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Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, braces for Trump’s vow of mass deportations
Los Angeles — In Los Angeles, post-election fears of deportation are running high among the estimated 1.3 million documented and undocumented immigrants living in the city.
A workshop run by the L.A.-based immigrant advocacy group the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, is teaching clients about their rights if they’re confronted by federal officials.
“I expect Donald Trump, as president in his second term…they’re going to double down on cruelty,” the group’s executive director, Angelica Salas, told CBS News.
President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants was one of the key points of his presidential campaign, with Trump often boasting that it would be the largest such effort in U.S. history.
Since clinching a second term, he has tapped Tom Homan as a so-called “border czar” to head up the process. Homan served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Trump’s first term. Trump has even indicated he could attempt to deploy the military to help carry out deportations.
The Los Angeles City Council earlier this month voted 13-0 to approve an ordinance declaring itself a sanctuary city in defiance of Trump’s plan.
L.A. City Council member Eunisses Hernandez sponsored the measure.
“We can’t use any city resources…to enforce federal immigration law,” Hernandez said. “We cannot use any of our staff to enforce federal immigration law, or their time. So that means we are not going to be doing the bidding or the work of federal immigration departments and agencies to separate families.”
L.A.’s action echoes that of California, which has been a sanctuary state since 2018. Nationwide, there are more than 600 sanctuary jurisdictions, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.
However, the incoming administration seems undeterred.
“I’m sending a message for the people who say they are going to get in our way,” Homan said this week. “They’re going to stop us from doing what we’re doing — an interior enforcement operation. I’ve said 100 times in the last week: don’t cross that line…don’t test us.”
Hernandez says L.A. officials are taking Trump’s declarations seriously.
“We would be foolish to underestimate him, to not believe his rhetoric,” Hernandez said. “And that’s why we are trying to prepare instead of being caught off guard.”
The Washington Post reported this week that Trump is considering punishing sanctuary cities by withholding federal funding from states and municipalities that don’t cooperate with the deportation plan.
“We also often think it’s just targeting the undocumented, but in most families, it’s a mixed status family,” Hernandez said. “So the hurt is not just on the undocumented individual, but on their entire family.”
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11/29: CBS Evening News – CBS News
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2 wounded in Black Friday shooting at mall in Little Rock, Arkansas
Two people were wounded in a shooting at an Arkansas mall on Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, authorities said.
Little Rock police in a news release called the shooting, which occurred at 1:44 p.m. local time at Park Plaza, an isolated incident rather than an active shooter situation. Police said that it was believed to have started as a “disturbance between two individuals, which escalated into gunfire.”
Both victims are expected to make full recoveries, police said. No arrests were immediately announced.
Little Rock Police Chief Heath Helton initially said in an afternoon news conference that responding officers found one wounded person at the scene and two others arrived at a hospital later. However, police later clarified that only one victim had been taken to an area hospital by private vehicle, not two.
The exact circumstances of the shooting were unclear. Troy Daniell, a manager for Journey’s Kidz shoe store, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette he was working when he heard the gunshots “and got all of the customers that were in my store out of there. I got them all in the back of the store and out of there. When I heard the first (shot) I thought something may have fell, but then I heard a few more shots and immediately understood what was happening.”
In a statement, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. said that “the careless, senseless and criminal actions of two individuals today jeopardized the lives and safety of residents and visitors. We are praying for the victims of this incident and hoping they make a full recovery.”
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Hiker missing for more than 5 weeks in Canadian wilderness is found safe
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