Los Angeles, a metropolis of immigrants, braces for Trump’s vow of mass deportations
Los Angeles — In Los Angeles, post-election fears of deportation are operating excessive among the many estimated 1.3 million documented and undocumented immigrants dwelling within the metropolis.
A workshop run by the L.A.-based immigrant advocacy group the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, is educating purchasers about their rights in the event that they’re confronted by federal officers.
“I count on Donald Trump, as president in his second time period…they’ll double down on cruelty,” the group’s government director, Angelica Salas, advised CBS Information.
President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport thousands and thousands of undocumented migrants was one of many key factors of his presidential marketing campaign, with Trump typically boasting that it will be the most important such effort in U.S. historical past.
Since clinching a second time period, he has tapped Tom Homan as a so-called “border czar” to go up the method. Homan served as appearing director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first time period. Trump has even indicated he may try to deploy the navy to assist perform deportations.
The Los Angeles Metropolis Council earlier this month voted 13-0 to approve an ordinance declaring itself a sanctuary metropolis in defiance of Trump’s plan.
L.A. Metropolis Council member Eunisses Hernandez sponsored the measure.
“We will not use any metropolis sources…to implement federal immigration legislation,” Hernandez mentioned. “We can not use any of our employees to implement federal immigration legislation, or their time. So which means we’re not going to be doing the bidding or the work of federal immigration departments and companies to separate households.”
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L.A.’s motion echoes that of California, which has been a sanctuary state since 2018. Nationwide, there are greater than 600 sanctuary jurisdictions, based on the Heart for Immigration Research.
Nevertheless, the incoming administration appears undeterred.
“I am sending a message for the individuals who say they’ll get in our approach,” Homan mentioned this week. “They are going to cease us from doing what we’re doing — an inside enforcement operation. I’ve mentioned 100 occasions within the final week: do not cross that line…do not take a look at us.”
Hernandez says L.A. officers are taking Trump’s declarations critically.
“We’d be silly to underestimate him, to not imagine his rhetoric,” Hernandez mentioned. “And that is why we try to organize as a substitute of being caught off guard.”
The Washington Submit reported this week that Trump is contemplating punishing sanctuary cities by withholding federal funding from states and municipalities that do not cooperate with the deportation plan.
“We additionally typically assume it is simply focusing on the undocumented, however in most households, it is a combined standing household,” Hernandez mentioned. “So the damage isn’t just on the undocumented particular person, however on their whole household.”
