LOS ANGELES — LA Metro Board Chair of Directors and County Supervisor Janice Hahn has requested the transportation agency implement a “Know Your Rights” campaign for migrants throughout its bus and rail systems, officials announced Thursday.
Hahn sent a letter to Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins that requested Metro to work with LA County’s Office of Immigrant Affairs to display information and resources available to riders who are migrants. The move comes amid intensified immigration enforcement actions nationwide and after the Los Angeles Times reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned major enforcement activity in the LA region later this month.
According to Hahn’s office, the supervisor intends to help inform riders about their rights they have during interactions with ICE or law enforcement agents — including the right not to open their doors and the right to consult a lawyer before signing documents.
“Immigrants make a vast contributions to our communities and to LA County’s economy,” Hahn said in a statement. “And many of them rely on Metro to do that.”
“During this time of unprecedented fear and uncertainty for many immigrants, we can’t waste any time or leave any opportunity on the table when it comes to informing our riders who are immigrants about their rights,” she added.
The letter requested that Metro place easy-to-read information on immigrant’s rights in multiple languages on display in buses, trains and stations. It also called on Metro to explore allowing such information to be distributed on the agency’s property or made available directly to riders.
Last week, LA City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez introduced a package of legislation aimed at supporting the migrant community amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The five-part package is expected to be heard by the Civil Rights & Immigration Committee before returning to the full City Council for a vote.
One proposal seeks to establish a “Know Your Rights Campaign,” a citywide public education effort to inform immigrants and protesters about their rights, nondiscrimination protections and other resources available to them.
If approved, the items would reaffirm the city’s commitment to protecting its migrant community from possible deportation. In November, the City Council and Mayor Karen Bass formally established Los Angeles as a so-called “sanctuary city.”
While the city already had certain policies in place to prevent departments from working with ICE, the designation formally created a policy that no city staff or resources can be used to collaborate with federal immigration authorities without a judicial warrant.
In his first week in office, Trump issued several executive orders targeting illegal immigrants and sanctuary cities such as LA, Chicago and other Democrat-led jurisdictions, authorizing ICE enforcement in schools and churches, among other places.
The president has threatened to cut federal funds for sanctuary cities if they do not aid in ICE enforcement.
In an interview last month, Trump called illegal immigration “an invasion of our country,” and vowed to carry out his deportation plans regardless of cost.
“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump told NBC News shortly after his election. “It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
Trump insisted that voters — including Latinos — support his call for legal immigration only.
“They want to have borders,” Trump said. “And they like people coming in, but they have to come in with love for the country. They have to come in legally.”
