(Fox News) The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously last week to become a “sanctuary city,” categorically withholding any municipal assistance to federal immigration authorities despite a bevy of illegal immigrants arrested there for violent crimes and even violence against children this year.
The 13-0 vote last Tuesday comes weeks after President-elect Donald Trump’s ballot-box victory and in the same year that dozens of illegal immigrants were picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in the L.A. metro area for murder, homicide and assault against children.
So far this year, Los Angeles ERO has arrested 1,263 illegal immigrants in the metro area so far this year, and 715 of them had criminal convictions, according to ICE data. The agency gathered 19,726 noncitizens between 2021 and 2024, and 7,255 of them, about 36%, had prior criminal convictions.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a suspect as they conduct a targeted enforcement operation in Los Angeles, California, U.S. in February 2017. (Courtesy Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Reuters)
Among them were one Mexican citizen, 47, who was wanted in his country for human trafficking, specifically recruitment for the purpose of sexual exploitation; a 36-year-old Mexican living in Harbor City and wanted in his home country for homicide committed in connection to a robbery of the victim; and a 39-year-old El Salvadorean who had already been convicted of forcible oral copulation of a victim under 14 years.
“The men and women of ERO Los Angeles are mission-driven and dedicated to the safety of our communities and neighborhoods,” ERO Los Angeles acting Field Office Director Ernesto Santacruz wrote in a press release in January. “The outcome of this operation is another example of their continued professionalism, integrity and commitment to safeguard the homeland.”
On Feb. 1, the agency apprehended a 27-year-old El Salvador native in Los Angeles after he had been convicted in a U.S. court of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old and possession of child pornography.
