Gearing up for another Trump presidency, Los Angeles County supervisors will funnel millions in funding to beef up support for immigrants and transgender residents, who could be targeted by the incoming administration.
The governing board of the deep-blue county passed a flurry of resistance-themed motions Tuesday in response to the incoming president’s anti-transgender rhetoric and his pledge to carry out mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.
“I have a sneaking suspicion this is the first of what will be many [motions] that will come forward as the new administration rolls out their ideas for what will be best for making America great again — or not,” said Supervisor Holly Mitchell, adding that it was “surreal” to find California back on the defense against a Trump administration.
One motion, put forward by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn, asks for $5.5 million in ongoing funding for legal services for immigrants. The motion, which passed 4 to 0, would also create a county task force focused on federal immigration policy and develop a campaign to educate immigrants on their legal rights.
“We know in the coming months it’s going to become more difficult for many of our friends and our neighbors,” said Solis, noting that her office has already seen a ramping up in calls from desperate people in need of legal services. “We’ve seen this playbook — and we know what the consequences can be.”
L.A. County is home to an estimated 800,000 immigrants who live here illegally, according to USC’s Equity Research Institute, or about 1 in 12 county residents.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the board’s sole Republican, abstained from the vote after noting there is already an immigration crisis under the Biden administration, with some migrants landing in tents on Skid Row. She said she visited the area recently and met a 15-year-old mother who had just come across the border.
“These families say the conditions on Skid Row are better than what they came from,” said Barger. “I just want to be careful to frame this for what it is — we already have a serious crisis taking place right now.”
Many advocates Tuesday praised the county for moving swiftly to put some money behind its pledge to remain a safe haven for immigrants.
“Sometimes, localities will issue resolutions that just have nice words,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer, deputy director of immigrant and racial justice at the California Immigrant Policy Center, who said her organization met with Solis’ team almost immediately after Donald Trump was elected to suggest additional protections the county could enact. “The county actually has concrete things they will do.”
The city of Los Angeles, meanwhile, is moving forward with a plan to make it a “sanctuary city” by forbidding city employees from being involved in federal immigration enforcement.
L.A. County took a similar step during Trump’s first term, prohibiting county sheriffs from transferring people to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a judicial warrant.
But that has done little to ease the fears of many immigrants wary of deportation, advocates told the board Tuesday.
“Since the election, we have heard from numerous families paralyzed by uncertainty,” said Diego Rodrigues, chief operating officer of Alma Family Services, a community organization. “Including children terrified of seeing their parents deported or themselves taken away from the only country they know and love.”
Another motion, from Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, which passed unanimously Tuesday, would create a pilot program to support organizations serving transgender people in L.A. County, funded with $7 million over two years. Such an investment had long been sought by advocacy groups such as the TransLatin@ Coalition, founded by transgender women in L.A.
The pilot program is expected to include $4.5 million for groups that provide a range of services to the “trans, gender-expansive and intersex,” or TGI, community, preferably organizations led by TGI people. A Horvath spokesperson said the money would come from the county general fund.
It will also include $2 million for an outside administrator who will process grant applications and help bolster the training and capacity of organizations that receive the money, as well as $500,000 for a program ombudsperson, according to the proposal.
Outside the county building ahead of Tuesday’s vote, dozens of people rallied and waved flags in support of the transgender “wellness and equity” initiative.
June Paniouchkine, legislative affairs coordinator for the TransLatin@ Coalition, said the money would go to groups that “are going to empower our community — to be housed, to be fed, to be employed, to be healthy, to have equal access” to government resources.
“We know that there’s a political force who are trying to diminish us and devalue us, but we are here to say, ‘Hell, no,’” TransLatina@ Coalition President and Chief Executive Bamby Salcedo said to cheers and shouts.
The move comes as President-elect Trump has argued that the U.S. should recognize only two genders — male and female — that are assigned at birth. He has pledged to stop federal money from being used for gender transition, which could limit access to medical procedures for transgender people who rely on programs such as Medicaid.
And Trump has vowed to cut off Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youths. Medicaid and Medicare are major sources of funding for healthcare facilities.
Horvath, who introduced the proposal for the L.A. County pilot program, said it was “about putting action to our words — that we not only stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, but give them the tools and resources needed to thrive.”
The measure drew little criticism at the Tuesday meeting. One person argued in written comments that the pilot program was discriminatory and that the funding should instead be earmarked to support small-business owners.
Barger said she was not questioning the validity of the proposal but had concerns about the process behind it, including the parameters surrounding which groups could receive funding and how the $7-million figure was reached.
“The real need could be much higher,” said Barger, who ultimately voted with the rest of the board to back the proposal.