The city of Los Angeles has spent over $30 million in the past two weeks in response to immigration raids and protests, according to Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) response to the protests against ICE are by far the greatest cost.
The city has spent more than $29 million to cover LAPD overtime and costs associated with declaring a citywide tactical alert, according to the controller.
About $1.4 million of the $32 million spent on protests relates to costs associated with cleaning up areas affected by demonstrations and public property damage.
The controller’s analysis does not include costs associated with agencies outside of the city of Los Angeles or potential lawsuits
Last fiscal year over $100 million was paid out to plaintiffs who sued the LAPD for excessive force, traffic collisions, and employment related matters, according to the controller’s office.
Even before the ICE raids began two weeks ago, the city was in a dire financial situation. Facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit, Mayor Karen Bass originally proposed cutting more than 1,600 city jobs to close the budget gap, but the number of layoffs decreased to around 600 after weeks of budget hearings.
After the first week of ICE raids and anti-Trump protests, the controller estimated that the city spent over $11.4 million responding to the protest.
The second week of protests was even more costly, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets for No Kings Day, a nationwide protest that had been planned long before ICE began raiding warehouses, churches, and Home Depot parking lots in the Los Angeles area. The city spent more than $18 million responding to the second week of protests, according to the controller’s analysis.
“The Federal Government's violent ICE raids are tearing families apart, causing fear in our communities, and making the City of LA even more broke,” Mejia wrote on Instagram. “$22 million is needed from the City's already depleted Reserve Fund to cover the costs.”
Although anti-ICE protests have slowed down in recent days, what appears to be a potentially large protest is planned outside of Dodger stadium for this Saturday, and many people expect the protests to continue in some form for at least the next several weeks.
