The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted on April 19 to appoint an immigrant advocate to help the city navigate immigration policy from the administration of President Donald J. Trump.

Peter Schey, founder and president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, will serve in the position. His salary will be $1 per year.

“I cannot think of another time in which executive orders have been issued in such a flurry that had the potential to harm local communities in terms of their safety, in terms of their health, in terms of their diversity and in terms of the camaraderie among different parts of the community,” Schey said to the city council’s ad hoc Committee on Immigrant Affairs last week. (The committee’s name has since been changed to the ad hoc Committee on Immigrant Affairs and Civil Rights.)

Schey is also co-founder of immigrant advocacy group El Rescate, as well as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles. He helped draft federal immigration law in 1986 and 2000.

“For now, for the next two, three years is a prime opportunity for local communities and for states to step up to the plate and to say, ‘what can we do to have some sort of comprehensive … protection for all vulnerable communities?’” Schey said.

He chastised the Trump administration for putting forth “fake immigration policies.”

“They’re not real, they’re not based on anything empirical, they’re not based on what migration experts think about the subject, they’re not based upon any sort of personal observations of stakeholders who have worked with this population,” Schey said.

Some immigrant advocates want to make sure they have the resources to help those who have been detained. City Attorney Mike Feuer was unable to reach detainees at LAX in the days following Trump’s initial executive order that restricted travel from a group of predominantly Muslim countries.

But Schey said he’d rather help the city develop a strategy that is more “offensive than defensive.”

“That’s a defeatist approach,” he said of primarily focusing on what to do after a non-citizen has been detained. “I would much rather put my efforts into ensuring that no arrests without probable cause take place, that no illegal arrests take place, that no arrests take place just because somebody was not white-skinned.”

Councilman David Ryu, 4th District, said federal policies from the Trump administration provide the city of Los Angeles an “opportunity” in the way it responds.

“Other people have said, ‘how can this happen?’” Ryu said. “But it’s an opportunity to increase empathy and understanding, and raise the bar for civil rights and human rights.”

Councilman Curren D. Price, Jr., 9th District, said his office has fielded calls from residents concerned about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. He said when his residents see traffic cones in their neighborhoods, they’re afraid they might be part of an ICE roadblock.

“We are in a crossroads,” Price said. “The actions we take at the local level will help to point the direction for what we should be doing at the national level.”

Council president Herb J. Wesson, Jr., 10th District, said during last week’s committee meeting that he believes “we are all one race.”

“As Los Angeles, we have a responsibility to stand up and show the rest of this nation that we know how to protect the residents of this city,” Wesson said. “And if we do a good job then other cities will follow our lead.”

The city council also unanimously approved a resolution stating the city’s opposition to the Mobilizing Against Sanctuary Cities Act (H.R. 83), introduced in the House by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) in January.

The bill stops federal financial assistance from being granted to a state or local government if it hinders federal enforcement of certain immigration law.