Immigrant and civil rights advocates made their case before the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners on May 12 after a previous presentation was canceled without explanation, urging stricter limits on LAPD involvement in federal immigration enforcement.
With Congress inching toward legislation that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after a months-long budget freeze, the coalition urged the city’s police commissioners to prepare for federal agents again targeting the city and its residents.
The presenters — a lawyer, an advocate and a priest — described a June 2025 operation in which LAPD set a perimeter for federal agents as they raided a warehouse near downtown LA, as a possible turning point in the police department’s relationship with the city’s vast immigrant communities. Meanwhile, many residents, they reported, have been confused about the role local police play in such operations.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, told the commissioners that while recent months have seen federal immigration enforcement slow, “we’re going to see this ramp up again.”
The police department has publicly reported on about two dozen calls regarding federal immigration enforcement activity since March, mostly saying the calls were not accurate or agents were not present by the time police officers arrived. The coalition’s volunteers, they reported, have observed far more.
Coalition reports 14,000+ resident calls about ICE since last July
Father Brendan Busse of Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights and LA Voice, and Andrés Kwon, senior policy counsel at the ACLU of Southern California, along with Salas, reported that volunteers have received more than 14,300 calls from residents about immigration enforcement since last July. More than 1,200 families have reported the detention of a relative.
Their volunteers observed 96 federal immigration sweeps since January. Most of those, 73, were in the San Fernando Valley, with smaller numbers being in South and Northeast Los Angeles.
The coalition’s volunteers have interviewed more than 600 families impacted by detentions and found that about 60 percent were either Mexican or Guatemalan nationals. 47 percent were detained while at work or commuting for the workday. 68 percent of those detained had dependents, 60 percent reported facing food insecurity and 64 percent face housing insecurity.
The Deportation Data Project found that about 40% of the 14,000 people detained in the greater Los Angeles area last year had no criminal charges or convictions.
Police Commissioner Jeff Skobin requested that the presenters provide more details directly to the commission about the data they have collected on the raids and the affected families, noting the reports differ from the monthly accounts of the police department.
The Sanctuary Coalition presenters provided a summary of how advocacy groups have been fighting for decades for increased protections against deportation tactics that violate civil rights. They’ve also been working to build trust with the city’s police department — which they fear is at risk.
“Even the perception of helping ICE and immigration enforcement can decimate any ounce of trust the community members might have,” Kwon told the commissioners. “And the community needs to be able to safely access local government, city government services, and resources.”
Beyond the public confusion it can cause, the LAPD’s crowd control tactics keep relatives from accessing those who are being detained, Kwon told The LA Local. And they keep volunteers from gathering information vital to the public’s understanding of immigration enforcement and related court proceedings. Many who are detained face substantial barriers to fighting the cases filed against them. About 65 percent of the 650 families the coalition’s volunteers interviewed about detentions have not been able to get legal representation.
Salas told the commissioners that LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told her and others the day before the warehouse raid that police would not be participating in federal immigration enforcement. She described how she was stunned to watch as police officers “held the perimeter” while federal agents put workers in unmarked vehicles and as relatives were often too afraid to approach.
It wasn’t until police officers left, she said, that relatives came to the warehouse to pick up belongings and vehicles left by those who were detained and gather more information about where they had been taken. “They waited until our LAPD forces left in order for them to seek assistance,” Salas said.
In light of SB 54, The California Values Act, state and local law enforcement agencies cannot actively assist agents in federal immigration enforcement, make immigration arrests, or inquire about immigration status, in addition to several other prohibitions. Police have some discretion to inform federal agents of people who are in jail and who have felony convictions in addition to immigration violations. LAPD has maintained that they are not in violation.
The city established a sanctuary ordinance in 2024, and the City Council unanimously passed a motion in 2025 further narrowing what LAPD officers were permitted to do during immigration sweeps. It included prohibiting LAPD from responding to calls for support from federal agents unless a judicial warrant is confirmed. The police department has not fully adopted these policies.
Earlier this year, Mayor Karen Bass established Executive Order 17 requiring officers to identify federal agents and record interactions with them on body cameras, in part to draw a clearer line between the work of federal agents and local police.
But the presenters claim LAPD, meanwhile, has provided crowd control during immigration operations. They repeatedly asked the commissioners who and what these tactics are intended to protect.
“It’s been federal agents who were masked, unidentified, fully decked out in military gear and carrying military-style weapons with billions of dollars behind it,” Kwon said. “Not the community, that’s the agents.”
Kwon told The LA Local that the federal government is opening itself up to considerable civil liability if detentions are found to be unconstitutional or people are injured during the operations. Citing the Department of Homeland Security’s massive budget and a large number of private contractors at its disposal, he questioned why the city’s police department would unnecessarily risk that same liability.
The presenters said some LAPD officers told them they felt unfairly put in the middle of tensions between federal agents and community members.
“Officers that I know have expressed sadness and confusion and frustration at the abuses that they’ve seen by an unhinged federal agency set loose on their own neighbors and friends and families,” Busse told the commissioners. “They know what we are here to affirm. That this behavior is something worse than incompetence. It is state-sponsored cruelty and violence.”
Commissioner Teresa Sánchez-Gordon expressed her support for the coalition and other community groups to continue to provide the commission with the information they gather while doing their work. A member of the coalition said she had advocated for them to present in the first place.
Sánchez-Gordon said the presentations “highlighted that in fact our city is in pain and terribly fearful. And that we have to go beyond just dialogue with LAPD, but develop a relationship that really helps with this theme of collaboration with ICE.”
Soon after the meeting, The LA Local reported her decision to resign from the commission, citing threats to her and her family. She would not say if the threats were related to any topic discussed at the meeting. Mayor Karen Bass’ office later reported that she had instructed the LAPD to investigate the threats. The police department declined to provide any information.
The commissioners did not take a specific action following the presentation, but did ask several questions of the coalition. The commission president, Rasha Gerges Shields, echoed that the oversight agency shares their concerns about what is at stake if the community’s trust in the police department falters.
She said she believes the biggest problem the department faces is if people are unwilling to provide information about crimes because they believe the police and federal immigration agents are collaborating.
“That completely undercuts any public safety in the city,” Gerges Shields said.
LA Documenter Martin Romero contributed to this piece from the LAPD Board of Police Commission meeting. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org
