Can LA actually stop ICE? Critics say city leaders are falling short

For drumming in protest in front of the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center, Mario Zermeno and his fellow organizers in ICE Out of LA say they have been harassed, threatened and arrested by immigration agents and the LAPD. They say they were also threatened with having their names placed in a federal database.

But Zermeno still feels compelled to show up.

“Yes, I get worried,” he told The LA Local. 

He was standing at an anti-ICE protest in La Plaza de Los Ángeles on Jan. 24. It was the same day Alex Pretti, a man who was filming immigration agents in Minneapolis, was killed by Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer Raymundo Gutierrez. 

“I get worried seeing someone killed,” Zermeno said. “But what’s our other choice? Not protesting? Not defending the Constitution? Not protesting for our rights? Then what do we become at that point? You know, locked up in our homes ordering everything off Amazon?”

Zermeno’s fears echo broader concerns among activists and legal observers, who say a data privacy loophole — local police and city technology, like license plate readers and mobile data, feeding information to federal immigration agents without warrants — fuels fear and undermines efforts to hold enforcement accountable.

His frustration points to a question many residents of Los Angeles County are asking as federal immigration enforcement intensifies: Do city and county leaders actually have the power to protect its residents — or are their hands tied? 

The answer is complicated — and partly depends on whom you ask. At the state level, lawmakers have passed laws and filed lawsuits aimed at limiting federal immigration enforcement.

But for many Angelenos — who have taken to the streets to warn and defend neighbors, closed businesses for national boycotts and used social media to track and call out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity — those efforts don’t go far enough.

What is LA doing and is it being enforced?  

Earlier this month, the LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion to draft an ordinance barring immigration agents from county-owned spaces, such as parking lots and public buildings. 

The proposal, often referred to as an “ICE-Free Zones” ordinance, is intended to prevent federal agents from staging raids.

But the ordinance still has to be voted on by the Supervisors. It’s also unclear how enforceable it would be.

In an emailed statement to The LA Local, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said she is looking forward to the potential implications of the ordinance.

“ICE’s continued operations in Los Angeles are inflicting real harm, fear, and trauma on immigrant families across our county,” Horvath added. “Protecting the safety, dignity, and human rights of our communities is non-negotiable. No one should fear accessing county services, health care or support.”

While observing and recording federal agents driving into the detention center, where immigrant detainees are held, Zermeno said he has noticed ICE and CBP agents continuing to conceal their identities with masks.

Seeing masked and heavily armed immigration officers without identifying badges has become the norm since the start of the second Trump administration. But late last year, the California Legislature passed a bill making it a misdemeanor for law enforcement officers to cover their faces. The law took effect on Jan. 1.

Shortly after the law passed, the Trump administration sued the state. The case is being heard in LA federal court. The LA Local recently reported that Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he will not direct officers to enforce the ban.

In a telephone interview, LA City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez,District-1 told The LA Local that her background in community advocacy taught her that “the government never does the right thing until the community and constituents push the government to do the right thing.”

“I’m a councilmember, but the government isn’t going to save you,” Hernandez told a crowd at a recent anti-ICE rally. “It’s the people that are standing arm in arm with you that are going to save our families, keep them whole and repair the harm that the federal government is doing.”

Hernandez asked people instead to join a local activist group or community defense organization and donate to The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, a nonprofit that fights for immigrants and refugees’ civil rights.  

Hernandez told The LA Local she wished city departments and agencies moved with more urgency.

“We can’t have our heads in the sand and we have to be prepared,” she said. 

What about LA’s sanctuary laws?

In 2024, Hernandez was a co-author of LA’s sanctuary city ordinance, meant to prevent city resources from being used for immigration enforcement. Still, LAPD officers have responded to protests and shared information from license plate readers with ICE and CBP.

Hernandez said council members are considering boosting city funding for immigrant legal defense and day laborer centers, while reviewing contracts that could allow data sharing with federal immigration agencies. She acknowledged the limits of their authority, noting that the mayor and police commission — not the City Council — set LAPD policy.

“Getting LAPD not to respond to what could be unconstitutional immigration raids, and assisting with that, is [something] that the Board of Police Commissioners has to figure out how that even looks within the bounds of the law,” she said. 

Hernandez pointed out that this moment is unique in recent memory. 

“They’re having to set precedent because there hasn’t been another moment in recent history when the federal government has gone after its own cities and states.” 

All the loopholes critics warn about

Privacy advocates argue that even within those sanctuary limits, cities have more power than they are using.

“LA is doing terribly,” according to Brian Hofer, the executive director of Secure Justice, a nonprofit focused on privacy and surveillance issues.

“Every single city in California right now is sharing data with ICE. Every single city, but they don’t even know it,” he told The LA Local.

Hofer said the biggest loophole isn’t just street-level policing — its data. Information collected through license plate readers, surveillance technology, and even phone apps often ends up with private data brokers, who can sell it to federal agencies.

“Every app, every online ad, every click — some kind of data is being captured,” he said. Immigration authorities can buy that data instead of going to court for warrants.

Local governments, he said, could restrict contracts with companies that sell data to federal immigration agencies and hold police departments accountable for improper data sharing.

“They’re cowards,” Hofer said of elected officials who fail to rein in police departments. “We just don’t hold police accountable for breaking the law in America. If that changed, we’d clear up a lot of this.”

What anti-ICE legislation is pending 

Hofer said he’s working on a statewide bill to limit cities from sharing data and is helping them review surveillance contracts that let vendors share information widely.

On the ground, though, those policy debates feel distant to protesters like Zermeno.

“I’m glad to see people coming out more and more,” he said. “But it would be great if we had a mayor who stood up like the mayor of Minneapolis or the mayor of Chicago did.”

Last month Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order directing Chicago police to document, investigateand preserve evidence of alleged illegal misconduct by federal immigration agents.

Zermeno believes Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lacks the authority to directly give orders to the LAPD. 

“I know their hands are tied, but at least [Chicago is] making real efforts,” he said. “Our mayor can’t even enforce the no-mask policy that the governor passed, and she has no interest in doing it. It’s frustrating.”

We reached out to Mayor Bass’ office for comment and will update if we hear back.

Zermeno said he would like to see city leaders at least try to stand up to ICE and CBP — even if the odds of winning are slim.

“We have to start somewhere,” he said.