[Editor’s Note: Here is the 1200-word letter that the pro-sanctuary city Culver City Action Network dispatched to each member of the City Council ahead of last evening’s meeting. The Council agreed with their request to place a discussion of designating Culver City as a sanctuary city on the agenda for the March 27 meeting.] 

Since the election, this issue has been raised with you directly and widely discussed in the press. As Culver City residents, we believe that now it is time to act. Doing so would be consistent with, and make more concrete, your commendable pre-election resolution expressing solidarity with people under threat on the basis of immigration status, religion, race, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation. Likewise, it would affirm, add force to, and elaborate on Police Chief Bixby’s helpful post-election message to the community. It also would complement the School Board’s “Safe Zones” resolution that passed at a November meeting packed with supporters whose attendance we helped organize.  Cities across the country also have been acting, including in Santa Ana, San Francisco, Seattle, and in Boston, where Mayor Martin Walsh declared “I will use City Hall itself to shelter and protect them [immigrants] from persecution.” We hope you will join these exercises of strong, principled leadership.

The Trump administration’s recent actions, most notably the string of executive orders, have confirmed the worst fears about disrespect of and assault on immigrants, on Muslims, on African Americans, and indeed on all who hold dear our democracy, civil liberties, and rule of law. Clearly there is more to come. Further delaying a response is unacceptable.

These dangerous times call for us to speak loudly, act boldly, and love our entire community proudly. As our current elected officials, we call on you do so on behalf of Culver City. In particular, we call for a City Council resolution that takes the following steps:

1. Declare Culver City to be a sanctuary city. Culver City should strive to do everything in its power to serve and protect all its residents without regard to immigration status, national origin, religion, and race, among other things.  When specific communities face specific threats—such as noncitizens or Muslims—this means responding specifically to those threats. At a minimum, it means refusing to use the city’s powers and resources in ways that facilitate or carry out such threats, including threats emanating from the federal government. Using the term “sanctuary” captures this spirit of affirmative protection. It makes explicit common cause with others pursuing similar aims in their cities, schools, religious congregations, and private homes.
2.  Decline to perform or assist with any immigration enforcement. Culver City has considerable discretion over how it chooses to use its scarce resources and legal authority. So far as legally possible, it should decline to use its funds, personnel, and authority, including that of the Culver City Police Dept., to enforce federal immigration  law or to assist or facilitate the enforcement of federal immigration law by other federal, state, or local government agencies or officials.
3. Protect personal information against use for immigration enforcement. So far as legally possible, Culver City should not require, seek or receive any information about individuals’ immigration status. Although the city sometimes could be legally obligated to share any immigration status information that it does possess, it should not share or allow access to any other personal information—such as name, address, etc.—when that information would be used for immigration enforcement purposes.
4. Contribute to the L.A. Justice Fund for legal assistance to residents facing deportation. Immigrants often have legal defenses against deportation but cannot invoke them effectively without legal assistance. Culver City should contribute appropriately to the County-wide effort to ensure that no one is deported because she could not afford to hire a lawyer.
5. Reject and refuse to cooperate with any efforts to profile, register, or otherwise restrict the liberty of Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent. Culver City should not share or allow access to any personal information for the purpose of constructing or using any Muslim registry or its practical equivalent, including registries or other lists based on national origin traceable to Muslim-majority or Middle Eastern countries. Nor should Culver City devote any resources to assisting any other entity in constructing or using such a registry or its equivalent. Moreover, Culver City should affirmatively commit to using its resources, including law enforcement resources, to protect Muslim and Middle Eastern residents or visitors from any public or private individual or group attempting to target them based on religion or national origin.
6. Celebrate and protect the exercise of civil rights and civil liberties, including public demonstrations. Except as strictly necessary to maintain public safety, Culver City should refrain from using public resources to limit, disperse, or punish public demonstrations or other exercises of constitutional rights to speech, assembly and petition. Likewise, the city should refuse to cooperate with or assist federal or other efforts to criminalize, harass, surveil or disrupt dissent.
7. Review and modify city ordinances and policing practices to avoid indirectly facilitating immigration enforcement, racial or religious profiling, or political repression against those taken into city custody. Arrest, detention, and/or prosecution for minor offenses can have vastly disproportionate and unintended consequences by making Culver City residents or visitors vulnerable to the policies or practices of other jurisdictions. In particular, Culver City should take care to avoid unnecessarily transferring individuals into the custody of the L.A. Sheriff’s Dept. (such as for detention in the County jail), where they become subject to the County’s cooperation with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). This can be done by implementing policies and offering training that reduce the risk of racial profiling, prioritize policing of violent or other serious offenses, decriminalize certain minor offenses (as Los Angeles is doing for street vending violations), and use release with a citation instead of pre-trial detention, including by accepting identification issued by other countries.

We recognize that implementing these broad principles will require working out many important details with appropriate time, consultation and research. That necessity, however, provides no excuse for inaction. Instead, the best way forward is to enact the guiding principles promptly and to direct appropriate personnel to develop the necessary specifics for subsequent adoption. Support for adequate training on implementation would also be important.

In addition, we note that other jurisdictions are taking similar action and that resources are available to facilitate this process. To assist the Council in its consideration of these matters, we attach or hyperlink:

• Recent resolutions, consistent with the points above, from Santa Ana and Seattle,
• A model resolution, drafted by local advocates with the City of Los Angeles in mind,
• A legal memorandum, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Major Cities Chiefs Assn., addressing legal issues concerning local authority and the Trump administration’s threats to cut off federal funding from sanctuary cities,
• The guide Local Options for Protecting Immigrants produced by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center

We hope that these resources help demonstrate that our request is reasonable and feasible, and that they lessen the burden of rapidly drafting an appropriate resolution for consideration at an upcoming Council meeting.

Thank you for considering this important and urgent matter, and for your service to Culver City.

Sincerely, Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Noah Zatz, Tiffany Lanoix, Jessica Cattelino and Joy Kecken on behalf of the Culver City Action Network.