Council Drops L.A. Designation as ‘Sanctuary’

The Los Angeles City Council today voted to water down its controversial sanctuary resolution that sought to protect political refugees after the author of a ballot initiative against the measure agreed to drop his petition drive.

The Council acted after Councilmen Michael Woo, sponsor of the original resolution, and Ernani Bernardi, got together and announced the compromise.

Bernardi, who had launched his initiative to try to overturn the resolution, abandoned those efforts when the council voted to adopt a new refugee policy--without reference to Los Angeles as “a city of sanctuary.”

Instead, the council voted 12 to 0 to adopt a new resolution reaffirming a policy that bans municipal employees from considering a person’s refugee or residence status before providing public services.

The original resolution had prompted protests from Immigration and Naturalization Service officials and other critics who had warned of an upsurge in the flow of illegal immigrants.