Speakers call on Long Beach to consider emergency eviction moratorium and other measures after reported ICE activity

Several members of the public used the Sept. 16 public-comment period to urge the City Council to take action after reported immigration-enforcement activity in Long Beach.

Lou Rosen said recent ICE "kidnappings" — he described an incident that "most recently claimed five members of our community at Bixby Knolls car wash this past Saturday" — create terror for workers and families. Rosen urged the council to consider an emergency eviction moratorium, similar to one used during the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said would allow workers in high-risk workplaces to stay home without risking homelessness. He also asked the city to pressure a Residence Inn on Queensway Drive to end a contract he said houses ICE agents and to provide financial relief to landlords or small businesses that could demonstrate hardship from an eviction moratorium.

Steven Solo, another public speaker, described seeing increased ICE activity in the city and said residents are living in fear. "We don't want to be harassed by ICE," Solo said, urging the council to be "louder" in defense of affected residents and to use the city's influence on behalf of those experiencing enforcement actions.

The council did not announce a formal policy change at the meeting; Rosen's request was presented as a public suggestion and a call for the council to "explore every legal option," language the mayor referenced earlier in the meeting when discussing enforcement activity.

Ending: Speakers asked the council to pursue legal avenues and other measures to protect immigrants and workers; no formal council directive or vote on an eviction moratorium was recorded in the meeting transcript.