L.A. Votes to Renew Controversial Deportation Program

Update October 7, 2014 | 6:11 p.m. PT: The L.A. Board of Supervisors voted 3-0 to renew the deportation program, which will continue to allow the sheriff's department to keep ties with the immigration enforcement. 

The ICE Out of LA coalition protested at a L.A. Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. The protest came after City Council postponed the vote on whether or not to renew the city’s involvement in a deportation program.

The city’s partnership with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allows officials to question prisoners to determine if they are in the country illegally, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Los Angeles is one of only two counties in the state that are currently involved in the program. 

A vote on whether to renew Los Angeles’s partnership with ICE was supposed to be held at the civic center Tuesday, but was postponed for the second time without explanation. 

A group of residents opposed to the contract said that they were becoming impatient with the postponements. One resident said she had attended the meeting last week hoping to vote on the issue and waited at the civic center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. again, Tuesday. 

Upon hearing news of the postponement, the group stood during Tuesday’s meeting and turned their backs to the city council in a display of protest.