At around 11 p.m. Tuesday night, Long Beach immigration advocates urged the city council to strengthen their policies to protect the immigrant community. What the council passed, they say, falls short of what the community needs, as federal agents continue to terrorize and detain immigrants across the country.
“To be sincere, based on our previous conversations, I was hoping that what came to council today included stronger language and real protections that actually benefit the immigrant community right now,” Executive Director of ÓRALE (Organizing Rooted in Abolition, Liberation and Empowerment) Gaby Hernandez said to the city council.
Hernandez was joined by other members of the nonprofit ÓRALE, which has been on the frontlines of documenting the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the region and helping families through legal representation and basic needs assistance. Though over 20 people signed up to speak about Mayor Rex Richardson’s proposed immigration policies, most of them left by the time the item began, six hours into the city council meeting.
The mayor’s policies focus on strengthening the current Long Beach Values Act, which the City introduced in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term. In January, Long Beach updated these policies, and local orgs made it clear: they needed stronger protections.
Many of the policies immigrant rights groups asked for in January were echoed Tuesday night.
Long Beach has roughly 50,000 immigrant residents, according to the most recent U.S. Census. ÓRALE told the Signal Tribune in July that at least a dozen Long Beach residents have been taken by ICE since June. A New York Times article from Aug. 11 estimates that over 60,000 people are currently in ICE detention centers, with hundreds of people being taken per day.
Immigration rights groups such as ÓRALE, the United Cambodian Community and the Filipino Migrant Center for months have been asking the City to allocate $2.2 million to the Long Beach Justice Fund. This fund provides free legal representation to people facing deportation, which organizers stress is more important than ever.
In 2025 alone, the Justice Fund has represented 36 people seeking legal status, 16 residents who were facing deportation, and five people in appellate cases. Since 2019, the Justice Fund has helped 89 people who were facing deportation.
What New Policies Did The City Pass?
City council passed policies deemed the Defending Our Values Act, which did not include the $2.2 million for the Justice Fund that has been continually requested. Instead, the policies allocate $600,000 to the Justice Fund, focus on protecting city-owned facilities, allow the City to sue for loss of revenue caused by raids and more.
City-owned buildings will now have signage identifying them as non-public areas. Federal law enforcement will not be able to enter these areas without a valid warrant. The City will also post banners on some city-owned buildings to “serve as a visible declaration of our values” in hopes to build trust between immigrants and city government, said Equity Officer Alanah Grant.
Employees will receive training via pre-recorded modules on what to do if federal agents show up at city-owned buildings. Residents will be able to report employees for violating these policies through an online portal managed by the City, and employees can face demotions or dismissals as a result.
Long Beach will also create a “Safe Place” business certification for businesses that receive Know Your Rights training.
Three main distinctions stand out between what the city council passed on Tuesday night, and what immigration advocates are calling for:
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WHAT THE CITY PASSED |
WHAT ADVOCATES WANT |
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Residents can use an online portal to report City employees for not upholding policies in the LBVA. The portal will be managed by the Office of Equity, and employees can be warned, demoted or dismissed if found guilty. |
Residents want the power of “Private Right to Action,” giving individuals and organizations the power to sue for violations of the LBVA, rather than relying on the City to internally handle disputes. This would ensure that investigations and enforcement are not only handled by one person or office. |
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The LBVA follows Senate Bill 54 (California Values Act), in that it allows for the cooperation between local government and ICE if the individual in question has a previous felony or misdemeanor. |
A policy that eliminates carveouts in Senate Bill 54, so that all immigrants are protected under the LBVA, regardless of past convictions. |
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Third party vendors will be disqualified from future contracts with the City if they’re found to be in violation of the LBVA. |
For the City to examine all its current contracts to ensure vendors are protecting residents’ data, and end current contracts if they are not. These vendors would also be disqualified from future contracts with the City. |
City’s Response to Resident Demands
Long Beach Deputy City Attorney Nicholas Masero provided explanations as to why Long Beach cannot implement the recommendations from residents.
Private Right to Action: Masero said that granting residents private right to action would bring about the “risk of new, expensive, and meritless litigation that would be difficult and slow to extract ourselves from and divert resources towards those efforts.” He also said that by allowing any person or organization to sue the City, these lawsuits would be “created based on a perception that a city program, policy or action is not sufficiently aligned with the LBVA, even if that is not the case or if the action, policy, or program is required by state or federal law.”
SB 54 Carveouts: Masero said that the LBVA “maximizes” the City’s rights, and the carveouts are “extremely narrow, and relate only to certain violent criminals, felons and where federal law requires.” He added that removing these carveouts would subject the City to legal challenges and scrutiny, “which it might not survive.”
Ending Contracts that Violate the LBVA: Long Beach cannot dictate the terms of “many contracts, particularly those that relate to cybersecurity,” Masero said. The City also can’t dictate contact terms when it’s with multinational corporations, which the City uses for word processing and productivity software, when “piggybacking” contracts off other jurisdictions which is a frequent practice, where they have “sole source agreement” or are seeking highly specialized goods and services like with firetrucks.
He said that creating new terms would “create a lot of uncertainty” and may deter vendors from working with Long Beach.
“It is not enough for you to tell us you support immigrants, if you want us to truly believe this, you need to serve immigrant families in these most unstable, violent times by true action which is what we’re asking for in these three demands,” said Maria Lopez, an organizer with the Long Beach Tenants Union.
ÓRALE wrote on its social media pages Wednesday, “While the council didn’t include our demands, we want our community to know that this is not the end! We will continue to return to advocate for what our community needs to be safe.”
