L.A. County is gearing up for another fight with the Trump administration.
This year has given the supes no shortage of opportunities to go head-to-head with the federal government: homeless funding cuts, revoked health grants and the much-decried deployment of National Guard troops into the city, to name a few.
On Tuesday, the county arrived at a new proposal that sets yet another collision course with the Trump administration. This time, the dispute is over masked immigration agents.
Supervisors voted 4-0 on a law barring immigration officials from wearing masks when conducting raids in unincorporated parts of the county. The rule would also require all law enforcement officers, including local ones, to clearly identify themselves.
No longer, supervisors say, will immigration enforcement be able to keep their faces hidden by balaclavas, neck gaiters and ski masks.
‘“It’s a fundamental right of everybody to know who is arresting you,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who spearheaded the ban, at a news conference Tuesday. “We need them to unmask.”
ICE has shown zero interest in complying. The day after the board’s vote, U.S. Border Patrol agents raided a La Puente food stand, capturing three workers and sending a woman fleeing into a nearby fire truck, according to an account from L.A. Taco.
The event had all the signatures of the raids that have become routine across the county: An unmarked van. Masked agents. In other words, everything the supervisors are asking ICE to stop doing.
The mask ban still has a bit to go before it reaches the finish line. The supes will have another perfunctory vote next week. Assuming it passes, the ban will take effect in early January.
Even then, legal scholars and the county’s own lawyers say the federal government is almost certainly not going to listen — and they likely don’t have to.
Under the supremacy clause of the Constitution, legal scholars say federal law takes precedent when there’s a conflict with local law. That’s no shock to the supes, the majority of whom seem to be relishing another fight with the Trump administration.
A lawsuit, Hahn said, is almost inevitable.
“Yes, this is going to be argued in court. Yes, we will have the judge ultimately decide the legality of what we’re asking,” said Hahn, who added she felt the court fight was worth it to stop the masked agents, whom she described as “secret police.”
But not everyone’s chomping at the bit for another costly legal battle. Supervisor Kathryn Barger has questioned the wisdom of passing a rule the county has no clear way to enforce. She abstained from the vote.
“I feel like it’s a false sense of — and I don’t even want to use the word security — because I don’t think anybody feels secure,” said Barger this summer as the board debated the merits of a mask ban almost certain to be challenged. “I know that people have asked who’s going to enforce it? I honestly don’t know.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin already told reporters she believes the ban is invalid under the supremacy clause, teeing up a likely challenge.
The legal battle looming in L.A. County is already playing out at the state level.
Earlier this year, the California Legislature passed a similar bill requiring agents to identify themselves and barring on-duty officers from covering their faces.
The U.S. Department of Justice moved swiftly to block it, arguing officers needed the masks to “provide an extra layer of security” given the “personal threats and violence” they face on the job. The government has claimed that assaults against ICE officers jumped by more than 1,150% compared to last year.
But recent Times reporting suggests the severity of those threats may be dramatically overstated. The Times reviewed thousands of pages of court records and found most officers were not injured by alleged assaults.
In more than a third of those cases, federal law enforcement officers were either shoved, spat on, flailed at, or the target of a hurled water bottle, The Times found.
State of play
— WAGE WAR REIGNITES: The battle over a $30 per hour minimum wage for L.A.’s hotel and airport workers looked like it had been put to rest earlier this year. But the debate was ripped back open on Friday, when City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson introduced a motion to slow down the implementation of the wage law, spreading it out over two additional years, or to 2030. Labor leaders immediately denounced the move.
— CANDIDATE CAMPOUT: One of the candidates running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said this week that he’ll live in a trailer next to MacArthur Park if he is elected next year. Community organizer Raul Claros said he would stay there until things got better at the park, which has been plagued by crime, homelessness, drug addiction and other problems.
— DSA DELIVERS: Organizers with Democratic Socialists of America-Los Angeles announced this week that they have endorsed Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy in her race against City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto. As we’ve previously reported, DSA is running a number of candidates and hoping to secure six council seats by the end of next year.
— THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS: Appalling as it sounds, we’re now less than six months away from the June 2 local elections, where L.A. city voters will select their candidates for mayor, city attorney, city controller and in some areas, council members. Candidates for county supervisor will also be on the ballot, along with Sheriff Robert Luna.
— NO MORE COAL: The Department of Water and Power ended its reliance on coal this week, with that particular fossil fuel no longer being used for L.A.’s energy needs at the Intermountain Power Project in Utah. “This is a defining moment for the city of Los Angeles,” Mayor Karen Bass said. One of Bass’ opponents, former First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner, also took a victory lap, saying his work in 2010 under then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa “laid the foundation for this milestone transition.”
— FIGHTING CITY HALL: Attorney Robert P. Silverstein battled the city over Hollywood development for roughly two decades, racking up wins against the Millennium skyscraper project, a 20-story residential tower on Hollywood Boulevard and a three-story Target shopping center. Silverstein’s death on Nov. 13 at the age of 57 spurred an array of recollections from friends and foes alike about his legal work.
— ‘LESS-LETHAL’ WEAPONS: The City Council rejected an effort to bar the Los Angeles Police Department from using tear gas and weapons that launch hard-foam projectiles. The proposal, defeated on an 8-4 vote, comes at a time of heightened concern about the LAPD’s responses to anti-ICE protesters.
— GO OFF, GONDOLA: Metro’s 13-member board signed off the latest environmental review for the proposed gondola linking Union Station with Dodger Stadium, despite some boisterous protests in the audience.
— FUNDING FALLOFF: Officials are deeply worried that more than 14,500 formerly homeless households in the county could be forced back onto the streets or into shelters over the next year, in large part due to a loss of federal funding.
— A MODEST DROP: Hate crimes in L.A. County remained near record-high levels in 2024, despite slight decreases in several types of violent incidents, according to a report released Thursday. The findings from the Commission on Human Relations identified 1,355 reported hate crimes, a 1% decrease from the prior year.
QUICK HITS
- Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness returned this week to the Skid Row section of downtown L.A., an area represented by Councilmember Ysabel Jurado. More than 20 people went inside, per a Bass aide.
- On the docket next week: Hahn, the county supervisor, is making a push for more programming at Los Padrinos, the county’s dysfunctional juvenile hall in Downey after reports of minimal activities for the youth incarcerated there.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@latimes.com. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.