The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously with no discussion to allow the county to no longer require U.S. citizenship for government jobs.
The policy includes exceptions for positions where U.S. citizenship is required by state and federal law. The motion was authored by Chair Hilda L. Solis, and co-authored by Sheila Kuehl. The vote took place last week.
Those wishing to work for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, as well as any peace officers hired by the county, will still be subject to citizenship requirements.
According to the adopted motion, the new policy "ensures that applicants for employment are fairly and equitably considered, without regard to national origin, citizenship or other non-merit factors that are not substantially related to successful performance of the duties of the position," the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
Last year, the Board of Supervisors had asked the Office of the County Counsel and the Department of Human Resources for an analysis of whether scrapping citizenship requirements for board-appointed county officers or department heads was legal.
The report said the citizenship requirement for workers could be waived as long as state or federal law did not explicitly impose a requirement.
"Los Angeles County is a community of immigrants from each corner of the world," Solis wrote in a statement when the motion was introduced. "And while our County-government workforce reflects the community it represents,...
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