Council to consider restricting ICE activity on city property
At its meeting Monday night, the city council directed staff to draft a resolution modeled after an ordinance recently adopted by the Bay Area city of Pinole
In response to recent escalations both locally and beyond, the City Council of Culver City directed staff to draft a resolution that aims to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Officers from using city-owned land and facilities, such as parking lots and garages, to stage or conduct their operations. Several confrontations between ICE agents and U.S. citizens in recent months have resulted in deaths of the latter, sparking public outrage and actions from California lawmakers both locally and in Sacramento.
The City Attorney’s office researched how other cities have approached this and recommended a resolution to work in tandem with the 2017 Sanctuary City resolution to tackle the issue. Per council's direction given during its meeting Monday night, the resolution will draw on an ordinance passed last month in the city of Pinole in the San Francisco Bay Area.
There have been several other municipalities in California that have introduced ordinances or resolutions in addition to several state bills targeting immigration enforcement officers and their activities. Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors has also directed its staff to draft an ordinance barring the use of county property for non-county purposes, and Santa Clara County and the city of San Jose have adopted similar resolutions.
These actions come as many legal and undocumented residents across the country grow increasingly fearful of ICE activities following several recent confrontations that have had fatal outcomes.
The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota have received significant national attention, but 43-year-old Keith Porter Jr. was also recently shot dead in Northridge by an off-duty ICE officer after firing gunshots into the air to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Several members of the Culver City community have also been apprehended by ICE in several raids since President Donald Trump took office.
Christian May-Suzuki
Pinole’s ordinance complies with broader laws by ensuring its language does not interfere with lawful criminal enforcement. It prohibits issuing permits for city property to be “knowingly used for activities such as staging federal civil immigration enforcement operations; processing, interviewing, or temporarily detaining individuals for civil immigration purposes; or conducting surveillance related to civil immigration enforcement, unless compelled by a judicial warrant or court order,” according to a Pinole city press release.
Vice Mayor Bubba Fish raised questions about how the council could be made aware of unauthorized ICE activities in Culver City, and how the policy could be enforced to minimize them. The other cities examined by the City Attorney’s office did not include language that detailed any options or assertions against federal officers in violation of the resolution or ordinance.
“The way they have structured it is...they direct city staff to implement policy to enforce it,” Deputy City Attorney Monica Kilaita said Monday night. “If these policies were ever challenged, we have some legal backup that we are not doing anything that might be preempted.”
Other councilmembers commented on the gravity of the moment. They expressed their dismay at recent events, which represent a dramatic escalation in an operation that critics argue has already violated the constitutional rights of thousands of people.
“We are seeing in real-time the dismantling of systems and structures,” Councilmember Yasmine-Imani McMorrin said, “which is very scary and jarring.”
“I hope this doesn’t escalate to where we have to protect ourselves to a degree we can't even imagine,” Councilmember Dan O’Brien said. “I don’t know where this will go.”
The council unanimously approved drafting a resolution, based on the Pinole ordinance, to restrict ICE’s use of city property, and will review it at a future meeting.
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