LA Considers Requiring Contractors To Disclose Border Wall Bids

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Companies seeking contracts with Los Angeles would have to publicly disclose if they are also submitting bids to build President Donald Trump's border wall, according to a motion approved by a City Council committee Monday.

The measure would impose strict penalties and fines on any company that fails to disclose the information.

The motion was introduced by Councilman Gil Cedillo, who also chairs the Ad Hoc on Immigrant Affairs and Civil Rights Committee which approved it.

While the motion simply asks for transparency if a company bids on the wall, and would not outright ban it from doing business with Los Angeles, Cedillo agreed when asked in May that the motion tells businesses to stay away from the wall if they want to do business with the city.

"We are creating transparency," Cedillo said in May. "We want the city to know, the citizens of the city and the residents of the city to know where their resources are going.

And we think that it's imperative, it's our duty, particularly given the folly of this proposal."

One of Trump's top issues as he was running for president was a promise to build a wall stretching over the entire U.S.-Mexico border, and to make Mexico pay for it.

Trump has yet to come forward with any plan on how to coerce Mexico to pay for the wall, nor has any budget money to build it been approved.

Reuters reported in February that a U.S. Department of Homeland Security analysis concluded the wall could cost $21.6 billion and take more than three years to build.

Trump has said the border wall is needed to cut down on drug trafficking and immigrants coming into the country illegally. Opponents have said a wall would promote discrimination against Mexican immigrants and represents a racist and xenophobic agenda.

Trump's immigration policies have been met with strong opposition by the Los Angeles City Council, which has passed and introduced numerous motions opposing his agenda.

Some business groups have supported the motion or a similar state bill, while others have been opposed to it.

"We choose today to build bridges that unite us, build rail lines that connect us, instead of walls that divide us," said Rusty Hicks, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, in May.

The Federation of California Builders Exchanges and the Southern California Contractors Association have both expressed opposition to the state bill that seeks to blacklist contractors which bid on the wall.

"Those individuals who abuse their elected positions to impose political judgments against businesses who are trying to lawfully operate in California will only serve to further drive companies out of the state or out of business altogether," CALBX said in a statement in April.

Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this article failed to state that the motion still required full City Council approval.

City News Service; Image via Josh Denmark, U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Flickr