Eight years ago, Los Angeles’ political leaders took action We are taking action to protect the city’s undocumented population from the Trump administration regarding immigration.

City Council members are funneling public money to lawyers to defend Angelenos facing deportation. They tried to legalize the work of street vendors, many of whom did not have citizenship. And they created a new committee focused on immigration.

There was a sense of deja vu at City Hall this week as political leaders prepared for another round against President-elect Donald Trump.

Several council members said Friday they would speed up Los Angeles’ transition “sacred” lawIt’s still being scrutinized by city attorneys over Trump’s promised crackdown on immigrants.

regulationsThe legislation, first proposed last year and modeled after the San Francisco law, would ban federal immigration enforcement officials from accessing city databases.

On Friday, seven council members also signed a resolution urging President Biden to renew a program that allows undocumented people from Central America to stay in the United States temporarily. Los Angeles has the largest Central American population outside of Latin America.

City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martínez, one of the resolution’s supporters, said his own family members, Eastside district voters and immigrant rights groups are all feeling “definitely on edge.”

“People are angry more than anything,” said Soto-Martínez, who chairs the city’s immigration committee. “They are excited and ready to fight back just like we did in 2016.”

Other council members said they fear homeless funding will be cut after Tuesday’s election. Some also worry about the predominantly Democratic city’s ability to obtain federal security and transportation funds for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles

Hosting an international sporting event is already a financial risk because the city is responsible for cost overruns.

City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who traveled to Paris for the recent Summer Games, said Trump’s election “led him to foresee four difficult years for our city on many levels”; the most important of which was our access to federal funds for different programs and our preparations for the new Olympics. Olympics.”

Los Angeles is expected to receive approximately $355 million in federal grant funding this fiscal year, according to the City Administrative Office.

That doesn’t include federal dollars flowing to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a partner city and county agency, or federal dollars that would come to the area through the Federal Emergency Management Agency following major disasters.

City officials have expressed fears that Trump, a volatile leader prone to holding grudges, could retaliate against California and Los Angeles for his Democratic leadership.

Trump recently threatened to end federal disaster aid for wildfires in California; Those words were on the mind of Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who works closely with the city’s fire department.

“This is not a democracy,” Rodriguez said Tuesday night in the San Fernando Valley region, where areas are prone to wildfires. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work.”

Rodriguez was on the council during the last Trump administration, when the U.S. Department of Justice regularly fought Los Angeles in court, including over whether federal funds could be withheld if city officials refused to cooperate with immigration agents.

Mayor Karen Bass was a member of Congress during Trump’s first term and has repeatedly criticized the then-president. In 2020, he called him a “lawless” president who wanted to be an “authoritarian leader.”

Since winning the mayoral race in 2022, he has made ending street homelessness a priority and has worked closely with the Biden administration to lobby for more housing vouchers and create new rules that would allow homeless Angelenos to qualify for federally funded apartments.

Bass spoke broadly when asked Thursday if he was worried about losing federal funding while Trump is in office.

Angelenos won’t let “anyone divide us or pit groups against each other,” he said. “We’ve done this before, we’ll do it again.”

City Council Speaker Marqueece Harris-Dawson also sought to reassure Angelenos this week, telling reporters it was the City Council and mayor’s job to ensure “everyone in this city, including immigrants, feels protected and safe.”

L.A. County has about 800,000 undocumented residents, including many mixed-status families, according to USC’s Equity Research Institute. According to the institute, more than 70 percent of the county’s unregistered residents have been living in the country for more than a decade.

Institute director Manuel Pastor said immigration will be the biggest source of tension between the city government and the Trump administration. He also said that the City Council has become more progressive since 2016.

City leaders regularly talk about immigration in personal terms. Councilwoman-elect Ysabel Jurado, a tenant rights attorney, won a seat representing parts of the East Side this week after running a campaign highlighting the undocumented status of her Filipino parents.

Despite their assurances, the City Council and Bass have limited authority to halt deportations.

The city also faces a budget crisis that could limit its ability to pay for programs sought by immigrant groups, including free lawyers for those at risk of deportation.

At a rally in front of City Hall on Thursday, some immigrant rights leaders called on city officials to fund efforts to warn communities of deportation raids.

Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, said Los Angeles must offer “unprecedented investment” in such programs because of Trump.

Harris-Dawson signaled Friday that the council could take further action on immigration in the coming weeks. He also suggested that some city officials are taking a wait-and-see attitude about Trump’s plans.

“Some of us, I don’t know why, want to give the president the benefit of the doubt and try to see what happens instead of reacting before something actually happens,” he said.

Council member Eunisses Hernandez, who is in the area where the Pico-Union neighborhood is located, where immigrants are concentrated, was not among those waiting. He told The Times that authorities need to “re-educate” themselves on how to protect immigrant communities.

Trump “made it very clear what he wanted to do,” he said.

Times writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.