City Oversight Panel to Weigh Six Proposals Refining Police Limits on Federal Immigration Enforcement

Pasadena’s police oversight commission will weigh six proposals Thursday that could refine the limits on how the city’s officers may assist federal immigration agents, part of a local review the City Council launched as part of a broader effort to mitigate the impacts of federal civil immigration enforcement overreach.

The Community Police Oversight Commission, an advisory body known as CPOC, meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall to consider recommendations drafted by an ad hoc committee of Vice Chair Selina Ho and Commissioners Raúl Ibañez and Ted Smith.

If adopted, the proposals would be forwarded to the Pasadena Police Department and to the City Council, which retain final authority over the department’s policies and operations.

The review traces to an April 6 council motion, adopted unanimously with one member absent, directing the commission to examine the department’s revised immigration-related directives — Chief’s Bulletin 01-26 and Policy 428, titled “Immigration Violations.”

The committee’s memorandum concludes that, read together, those documents already establish a generally clear and legally compliant framework: they reflect the core intent of the California Values Act, prohibit immigration enforcement by local officers, confine the department’s role during federal operations to ancillary public-safety functions such as traffic control and peacekeeping, require supervisory involvement on calls tied to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, highlight neutrality, professionalism and attention to constitutional rights including First Amendment protections, establish baseline documentation expectations, and reinforce that crime victims and witnesses should feel safe contacting police regardless of immigration status.

The six recommendations are aimed at refining that framework.

The first would clarify the scope of permissible assistance local officers may provide to federal authorities and spell out what is expected of personnel who witness conduct — by any party, including federal agents — that appears unlawful or poses an immediate public-safety risk. The second would require that any assistance the department gives federal authorities in a criminal investigation rest on an independently established criminal basis unrelated to civil immigration status, and that the basis be documented.

The third would sharpen the information-sharing provisions in Section 428.7 by drawing a clearer line between immigration-status information, which federal law allows to be shared, and other personal or investigative information, which the Values Act restricts. The fourth would expand guidance for officers responding to public-order events tied to federal immigration activity, instructing them to treat such gatherings the way they treat other First Amendment activity while maintaining a neutral and impartial presence.

The fifth would strengthen reporting and documentation requirements for incidents involving federal immigration activity, including periodic transmittal of those reports to the Independent Police Auditor. The sixth would reinforce training, communication and community engagement around the department’s role and limitations in immigration enforcement, with outreach in multiple languages and through trusted community spaces.

CPOC’s authority extends only to recommendation; any changes to Chief’s Bulletin 01-26 or Policy 428 would require action by the department and, where applicable, the council. The commission meets in Council Chambers at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Ave., Room S249, in Pasadena. Information is available at (626) 744-7311 or cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas.