By Brad Brooks and Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) -Los Angeles County moved a step closer on Tuesday to enacting an eviction moratorium that would protect renters who have been financially harmed by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in a 4-1 vote declared an emergency in response to federal immigration raids, a move usually reserved for natural disasters or other conditions beyond the control of local officials.
The vote allows Los Angeles County to impose an eviction moratorium that would protect renters from eviction for failing to pay rent if they can prove they have been financially impacted by the immigration raids. Such a moratorium would still need to be voted on by the board.
Renters would still owe that money to their landlord and would need to pay it once the moratorium expired. The declaration also allows the county to request funds from the state to provide more relief to those impacted by immigration raids.
The proclamation said the tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents have “created a climate of fear, leading to widespread disruption in daily life and adverse impacts to our regional economy.”
The Trump administration has said the raids are lawful and meant to remove immigrants in the U.S. illegally from the country.
Los Angeles has been at the epicenter of Trump’s efforts to deport immigrants. Trump in June sent the National Guard and U.S. Marines into the city to protect federal buildings and protect ICE agents as they carried out raids, prompting widespread protests in the city and county.
The Republican president has since attempted to deploy the National Guard into other Democratic cities, including Washington, Memphis, Chicago and Portland, leading to a host of legal challenges.
“We will not stand by while fear and chaos spread throughout our neighborhoods,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, a co-author of the motion, said before the vote. “When our immigrant neighbors are targeted, our entire county feels it in our workplaces, in our schools and in our homes.”
A slide presentation made at last week’s county supervisors meeting noted that such a moratorium would inflict hardships on landlords, and stated that the county increasing rent relief assistance to tenants could be an alternative.
County officials contended the immigration raids would contribute to the loss of $275 million in gross domestic product in the state of California, citing a June study by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute in partnership with the University of California, Merced.
(Reporting by Brad Brooks and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Stephen Coates)
