Local Immigrant Leaders Target Unfair Towing Practices

Liberen Nuestros Autos, or Free Our Cars, Coalition announced it is launching a campaign today to change unfair towing practices that they say cost struggling families millions of dollars in fees and lost wages across Los Angeles County.

The campaign encourages victims of unfair impounds to report their stories anonymously via a phone call or website and offer to connect them to training on their legal rights when stopped by police.

Immigrant leaders from Pomona, Baldwin Park, and some of the surrounding areas lead the coalition, organizers wrote in a news release. Their goal is to collect 1,000 stories of what they called suffering due to unfair impounds and sharing them. They plan to train immigrants across the region on their private property rights when stopped by police and engaging them in working to change policies in their cities, officials added.

“Stories of suffering families due to the economic cost of losing a car and the resulting fees and fines were crucial in the struggle to change impound protocols in the City of Los Angeles,” officials wrote. “These stories will be key to replicating that change, which has led to a 40 percent decrease in impounds over the past year in the City of Los Angeles, according to LAPD records.”

The group was expected to hold a news conference today. For information on how to submit your story, call The Advancement Project, co-organizers with the campaign – at (213) 989-1300.