorities.
In a presentation made to the City Council’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee on Dec. 10, Senior Policy Advisory Leslie Pollner with the lobbying firm Holland & Knight said to expect “a number of high-profile, made-for-TV ICE raids in workplaces and homes.”
“As you’ve heard, the (Trump Administration) has said that immigration is going to be a top priority and that’ll be something that we see on day one,” Pollner said.