California Activists Urge Newsom To Pardon Immigrants

By Tamar Sarai, Prism

Hundreds of advocates and supporters from across California gathered Monday in Sacramento to demand the safety and protection of immigrant communities across the state ahead of Donald Trump’s incoming presidency. Advocates from the groups, including the ICE out of CA Coalition and Freedom for Immigrants, articulated three specific demands of Gov. Gavin Newsom: to exercise his power to pardon immigrants who have pending applications on his desk, to refuse to use state tax dollars toward mass deportation efforts, and to not sell or lease any land to be used for mass detention.

Monday also marked the first day of the California legislative session, creating potential opportunities for legislators to take meaningful action.

“You can imagine our eyes are all on what’s going to happen or what’s going to come out of the special session,” said Laura Hernandez, executive director of Freedom for Immigrants and the emcee of Monday’s rally. “We have an idea that a lot of it is going to be just really moving money around or giving the Attorney General the money that he needs to fight back [against Trump] with lawsuits, but we’re really looking for some action from the governor to do more than that, to go above and beyond.”

Monday’s rally also comes on the heels of the Los Angeles City Council officially adopting a sanctuary city ordinance. The ordinance works toward protecting Los Angeles residents—of whom more than 1.35 million are immigrants—from being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The ordinance permanently enshrines sanctuary policies into municipal law, including prohibiting the use of city resources (including property and personnel) for immigration enforcement. It further prohibits the city from cooperating with federal immigration agents, including direct or indirect data sharing.

In 2017, the City Council passed a resolution declaring Los Angeles a “City of Sanctuary,” but sanctuary policies were not codified into the municipal law at that time. Council member Nithya Raman, who introduced the initial motion from which the ordinance emerged alongside council members Hugo Soto-Martinez and Eunesse Hernandez, described this shift as “common sense policy for LA.”