Yes, Los Angeles is a sanctuary city. The City Council unanimously passed a sanctuary ordinance in November 2024, and it took effect on December 19, 2024, permanently banning the use of city resources for federal civil immigration enforcement.1Nithya Raman | Los Angeles City Councilmember 4th District. City Council Votes To Establish Los Angeles As A Sanctuary City That ordinance sits on top of California’s Values Act and a long-standing LAPD policy that bars officers from asking about immigration status. Together they mean city employees, LAPD officers, and the county sheriff will not act as extensions of ICE, though federal pushback since January 2025 has tried to change that.
What the Sanctuary Ordinance Actually Does
Ordinance 188441 does two things. It prohibits any city resource, including employees, buildings, and equipment, from being used to investigate or enforce federal civil immigration law.2Los Angeles City Clerk. Los Angeles Administrative Code Ordinance 188441 – Prohibition of the Use of City Resources for Federal Immigration Enforcement And it blocks the direct or indirect sharing of data that could reveal someone’s immigration status. City contractors must agree in writing to the same restriction before receiving any data that could identify a person’s citizenship or immigration status.1Nithya Raman | Los Angeles City Councilmember 4th District. City Council Votes To Establish Los Angeles As A Sanctuary City
There is a narrow carve-out. The ordinance cannot override 8 U.S.C. ยง 1373, the federal statute that prohibits local governments from barring their employees from sharing citizenship or immigration status information with federal immigration authorities.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1373 LA’s position is that restricting the use of city personnel and property for enforcement operations is different from forbidding the sharing of status information itself. That distinction is what keeps the ordinance within the lines of federal law.
By placing these rules in the municipal code rather than in a resolution, the Council made them harder to undo. A later council cannot quietly reverse them with a policy memo.
The State Law Behind It
California’s Values Act (SB 54) already restricted every law enforcement agency in the state from using money or personnel to investigate, detain, or arrest people for immigration purposes. Officers cannot ask about your status during routine encounters, cannot hold you on an ICE detainer alone, and cannot pass personal information like your home or work address to immigration agents. Agencies also cannot provide dedicated office space to immigration authorities inside local facilities or use ICE agents as interpreters.4California Legislative Information. California Code GOV 7284.6 Areas of LA County outside city limits operate under these same statewide rules.
What This Means If You Encounter Police
LAPD Won’t Ask About Your Status
Special Order 40, issued in 1979, prohibits LAPD officers from stopping, questioning, or arresting anyone for the purpose of discovering immigration status.5Los Angeles Police Department. Special Order No. 40 – Undocumented Aliens Officers will not ask about papers during a traffic stop, a 911 call, or a criminal investigation, and will not arrest anyone solely for being in the country without authorization. The department put this in place because people who fear deportation stop calling the police and stop coming forward as witnesses.
The Sheriff Won’t Honor ICE Detainers
When ICE asks the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to hold someone past their release date for possible deportation, the department declines. In 2024, it received 995 civil detainer requests from ICE and honored none of them.6Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. 2024 Department ICE Stats Related to ICE Civil Detainers
The exception is a judicial warrant. If ICE brings a warrant signed by a judge, the department will comply. A civil detainer is a request from the agency itself with no judicial oversight; a warrant requires a judge to find probable cause. The LA County Board of Supervisors approved this policy in 2020, and it tracks the Values Act’s requirement that custodial transfers happen only on a judicial warrant.7Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Immigration FAQ
One Serious-Crime Exception
The Values Act lets local agencies cooperate with federal authorities in one narrow situation: when someone is suspected of illegally reentering the country after being deported for a serious felony, and only when that reentry is discovered during unrelated law enforcement activity, not through a targeted immigration sweep.4California Legislative Information. California Code GOV 7284.6 Agencies can also respond to requests about a specific person’s criminal history where state law otherwise allows the disclosure.
Are These Protections Still in Effect?
Yes, as of now. The Trump administration has moved on multiple fronts to pressure sanctuary jurisdictions since January 2025, including an executive order directing the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to pursue funding cuts and penalties against them,8The White House. Protecting The American People Against Invasion and an April 2025 order requiring the Attorney General to publish a public list of sanctuary jurisdictions and tying federal grants and contracts to removal from that list.9The White House. Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens
Los Angeles joined a coalition of cities and counties suing to block those funding threats. In April 2025, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction finding the cities had shown a likelihood of irreparable harm. That injunction was extended in August 2025, blocking the administration from withholding or freezing federal funds based on sanctuary status. Litigation continues, but for now LA’s sanctuary protections remain in place and enforceable.
Protections at Work
Under California’s Immigrant Worker Protection Act, your employer cannot voluntarily let ICE agents into nonpublic areas like break rooms, restrooms, or workspaces without a judicial warrant. An administrative form such as an I-200 or I-205 does not qualify. If your employer gets notice of an ICE audit of I-9 forms, it has 72 hours to post notice to workers and any union representative.10California Department of Industrial Relations. California Workplace – Know Your Rights Employers that violate these rules face civil penalties of $2,000 to $5,000 for a first violation and $5,000 to $10,000 for each one after that.11California Legislative Information. California Government Code 7285.1
Protections as a Tenant
The Los Angeles Housing Department does not ask about immigration status at its counters, on its hotline, or during inspections, and its services are open to all residents.12Los Angeles Housing Department. Los Angeles Housing Department Private landlords are restricted too. State law makes it illegal for a landlord to ask about your immigration or citizenship status, threaten to report you to immigration authorities, or disclose your status to any government agency in order to harass you, retaliate against you, or push you out.13California Legislative Information. California Code CIV 1940.35 A landlord who breaks this rule owes statutory damages of 6 to 12 times the monthly rent for each person whose status was disclosed, plus attorney’s fees. The only exception is compliance with a federal legal obligation or a court order.
Services You Can Use Regardless of Status
My Health LA is a no-cost healthcare program for low-income county residents who lack insurance, with no legal status requirement.14County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services. My Health LA Factsheet and Enrollment California’s Medi-Cal program now covers all eligible low-income adults regardless of immigration status, with no age restrictions.15California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal. Medi-Cal Adult Full Scope Expansion Programs
Every child in California has the right to attend public school regardless of immigration status under the Supreme Court’s 1982 ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which held that denying education to children based on their parents’ immigration decisions would create a permanent underclass that no state interest could justify.16Justia U.S. Supreme Court. Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982) Schools cannot ask about a student’s or family’s status. For college, California’s nonresident tuition exemption (AB 540) lets eligible students, including undocumented residents who attended California high schools for at least three years, pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.17California Student Aid Commission. California Nonresident Tuition Exemption
For deportation defense, the L.A. Justice Fund provides city- and county-funded legal representation to LA residents facing removal whose household incomes fall below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. It prioritizes people with community ties, heads of households with dependents, veterans, childhood arrivals, and victims of crime or trafficking.
Watch Out for Notario Fraud
Only licensed attorneys and federally accredited representatives can give immigration legal advice or represent you in immigration proceedings in California.18Office of Immigrant Affairs – Los Angeles County. Immigration Fraud Anyone working as an immigration consultant must first pass a background check, post a $100,000 surety bond, and register with the Secretary of State,19California Secretary of State. Immigration Consultant Qualification Requirements and even registered consultants cannot give legal advice. If someone who is not a licensed attorney offers to handle your case, that is a warning sign. Report immigration services fraud to the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs at 1-800-593-8222.