Los Angeles Mayor Bass Escalates Sanctuary Standoff with New Ban on ICE Staging on City Property

Amid escalating tensions between local sanctuary policies and federal immigration enforcement, Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive directive on Tuesday prohibiting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using city-owned property for staging operations. 

The order also mandates increased LAPD oversight of federal agents and strict adherence to recent state laws curbing immigration activities, further entrenching Los Angeles as a bulwark against what Bass calls “brazen federal overreach.” 

“The City has a responsibility to continue to safeguard public spaces,” Bass stated in the directive. “Now, we must assert our authority and actively guard against acts of brazen federal overreach.” 

This latest action targets public areas such as parking lots and garages, where ICE has reportedly gathered for enforcement raids, building on existing city rules that already bar federal agents from non-public spaces without judicial warrants. 

The directive comes on the heels of a public clash involving LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, who drew criticism for initially resisting compliance with a new California law banning federal agents from wearing masks during operations—a measure temporarily blocked by a federal judge. Bass has urged the chief to align LAPD guidance with the law once legal hurdles are cleared, signaling a deepening divide between local and federal authorities. The LAPD declined to comment on the mayor’s order.

Federal officials have pushed back sharply. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, responding to a similar “ICE Free Zones” policy recently adopted by Los Angeles County, asserted on X that local governments cannot bar federal agents from public spaces. 

This development aligns with LA County’s January 14, 2026, approval of “ICE-Free Zones” on county property, complete with signage defying federal enforcement—a move that critics argue invites further legal challenges and undermines public safety.  

As the California Globe has previously reported, such policies have fueled a series of confrontations, including violent riots in Los Angeles over ICE raids last year, where Mayor Bass downplayed the chaos, claiming “no violence or vandalism” despite overwhelming and fiery evidence to the contrary. 

Bass’s directive is the latest chapter in Los Angeles’ rapid fortification of sanctuary status, which accelerated following President Donald Trump’s reelection in November 2024. Incoming Trump administration officials sent a letter to state lawmakers in December 2024, warning against “illegal sanctuary laws,” only to be rebuffed by Bass’s office as “wrong on public safety and wrong on the law.”

As detailed in prior California Globe coverage, Bass and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto expedited a sanctuary city ordinance just days after the election, aiming to embed protections into city law before Trump’s inauguration. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed the measure on November 20, 2024, prohibiting city resources from aiding federal immigration efforts and barring cooperation with ICE. 

These defiant actions have not gone unchallenged.

In June 2025, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles, Bass, and the City Council, alleging that the city’s sanctuary policies violate the Supremacy Clause by obstructing federal immigration law. Bass responded by defending the policies as essential for public safety—a stance echoed in her recent directive but criticized by opponents as contributing to “a lawless and unsafe environment.” 

The DOJ alleges these policies contribute to increased lawlessness and violence, stating:

Not only are Los Angeles’s “sanctuary city” policies illegal under federal law, but, as alleged in the complaint, Los Angeles’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities contributed to the recent lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism that was so severe that it required the federal government to deploy the California National Guard and the United States Marines to quell the chaos.

“Sanctuary policies were the driving cause of the violence, chaos, and attacks on law enforcement that Americans recently witnessed in Los Angeles,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Jurisdictions like Los Angeles that flout federal law by prioritizing illegal aliens over American citizens are undermining law enforcement at every level – it ends under President Trump.”

“Today’s lawsuit holds the City of Los Angeles accountable for deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “The United States Constitution’s Supremacy Clause prohibits the City from picking and choosing which federal laws will be enforced and which will not. By assisting removable aliens in evading federal law enforcement, the City’s unlawful and discriminatory ordinance has contributed to a lawless and unsafe environment that this lawsuit will help end.”

Meanwhile, federal courts have weighed in, with the U.S. Supreme Court backing Trump on LA immigration raids in September 2025, and a federal judge issuing a preliminary injunction against California’s mask ban on agents just this month.