Donald Trump’s “border czar” is threatening to round up undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles—whether local authorities like it or not.
Tom Homan, known for family separations and inhumane treatment of migrants at the southern border, said he would send “twice as many officers” to Los Angeles should the city refuse to use their resources to hunt down migrants.
“If I gotta send twice as many officers to LA because we’re not getting any assistance, then that’s what we’re going to do,” Homan told Newsmax.
“We got a mandate. President Trump is serious about this. I’m serious about it. This is gonna happen with or without you.”
Earlier this week, Los Angeles adopted a “sanctuary city” ordinance in response to the felon-elect promising the largest mass deportation in U.S. history.
The ordinance prohibits the use of city resources and staff — including the Los Angeles Police Department — for federal immigration efforts.
It also prohibits the city from collecting information on any individual’s immigration status, barring city employees from informing federal authorities about the current status of any undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said Thursday that his officers “don’t enforce civil immigration enforcement,” and they have no plan to change that despite the president-elect’s declarations.
“We don’t and will not start asking people about their immigration status,” he said.
Speaking to Daily Kos on the condition of anonymity, one law enforcement officer in Los Angeles County explained that this ordinance won’t protect undocumented immigrants who are arrested.
“[LAPD] will cooperate with ICE/HSI,” the officer said, but explained that authorities will not be told to “look for undocumented persons solely for that.”
Los Angeles is one of many Democratic-ran states bolstering their defenses ahead of Trump’s second term, and eyes are especially on California’s economy ahead of the threatened deportations.
“Without undocumented immigrant labor, we wouldn’t be able to sustain a food supply at the capacity that we have right now,” warned Ana Padilla, executive director of the Community and Labor Center at the University of California at Merced, in an interview with the Guardian.
While undocumented immigrants in LA have caused some resentment among authorities, the law enforcement source said, the majority of officers have no interest in cooperating with Trump’s deportation orders because they don’t answer to him.
