LA County Supervisors to ICE: Keep off county property, parking lots, parks

While Los Angeles County cannot stop ICE agents from sweeping across the county and arresting undocumented immigrants and in some cases, U.S. citizens, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday, Jan. 13 to prohibit federal agents from using county properties, such as parking lots and parks, to stage and process raids and arrests.

The idea behind the vote is to make it more difficult for Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents to conduct raids by creating “ICE-Free Zones.” The county would post “keep out” signs on county properties and even secure them with padlocks. The proposed ordinance includes putting up signs that read county properties “may not be used for unauthorized civil law enforcement, including civil immigration enforcement, as a Staging Area, Processing Location, or Operations Base,” according to the approved board motion.

In some instances, the county will erect physical barriers, including locking the gates to county facilities. These powers spelled out in the motion brought by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Hilda Solis will be incorporated into an ordinance that will come back to the board in 30 days for a vote.

“L.A. County will not allow its property to be used as a staging ground for violence caused by the Trump Administration,” said Horvath. “County public spaces should be places of care and safety, not fear.”

Since June, ICE raids have detained hundreds of people, with agents taking people from a bus stop in Pasadena, and from the streets and the parks, and from car washes in Torrance and from Home Depot parking lots in Westlake (downtown L.A.), Monrovia, Hollywood and Van Nuys. The raids are part of a mass deportation operation ordered by President Donald Trump in cities and counties across the U.S. and have prompted numerous protests, rallies and lawsuits.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the operations, saying they are necessary to make the nation safe, characterizing the people ICE arrests as dangerous criminals.

But immigration advocates, clergy and elected officials across Los Angeles County have decried such characterizations, saying ICE is detaining hard-working members of the community — and in some cases, U.S. citizens.

The operation reached a fever pitch when ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot into the car of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 during a raid in Minneapolis. Good, an observer and a U.S. citizen, was killed instantly. The next day, ICE agents shot two others in a vehicle in Portland, Ore.

The shooting by federal agent Ross in Minneapolis has divided local and federal officials over the question of whether it was justified. And Good’s death has promoted protests across the nation — including in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Long Beach. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has, in no uncertain terms, called for federal immigration agents to leave the city.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, however, said the officer shot the woman in self-defense after she “attempted to run them over and rammed them with her vehicle,” which Noem described as an “act of domestic terrorism,” the AP reported. Minneapolis’ police chief, Brian O’Hara, briefly described the shooting to reporters but gave no indication that the driver was trying to harm anyone.

Horvath said 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE since 2004. “Our federal government is freely, without cause, murdering its own citizens in front of cameras,” she added.

ICE spokesperson Luis Alani, when reached by phone, would not comment on the county’s proposed ordinance. Emails sent to him and to ICE media were not answered.

The proposed L.A. County ordinance also would:

• Require any law enforcement agency to get a permit from the county to use specific properties for any staging or processing raids in advance.

• County agencies and department heads would identify and make a list of potential property belonging to the county that are “likely to be used in the future, as a staging area, processing location or operations base for the purposes of unauthorized civil law enforcement, including immigration enforcement.”

The ICE-Free Zones proposed ordinance is patterned after a similar executive order enacted by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Oct. 6. The order followed use of Chicago Public Schools’ parking lots and a city-owned parking lot as staging sites for federal immigration operations, according to the L.A. County motion.

The two supervisors’ motion also cited an immigration operation at Deanne Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center in San Pedro on Oct. 8, within Hahn’s fourth district. Three people were arrested, and according to the motion, federal agents threatened to arrest county park staff who responded to the scene. Due to the raid in the county park, residents subsequently stayed away, were unable to access the park for recreation, and county staff were unable to perform their assigned duties, the county reported.

The motion goes on to say that as more federal immigration operations are expected this year, including those that will take place on county property, the board felt it was imperative to protect county public spaces so they are used as designed — by the public with a functioning staff — and not for other purposes.

“We cannot allow our county properties to be a tool for the work they are doing. And I believe the work they are doing is dangerous and unsafe,” Hahn said.

She called ICE agents untrained, especially newly recruited agents who are part of a directive to double the ICE force. She said they are not trained as are L.A. County Sheriff Department deputies, who are taught not to stand in front of a car nor shoot into a moving vehicle.

Solis said the board’s action should spur cities in the county to pass similar ICE-Free Zone laws. “Whatever action we take here can also trickle down to other municipalities,” she said. “To adopt similar motions to protect their own residents.”

James Maddox, who spoke during public comment, reminded the board of an ICE agent leaving his car in the middle of Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena on June 18, getting out and pointing his gun at bystanders on the sidewalk who were protesting. He said, “This ordinance goes a long way for providing a backbone for cities, particularly in Pasadena, to be more concerned.”

Before the meeting, Solis led a moment of silence to honor all victims of violence connected to federal immigration enforcement.