Alhambra activists push City Council to document, verify ICE raids ...Middle East

Community members rallied outside of Alhambra City Hall Monday afternoon, raising signs and chanting their  message — “ICE out of Alhambra.”

Organized by the San Gabriel Progressive Alliance and the Alhambra Community Group, two dozen or so local activists gathered on July 7 at 1:30 p.m. just before a City Council special meeting to support a community resolution that, if adopted, would require Alhambra police to be more proactive in documenting and verifying ICE activity.

The resolution was modeled after one adopted in June by Huntington Park’s elected officials, who’ve directed police to intervene in operations they consider unauthorized, said Melissa Michelson, a member of SGV Progressive.

Michelson, an Alhambra resident, said Alhambra police should be verifying ICE warrants and checking identification “at the very least.”

The resolution calls for the city’s police officers to confirm the identity of federal agents, issue citations to agents if they break the law, verify warrants and restrict “unjust unconstitutional search, seizure and arrests if activities occur without a warrant.”

ICE officials were contacted for comment on the community resolution but did not immediate respond.

More than 1,600 immigrants across Southern California have been arrested for deportation since the raids began in June, Department of Homeland Security officials said, with the deportation campaign sparking nationwide protests.

The stepped-up immigration enforcement, promised by President Donald Trump during his campaign to return to the White House, is focused on arresting and deporting dangerous felons, according to administration officials, who say the effort is achieving that goal. But critics call the program inhumane and said raids are taking in people without criminal records, and in some cases, have even included U.S. citizens.

On June 18, masked ICE agents detained six immigrants at a bus stop near Winchell’s Donuts on North Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena without identifying themselves or presenting warrants, witnesses and local officials said. Community members and leaders condemned the action, calling for increased transparency.

And just before community members gathered outside of Alhambra City Hall on Monday, roughly 100 federal immigration-enforcement agents amassed near MacArthur Park in the Westlake Area around 11 a.m., with dozens of vans and some military vehicles appearing by the park. The operation prompted outrage from dozens of protesters and Mayor Karen Bass.

ICE agents are generally required to identify themselves as “immigration officers” as soon as it is “practical and safe” to do so during an arrest, although they aren’t mandated to provide names or badge numbers, according to federal regulations. And warrants are not required for arrests made in public spaces.

At the end of Alhambra City Council’s regular meeting on June 23, a handful of community members called on the City Council to address the ongoing ICE raids and hold a special meeting. In response, the council released a statement affirming its support for its immigrant community, while clarifying the city’s adherence to the California Values Act, which restricts state and local law enforcement from participating in federal immigration enforcement.

At the anticipated Monday 2 p.m. special meeting, community members took to the podium to voice their disappointment with the council’s statement.

“The statement provided by the city is not enough to support our immigrant community,” Nora Hernandez, an Alhambra resident of 20 years, said. “We demand the city to please encourage a little more action from our police department to make sure these raids are constitutional.”

After 90 minutes of statements from the public, the council members shared their own experiences as immigrants and voiced their support for the community, though they were divided on whether to adopt the resolution.

Vice Mayor Jeffrey Koji Maloney, Councilmember Noya Wang and Councilmember Ross J. Maza commended the resolution, but were hesitant to adopt it as is, fearing it breached federal immigration enforcement laws and procedures.

Since ICE agents aren’t required to present warrants, the City Council said that local police are limited in their ability to verify whether operations are authorized.

“But we’ve got to figure out a way to expand our protections of our own community members in a way that still observes that line between federal law and what we do at the local and state level,” Maloney said.

Mayor Katherine Lee, on the other hand, voiced her unwillingness to adopt the resolution.

“I’m very, very careful with my reputation. So you can not force me in any way,” she said. “I will not adopt the resolution because I don’t agree with it 100%.”

Lee declined to clarify which parts of the document she disagreed with, despite some pushback from community members and Councilmember Adele Andrade-Stadler.

“I do not want to go through this with the public,” Lee said.

The dispute prompted Andrade-Stadler to make a motion to adopt the resolution “as is.”

“Our lawyer will have to take a look at it and as long as it is in compliance with respect to our police department, then I really think that this is a go. Everything on here is great,” Andrade-Stadler said.

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