The draft ordinance was proposed by Councilman Paul Krekorian and the motion was passed by the council during a City Hall meeting.
City leaders also asked the city attorney and the Los Angeles Police Department to report on hate crimes leveled against immigrants following Trump’s election, and called on the budget and finance committee to discern how the municipal budget may be affected by the President’s directive to take federal funds from 'sanctuary cities.'
The motion decried the idea of a Muslim database, detailing that actions inspired by xenophobia lead to atrocities like the genocide of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
"These past examples of actions that violated the bedrock principles of our American Constitutional democracy are among the darkest moments in American history," the motion reads. "Like an echo from these dark chapters, the language and legislation of oppression have crept back into the mainstream political discourse in the United States. In many respects, the life, liberty and happiness of vulnerable people throughout our nation, whether through official acts or by emboldened hate groups, are under threat."
Krekorian’s motion added that Trump, "has repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that suggested an unfair scapegoating of Muslim Americans based solely on their faith," and that Los Angeles "should take these statements and actions seriously, and we should never tolerate or accept them. We must never facilitate or cooperate with such an abrogation of our most cherished values."
Trump seemed open to the idea of Muslim database in November 2015, when he told a Yahoo reporter, "We’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely. We’re going to have to look at the mosques."
Later that month Trump told MSNBC, "There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases…We should have a lot of systems." Trump then spoke about the need for a border wall to stave off illegal immigration from Latin America, and, when a reporter followed up, saying, "But that’s something your White House would like to implement," Trump responded, "I would certainly implement that. Absolutely." It is not clear whether Trump meant the border wall or the registry.
Whether the controversial billionaire is still in favor of a Muslim-American database is unclear, as he has since claimed that he did not understand the Yahoo reporter’s question, and is appearing to step away from the proposal, although he does support the idea of a database of Syrian refugees.
Trump’s campaign released a statement in December 2016 that claimed, "President-elect Trump has never advocated for any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion, and to imply otherwise is completely false."
