The best organized attempt yet to formally identify Culver City to all America as a sanctuary city is expected to be presented early in Monday evening’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting.

A group of unknown size calling itself the Culver City Action Network dispatched a 1200-word letter — obtained by the newspaper – to Council members.

While it is likely that all five Councilpersons will receive the plea sympathetically, the first step will be to agendize the hottest subject in the country at a near meeting.

The group said at the outset:

“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 CCUSD 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 signees — Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Noah Zatz, Tiffany Lanoix, Jessica Cattelino and Joy Kecken – identified their seven goals in a proposed resolution:

• Declare Culver City to be a sanctuary city
• Decline to perform or assist with any immigration enforcement.
• Protect personal information against use for immigration enforcement.
• Contribute to the L.A. Justice Fund for legal assistance to residents facing deportation.
• Reject  and refuse to cooperate with any efforts to profile, register, or otherwise restrict the liberty of Muslims or people of Middle Eastern descent.
• Celebrate and protect the exercise of civil rights and civil liberties, including public demonstrations.
• 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.

(To be continued)