Long Beach community members and immigrant rights advocates marched across downtown to City Hall and demanded city leaders strengthen its sanctuary policies to protect its immigrant community.
The Long Beach Justice Fund Coalition hosted the march on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to continue calling on city officials to implement stronger local protections for Long Beach’s immigrant community by amending the Long Beach Values Act. The coalition is a group made up of local immigration rights and community organizations.
“We’re here today to make our voices heard,” Denisse Tapia, community organizer at Órale, said at the start of the march at Harvey Milk Promenade Park. “We’re going to be advocating for a stronger Long Beach Values Act, especially after the news of increased ICE activity that’s going to be happening in the next 45 days. The city has this information, they know, and so they have a duty to be prepared and strengthen the Values Act as much as possible.”
The conservative publication Washington Examiner reported last week that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched a 45-day enforcement surge across California called “Operation Safe California.”
Long Beach community members and advocates have responded by demanding city officials take actions to better protect local immigrant families.
The city did not provide a comment about the Justice Fund Coalition’s demands by deadline.
But the coalition has been advocating throughout 2026 to pass a stronger Long Beach Values Act, which the City Council adopted in 2018, that establishes procedures for the requesting, collecting, maintaining and disclosing sensitive information and the enforcement of federal immigration law, according to the city’s website.
Local families continue grappling with the economic instability, family separation and trauma brought on by the immigration operations, organizers said, and strengthening the Values Act could show that city officials “truly stand with immigrant families.”
“We know how difficult it is to navigate the threats to their freedom, threats to their livelihood and threats to their lives,” Arlo Alegre, associate director of the Filipino Migrant Center, said during the event. “We know these threats are not just words on TV or the radio; these threats are real.
“They come in the form of changes to basic services, harder access to EBT and Medi-Cal,” Alegre added. “But now it’s also increased surveillance. How are community members supposed to work, live, go to school, go to the store without compromising their safety?”
Protesters advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Protesters advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety gather in front of city hall in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Demonstrators advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Demonstrators advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Demonstrators advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Demonstrators advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The Long Beach Justice Fund Coalition, a group of local organizations who advocate for immigrants’ rights, gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Demonstrators advocating for immigrants’ rights gather at Harvey Milk Park before marching to the civic center in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
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Protesters advocating for immigrants’ rights and safety gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The demands the coalition is asking Long Beach include in the Values Act, organizers said, would strengthen the city’s policy and disrupt federal immigration agents’ actions.
Those demands include:
Eliminating state Senate Bill 54 exceptions that allow local law enforcement to assist in immigrant enforcement to ensure the city does not share the information of any resident with federal immigration authorities or transfer community members to ICE detention centers.
Banning local use of automated license plate readers and facial recognition technology.
Strengthening city contracts to respond to Long Beach Values Act violations, such as termination clauses for violations, assessing penalties to the vendor and disqualifying the vendor from future city contract opportunities.
A private right of action to ensure the Values Act has teeth.
Clarifying Long Beach’s prohibition on using public city property for immigration enforcement staging and stronger signage on its spaces to indicate a stronger stance against federal immigration enforcement.
A policy ensuring that no Long Beach peace officers, including from the Long Beach Police Department, work for or volunteer for the Department of Homeland Security or its contractors, or any other entity that assists with or engages in immigration enforcement.
“They’re not feeling the pressure; they’re not feeling it enough,” Gaby Hernandez, executive director of Órale, said about the City Council. “Otherwise, we will be going into council today with the Values Act on the agenda, and it’s not on the agenda because they’re not feeling the pressure. So, they need to hear us really loud and clear that we need protections for the immigrant community.
“If it’s not now,” Hernandez added, “then when?”
The march of more than 40 people began at Harvey Milk Promendae Park and went to City Hall. Some members of the coalition spoke during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. City staff are set to have a presentation on the Values Act during the Nov. 10 council meeting.
“I want to acknowledge Órale for organizing the march and coming in and talking with our office,” Mayor Rex Richardson said during the council meeting. “I want to recognize Vice Mayor (Roberto) Uranga and the council members who were working together with you to bring forward a recommendation to update the Values Act in November as discussed.”
Last year, the city took steps to strengthen the Values Act, the City Council voted to strengthen and affirm Long Beach’s commitment to the local policy – with a push and advocacy from nonprofits, grassroots groups and community members. In August 2025, the council expanded protections further, limiting law enforcement access to city facilities, strengthening staff training and accountability, ensuring data protection in vendor and contractor agreements, and supporting legal advocacy and know-your-rights education.
In the recently adopted fiscal year 2027 budget, the city allocated $1 million for the Long Beach Justice Fund, the city’s legal defense fund and program that provides legal help for low-income immigrants at risk of deportation who live or work in the city. The Long Beach Justice Fund Coalition, though, had asked for the city to invest $3 million to the fund because of ongoing federal immigration enforcement activity in Long Beach and Los Angeles region.