{"id":67,"date":"2026-07-05T02:41:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=67"},"modified":"2026-07-05T02:41:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T21:41:23","slug":"noncitizen-voting-was-gaining-steam-in-l-a-then-fears-of-trump-backlash-scuttled-the-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=67","title":{"rendered":"Noncitizen voting was gaining steam in L.A. Then fears of Trump backlash scuttled the plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p>It was a traumatic moment for much of Southern California, as federal immigration agents snatched undocumented workers from <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2025-11-18\/clean-car-wash-campaign-deportations\">car washes<\/a>, garment factories and Home Depot parking lots.<\/p>\n<p>Angelica Salas, who heads one of Los Angeles\u2019 most influential immigrant rights groups, met regularly last summer with City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez \u2014 himself the son of Mexican immigrants \u2014 as they formulated a response. The two kept circling back to a singular issue: the lack of political power wielded by noncitizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of this is happening because immigrants don\u2019t have the right to vote,\u201d said Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.<\/p>\n<p>Those conversations helped fuel Soto-Mart\u00ednez\u2019s decision in late April to <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-04-30\/la-councilman-wants-to-let-noncitizens-vote-in-city-elections\">push for a ballot proposal<\/a> aimed at giving noncitizens the right to vote in city and school district elections. The proposal quickly gained momentum, with two-thirds of the council <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-06-17\/measure-to-give-non-citizens-right-to-vote-in-la-elections-headed-for-nov-3-ballot\">voting in mid-June<\/a> to draft a measure for the Nov. 3 ballot.<\/p>\n<div class=\"enhancement\" data-click=\"enhancement\" data-align-center=\"\">\n<figure class=\"figure m-0\"> <picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/6c861a9\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 320w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/0f1b81f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/568x379!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 568w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/490fc74\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/768x512!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 768w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/6663b05\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/1024x683!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 1024w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1526c74\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/1200x800!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"100vw\"\/><img class=\"image\" alt=\"Los Angeles City Council member Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez attends a City Council meeting\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ad7300d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 320w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/95d9a23\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/568x379!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 568w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/699f050\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/768x512!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 768w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/38fe993\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/1024x683!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 1024w,https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8f9c517\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/1200x800!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 100vw\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8f9c517\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5000x3335+0+0\/resize\/1200x800!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fcb%2F6c%2F7bebe1f2415c8cda259d48b2c225%2F1557360-me-city-council-election-winners-42.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>   <\/picture>\n<div class=\"figure-content\">\n<p>Los Angeles City Council member Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez attends a City Council meeting following elections at City Hall June 3.<\/p>\n<p>(Etienne Laurent \/ For the Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p>But the effort <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-06-30\/ballot-proposal-on-noncitizen-voting-in-la-is-pulled-from-ballot\">collapsed on Tuesday<\/a>, with the council reversing course and sending the proposal to a committee for more study. Before the vote, Soto-Mart\u00ednez acknowledged that he had not performed sufficient outreach, particularly to the city\u2019s Black community leaders.<\/p>\n<p>By then, critics were accusing the council of failing to do its homework, leaving voters to fill in the blanks on such questions as whether undocumented immigrants would be covered by the expanded franchise. Some worried the proposal would endanger the very people it was designed to help, making them a fresh target for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p>Even community leaders who have worked on civil rights issues were urging the council to slow down.<\/p>\n<p>Mobilizing Preachers and Communities, a national nonprofit that represents clergy and civil rights advocates, asked for a delay, citing concerns about President Trump. Rev. K.W. Tulloss, the group\u2019s western regional director, said he was also hearing concerns from Black residents and their religious leaders about the potential for weakening Black voting representation.<\/p>\n<p>That, in turn, could reduce the overall number of Black elected officials in Los Angeles, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a major concern among our community,\u201d Tulloss said. \u201cAnd we can\u2019t be afraid to have that dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In L.A., Black residents make up about 8% of registered voters, according to the Sacramento-based firm Political Data, Inc. That figure has been gradually declining over the past few decades. An influx of noncitizen voters \u2014 Latinos, Asians and others \u2014 could cause it to shrink even more. <\/p>\n<p>At the end of the year, L.A.\u2019s 15-member City Council will have two Black representatives, down from three, all in South L.A.-based districts. Two Latinos are running in this year\u2019s election to replace Councilmember Curren Price, who is Black and retiring after serving the maximum three terms.<\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s five-member Board of Supervisors has one Black member. Voters have given the go-ahead to add four more members, which some fear could leave the board with one Black member out of nine.