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 \u201ctruly stand with immigrant families.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how difficult it is to navigate the threats to their freedom, threats to their livelihood and threats to their lives,\u201d Arlo Alegre, associate director of the Filipino Migrant Center, said during the event. \u201cWe know these threats are not just words on TV or the radio; these threats are real.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey come in the form of changes to basic services, harder access to EBT and Medi-Cal,\u201d Alegre added. \u201cBut now it\u2019s also increased surveillance. How are community members supposed to work, live, go to school, go to the store without compromising their safety?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-05.jpeg?w=620\")
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Protesters advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-09-1.jpeg?w=620\")
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Protesters advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety gather in front of city hall in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Demonstrators](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-04.jpeg?w=620\")
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Demonstrators advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Demonstrators](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-08.jpeg?w=620\")
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Demonstrators advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Demonstrators](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-03.jpeg?w=620\")
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Demonstrators advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Demonstrators](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-07.jpeg?w=620\")
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Demonstrators advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety march through downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-02.jpeg?w=620\")
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The Long Beach Justice Fund Coalition, a group of local organizations who advocate for immigrants\u2019 rights, gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
![\"Demonstrators](\"https:\/\/www.presstelegram.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LPT-L-MARCH-IMM-SAFETY-1015-01.jpeg?w=620\")
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Demonstrators advocating for immigrants\u2019 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)\n<\/p>\n
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Protesters advocating for immigrants\u2019 rights and safety gather at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)\n<\/p>\n
Expand<\/a><\/p>\n The demands the coalition is asking Long Beach include in the Values Act, organizers said, would strengthen the city\u2019s policy and disrupt federal immigration agents\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n Those demands include:<\/p>\n 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. \u201cThey\u2019re not feeling the pressure; they\u2019re not feeling it enough,\u201d Gaby Hernandez, executive director of \u00d3rale, said about the City Council. \u201cOtherwise, we will be going into council today with the Values Act on the agenda, and it\u2019s not on the agenda because they\u2019re not feeling the pressure. So, they need to hear us really loud and clear that we need protections for the immigrant community.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s not now,\u201d Hernandez added, \u201cthen when?\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s City Council meeting. City staff are set to have a presentation on the Values Act during the Nov. 10 council meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to acknowledge \u00d3rale for organizing the march and coming in and talking with our office,\u201d Mayor Rex Richardson said during the council meeting. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year, the city took steps to strengthen the Values Act, the City Council voted to strengthen and affirm Long Beach\u2019s commitment to the local policy \u2013 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.<\/p>\n In the recently adopted fiscal year 2027 budget, the city allocated $1 million for the Long Beach Justice Fund, the city\u2019s 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<\/a> because of ongoing federal immigration enforcement activity in Long Beach and Los Angeles region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach community members and immigrant rights advocates marched across downtown to City Hall and demanded city leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,179,14,23,131,133,132,137],"class_list":["post-496339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-community","tag-immigration","tag-local-news","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBanning local use of automated license plate readers and facial recognition technology.
\nStrengthening 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.
\nA private right of action to ensure the Values Act has teeth.
\nClarifying Long Beach\u2019s 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.
\nA 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.<\/p>\n