I would like to know if los angeles is cosidered a sanctuary city or not.

What is a sanctuary city?

this article is from www.sfgate.com about sanctuary citys. you will understand what it is if you read it.


Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed Sunday to maintain San Francisco as a sanctuary for immigrants and do everything he can to discourage federal authorities from conducting immigration raids.

The mayor cannot stop federal authorities from making arrests, Newsom told about 300 mostly Latino members of St. Peter's Church and other religious groups supporting immigrants. But no San Francisco employee will help with immigration enforcement.

"I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way shape or form with these raids," Newsom declared. "We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it."

The Board of Supervisors first declared San Francisco a "sanctuary city" in 1989. The designation, which many U.S. cities across the country took on during the 1980s, has no legal meaning.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have since May 2006 conducted raids across the country, including arrests in San Rafael, Oakland, Richmond, San Pablo, Santa Clara and other cities across the Bay area. Immigration officials have said they were executing arrest warrants for immigrants who had committed crimes or were in the country illegally and had ignored final deportation orders.

In the course of serving deportation warrants, the officials said, other people whom officers suspected of being illegal immigrants were questioned and then arrested. Of at least 65 Marin County residents arrested in March, for example, just five had been ordered deported.

The raids, many of which conducted at private homes before dawn and some of which caught up legal immigrants and even citizens, have created an uproar in the Bay Area. Politicians and community leaders have demanded they end, saying some immigrants parents are now afraid to send their children to school or leave home.

Immigration agents on Friday arrested 13 foreign nationals who were working illegally at Eagle Bag Corp. in Oakland, a packaging manufacturer whose clients include the U.S. military. The arrests there of immigrants suspected of using counterfeit documents to obtain jobs were not related to the recent raids.

San Rafael Mayor Al Boro in March called on California's U.S. senators, Democrats Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, to push the immigration agency to change how it is enforcing immigration law because he believed children were the ones being hurt.

Marches and rallies are planned in coming weeks in Redwood City, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento and other cities.

Porfirio Quintano was one of those who pleaded with Newsom, Senator Carole Migden and Assemblyman Mark Leno during Sunday's meeting to do what they can to make San Francisco safe for immigrants.

The 42-year-old immigrant from Honduras said his Richmond home was raided in 2003 by federal immigration agents based on what turned out to be bad information.

"We are victims," said Quintano, adding that his wife and two daughters, then ages 4 and 10, live in fear of another raid, even though they are in the country legally. "They were looking for somebody unrelated to us, but they lined us up against the wall and held us for an hour. It was terrifying, especially for our daughters."

Newsom, Migden and Leno all vowed to work with other cities and legislators to put a stop to what they said was blatant intimidation of immigrants.

"Our action is to stand strong in opposition to these raids... to make sure that we are not contributing in any way, shape or form," Newsom said. "Even legal immigrants are fearful. This just sends a chill to a lot of people. There are a lot of cities that want these raids. That's where the federal government should be spending their time."

Yes, Los Angeles IS a Sanctuary city.

Bravo Mayor Newsome! The idea that we have brought back these Nazi-style raids on certain cultural neighborhoods reeks of everything our grandfathers fought against in World War II. This new acceptance of redneck mentality is degrading everything our country was founded upon, and has changed the flag from something many of us used to salute with pride to another hate-filled, racist symbol to many.

To allow organizations like Tom Tancredo's minute men to degrade our country's values, and allow autonomical organizations like the Department of Homeland Security to blatently tread on human rights, and even torture detainees emotionally and physically, degrades the values we once had in the U.S.A.

Thank you each and every mayor, who finds human rights more important than the rights of a few low brows, for seeing ethics and morals are more important than accepting the popular and vulgar. I used to be proud to be an American. I used to swell up with tears when I saw the American flag. Now, all of that has been eroded by the new acceptance of redneck flag waving to express racial hatred. Since when did America decide to hold itself to such low standards?

Until we clean up the corruption and human rights abuses in places like California Corrections Facility in San Diego (an immigrant detention facility) where thousands of immigration detainees are denied basic dignities such as:

daily showers instead of two or three showers a week;

the right to medical treatment of painful conditions;

healthy food such as fruit and vegetables, free of mold and main courses that are not burned;

access to legal representation to enable due process -- which they are supposed to receive under the mandates of the Constitution;

guards not directly from skid row all tattooed up and speaking as if they have no education beyond elementary school -- with no need to empower themselves by abusing the detainees disadvantaged by being locked up and shackled;

until each and EVERY ICE Agent uses the most ethical and highest morality towards dealing with their cases, instead of corruption and selfish career advancement practices that tread on human rights,

until CCA stops trying to deny these human beings basic human rights instead of padding the profits of this FOR PROFIT prison, we have should be questioning why Americans are allowing these raids. As a tax payer, I resent footing the bill for a corporation to maximize their profits, especially when there are numerous human rights abuses committed in the act.

Until we change all of the above, and target families from ALL cultures for these predawn raids, then we will need sanctuary cities.

Thank you to all the mayors.

It is truly sad that that in this country the treatment of any group of people should be anything but fair. How is it possible for any citizen of this country to think that any form of mistreatment is okay? Are these the same people that go to church every Sunday and consider themselves Christian and on the other hand turn a blind eye to how we are allowing people looking for a better life to be treated. If you are one of those, don't claim to be Christian, you are only a hypocrit. The blacks in this country were treated horribly too, what a shame that we never learn from our mistakes.
There are places of sanctuary even in the Southwest. We cried about how Hitler treated the Jews, we condemed Saddam for how he treated his people, You would think we would learn that we are no better than anyone else just because they come from another country. Is it not any wonder why we in this country are hated by other countries. There is a lot we could learn from other cultures if we gave them a chance.
Sassy