<\/p>\n<p>Tulloss said his organization supports creating a pathway to citizenship for the city\u2019s undocumented immigrants. At the same time, he worried that Soto-Mart\u00ednez\u2019s proposal could in the short term divide Black and brown residents, who share a common struggle on a wide range of issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, we don\u2019t want any type of deal that will be divisive in the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Soto-Mart\u00ednez, who represents an Echo Park-to-Hollywood district, said in an interview Wednesday that noncitizen voting was part of his platform when he first ran for City Council in 2022. He said he first thought about the issue seriously a decade ago, when San Francisco voters passed a measure allowing noncitizen parents to cast ballots in school board elections.<\/p>\n<p>Since its formation, the United States has repeatedly redefined the right to vote, broadening it to include women, Black people and other groups, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, it just seemed very natural to expand it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s part of our history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The idea of noncitizen voting has been circulating in L.A. for years. School board member Kelly Gonez persuaded her colleagues to begin exploring it in 2019. But the effort was set aside after the onset of COVID-19, which caused massive disruptions across the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Michael Trujillo, a political strategist for Gonez.<\/p>\n<p>Last summer, as the Trump administration was launching immigration raids across Southern California, the city was convening a 13-member citizens commission to come up with proposals for rewriting the City Charter, L.A.\u2019s governing document.<\/p>\n<p>The commission took up noncitizen voting in March, narrowly rejecting it. Several commissioners said they were worried about unintended consequences, like the Trump administration taking aim at newly registered voters, said Raymond Meza, who served as the commission\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought those concerns were not fully addressed,\u201d Meza said, \u201cso I actually switched my vote\u201d and opposed the proposal.<\/p>\n<p>A month later, with the deadline for placing items on the Nov. 3 ballot fast approaching, Soto-Mart\u00ednez <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2026-04-30\/la-councilman-wants-to-let-noncitizens-vote-in-city-elections\">introduced a motion<\/a> calling for a two-step process for expanding voting rights. First, voters would be asked to give the City Council the authority to grant noncitizens the right to vote.<\/p>\n<p>The council would then examine the details surrounding the change before passing an ordinance expanding those voting rights.<\/p>\n<p>Soto-Mart\u00ednez said his motion was based on a simple idea: Those who live in the city, raise their families there and pay taxes \u201cdeserve to have a voice\u201d in local decision-making. He did not offer many specifics, saying those would be worked out at a later date.<\/p>\n<p>Critics, and even some supporters, said Soto-Mart\u00ednez was making his move at the wrong time. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, who voted against the proposal in mid-June, voiced fears that the list of noncitizen voters would immediately be seized by federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n<p>Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he opposes noncitizen voting in city elections. He does favor it for L.A. Unified \u2014 but only for parents of children attending those schools.<\/p>\n<p>Villaraigosa, who led the city from 2005-13 and recently ran for governor, argued that this is not the right time to make even that change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Trump ferreting through every record he can find looking for undocumented people, I just think it\u2019s the wrong time,\u201d he said. \u201cI think these people would be exposing themselves to deportation, and the well-intentioned would be exposing them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soto-Mart\u00ednez portrayed such arguments as \u201cfear mongering,\u201d saying undocumented immigrants take risks every day in their quest to create a better future for their families.<\/p>\n<p>Salas, the head of CHIRLA, echoed that idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt end of day, we are already targets,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is not going to make it worse. Don\u2019t tell me voting against this was for the protection of immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump threat was not the only reason council members hesitated.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez, who has expressed some interest in the proposal, said city leaders had not determined how county election officials would issue separate ballots for voters who would be barred from state and national contests. They also had not determined the cost of such a service, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-two local jurisdictions across the country have approved and implemented noncitizen voting, according to Megan Dias, who is co-author of \u201cImmigrant Voting and the Movement for Inclusion in San Francisco,\u201d a report examining that city\u2019s push to allow immigrants to vote in school board elections.<\/p>\n<p>Dias said that backers of noncitizen voting need to build a broad coalition \u2014 grassroots organizations, election officials, lawyers for the city \u2014 before taking the proposal to voters.<\/p>\n<p>Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said he is confident that noncitizen voting will get a much more extensive review in the coming months, and make the ballot in 2028. First, he said, the council will need to provide voters with specifics on how the changes would work.<\/p>\n<p>Harris-Dawson said he heard from people who wanted more time to understand the proposal, to \u201cmake sure that it was done in a way that protected Black voting districts in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the deliberations on the proposal, it also was not clear whether the change would apply to green card holders, recipients of Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals or other categories of noncitizens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen something goes to the ballot, we need the details to be figured out \u2014 like how much something is going to cost, exactly how it\u2019s going to work, and what the parameters are,\u201d Harris-Dawson said. \u201cAll of that needs to be defined.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a traumatic moment for much of Southern California, as federal immigration agents snatched undocumented workers from car washes, garment factories and Home Depot parking lots. Angelica Salas, who heads one of Los Angeles\u2019 most influential immigrant rights groups, met regularly last summer with City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Mart\u00ednez \u2014 himself the son of Mexican&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ba19e11\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7280x3822+0+821\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F61%2Fa8%2Faeffa1e24c3ebf9bd74cb831c77f%2F1556004-me-mayor-karen-bass-chirla-gem-006.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}