LOS ANGELES, CA – Mayor Karen Bass accused City Councilmember Nithya Raman on Thursday of romanticizing the era of former Los Angeles Police Department Chief Daryl Gates, while Raman said the mayor was twisting a remark about a 1979 immigration policy to avoid questions about LAPD cooperation with federal immigration authorities, the two candidates said as the Nov. 3 mayoral runoff approaches.
Bass spoke Thursday, Oct. 15, at her campaign headquarters, surrounded by about two dozen Black community leaders. The dispute grew out of the only televised debate of the runoff, held Tuesday, Oct. 13, in Universal City.
During the debate, Raman criticized the LAPD’s handling of federal immigration enforcement and said the department under Bass had shared information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In that exchange she mentioned Gates briefly, and Bass has since made the remark a centerpiece of her campaign’s response.
Raman answered the same day in a video and a written statement. Both candidates have continued to press their cases in the days before ballots are due.
Raman’s remark at the debate
Raman said at the debate, “This city used to be the gold standard in terms of noncooperation with immigration enforcement years ago, under the era of Daryl Gates.” She made the comment while arguing that the LAPD had undermined the trust of immigrant communities.
She also said at the debate that she would replace LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell if elected. Bass responded that replacing the chief about 640 days before the 2028 Olympics would send the department into disarray.
Raman also said she wants hard proof that license plate reader data would not be shared with ICE. Bass said at the debate that she would not renew the city’s contract with Flock Safety, a license plate reader company.
Bass calls the remark a lie
At her news conference, Bass called it “a lie” to portray Gates as a gold standard for the city’s Latino residents. Gates led the department from 1978 to 1992.
Bass said Gates “inflicted serious harm to the African American community,” and she asked Raman to retract the remark and apologize. She said the mention of Gates showed a lack of knowledge of the city’s history of police abuse, including the 1991 police beating of Rodney King.
“My opponent is not really familiar with L.A., especially the Black community,” Bass said. “She doesn’t know us.” Bass also noted that Raman has lived in Los Angeles about 13 years.
Several speakers at the event denounced Gates’ record. They pointed to the department’s use of a battering ram to knock down the walls of suspects’ homes and to police chokeholds.
Raman says she meant Special Order 40
Raman said she was referring to Special Order 40 when she used the phrase “gold standard.” She called Gates “an abhorrent and racist police chief” and accused Bass of deliberately distorting her statement, calling that behavior “completely unacceptable.”
Raman said the mayor “owes Angelenos answers about LAPD’s cooperation with ICE.” In her statement she added: “Over and over, I have challenged Mayor Bass over reports of LAPD cooperation with ICE under her leadership. Now Mayor Bass is deliberately twisting my words to distract from the questions she is refusing to answer.”
Raman asked Bass to say whether the fingerprint sharing she cited has stopped, what direction the mayor gave the police chief, what safeguards protect city data and who is held accountable. She cited a news report finding that the LAPD has sent fingerprints collected during bookings to a national law enforcement database that ICE can access.
What Special Order 40 says
Gates issued Special Order 40 on Nov. 27, 1979. According to the document, officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering a person’s alien status, and they shall not arrest or book people for illegal entry under Title 8, Section 1325, of federal law.
The order also contains a second section that sets a booking-related notification procedure. It applies to undocumented people booked for multiple misdemeanors, a high-grade misdemeanor or a felony.
The department has published an explainer on what Special Order 40 does and does not do. The LAPD also issued a Special Order No. 1 in March 2025 on enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, the Department Immigration Liaison Officer and federal immigration matters.
LAPD says officers do not do civil immigration enforcement
An LAPD spokesperson said Thursday that Special Order 40 has never been rewritten or rescinded. The spokesperson also said officers do not engage in civil immigration enforcement.
Dean Gialamas, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Information Technology Bureau, said the department has not found evidence that its automated license plate reader data was shared with any immigration enforcement agency.
McDonnell made a similar point in a statement on immigration enforcement in June 2025. He said the department is not involved in civil immigration enforcement and will not assist in mass deportations, and that department policy since 1979 has barred officers from initiating police action solely to determine a person’s immigration status.
City actions on federal immigration enforcement
Raman has described the policy as the root of the city’s sanctuary framework. In June 2023, the City Council unanimously adopted a motion by Raman and Councilmembers Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez directing the City Attorney to draft an ordinance making Los Angeles a Sanctuary City.
The motion prohibits the use of city resources or personnel for federal immigration enforcement. It also directs city departments to report on closing data-sharing gaps with federal immigration authorities. Raman’s office says the sanctuary ordinance grew out of Special Order 40.
Bass signed Executive Directive 17 on Feb. 10, 2026. It prohibits the use of city property as staging areas for immigration enforcement and instructs LAPD officers at immigration enforcement scenes to record with body-worn cameras and to try to identify and record the on-scene supervisory immigration officer.
On Sept. 30, Bass signed an ordinance codifying parts of that directive. It requires signage on city-owned lots barring their use for staging or processing by immigration enforcement and requires departments to secure non-public areas. It also requires contractors and bidders to disclose data-sharing agreements with ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Other issues in the runoff
Immigration and policing are not the only subjects dividing the candidates. Homelessness is another, and the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority released new figures in July.
The agency’s 2026 count found that, “Following two consecutive years of steady drops, regional progress stalled, showing a slight 1.2% increase to an estimated 73,040 people in Los Angeles County and a 3.4% increase to 45,194 people in the City of Los Angeles,” according to the authority’s July 24 release. The count also found a 7.9% rise in unsheltered homelessness in the city, to an estimated 29,115 people.
Bass said she is seeking a second term. The runoff follows the June 2 primary, in which neither candidate won a majority.
Runoff election is Nov. 3
The dispute over Gates and Special Order 40 remains unresolved between the campaigns. Bass has asked Raman to retract and apologize, and Raman has said the mayor owes voters answers about LAPD cooperation with ICE.
Voters will choose between Bass and Raman in the runoff election on Nov. 3, 2026.
