Los Angeles County has taken a significant stand, voting on Tuesday to declare a state of emergency in response to an increase in federal immigration raids. This action represents the county’s latest effort to challenge the Trump administration’s intense immigration enforcement activities across Southern California.
This emergency declaration, typically reserved for crises like natural disasters, will now permit the county to provide essential resources and support to individuals and families impacted by the raids.
County officials highlighted that this measure aims to assist those who are too afraid to go to work, fearing detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or who have lost their income because family members have been detained.
Passed with a 4-to-1 vote by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the declaration also empowers officials to later consider implementing an eviction moratorium and other protective measures for tenants who may fall behind on rent due to the raids.
Justifying their decision, county officials explained that federal immigration sweeps, which have seen thousands detained by heavily armed and masked agents, have fostered a widespread climate of fear within communities.
“Our residents are living in terror, afraid to leave their homes,” stated Janice Hahn, a board member who supported the declaration. “We are seeing entire families plunged into destitution because fathers or mothers were apprehended from their workplaces, leaving them unable to pay rent or put food on the table.”
Last month, the county had already approved approximately $30 million in rental relief for residents affected by both wildfires and federal immigration raids. Applications for this relief are expected to open in December. The board did not provide an estimate for the total number of residents affected or expected to apply for assistance.
However, county legal advisors cautioned that the emergency declaration could present challenges for landlords and tenants, and potentially invite legal action from the federal government. They noted that landlords might face significant income loss, while tenants could be exposed to lawsuits seeking debt recovery. Furthermore, publicly disclosing immigration status to access aid might inadvertently lead to federal enforcement actions.
Kathryn Barger, the supervisor who cast the sole dissenting vote against the declaration, argued that the raids did not meet the traditional criteria for an emergency.
“Emergency powers are designed for life-or-death situations like wildfires, not as a shortcut for intricate policy matters,” she stated in a press release following the vote. “Misapplying emergency powers to federal immigration actions undermines their true purpose, risks legal challenges, and bypasses due public process.”
Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people and the largest undocumented immigrant population in the nation, emerged as a central battleground this summer for the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. A surge in immigration arrests sparked protests, to which the federal government responded by deploying National Guard troops and Marines to the region.
In response, local and state officials have actively pushed back, implementing policies such as prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks in the state, initiating lawsuits challenging the deployment of troops, and disputing the tactics used by ICE.
In July, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration arrests in the county, which brought a brief return to normalcy in Los Angeles. However, the Supreme Court overturned this order last month, reigniting fear and uncertainty among the immigrant community.