Long Beach lawmakers want to craft a “sanctuary city” policy that would expand protections for its immigrant communities beyond those being considered at the state level.

The City Council on Tuesday will discuss how a local policy — the Long Beach Values Act of 2017 — should look, but as of now policy considerations could include:

• Protecting and advocating for local students covered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

• Preventing further deportations of local residents.

• Examining partnerships with Los Angeles County for a local legal defense fund.

• Protecting the confidentiality of local immigrant residents and their information and ensuring no city resources are used to create registries based on religious affiliation, immigration status or any other protected class, such as gender, sexual orientation, race, etc.

• Affirming an aggressive approach to advocating at the federal and state level for pro-immigrant policies.

Led by Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez’s office, in concert with Vice Mayor Rex Richardson and council members Jeannine Pearce and Roberto Uranga, the item aims to create a policy that ensures local resources are “not being used to separate families and support deportations,” according to a staff report.

In a statement released Thursday, Gonzalez said the city needs to take a “bold stand” to protect its neighbors, friends, businesses and students whose diversity represent an important part of Long Beach’s fabric.

“Supporting [Senate Bill 54], DACA and ALL of our immigrant communities is vitally important to the quality of life, economy and the values we hold dear in Long Beach,” she said in the statement. “Our residents should never be afraid to continue positively contributing to our society because of irrational decisions at the federal level.”

The local law, which would include input from immigrant rights organizations and the city’s three public education institutions, would expand on SB 54, a bill written by state Senate leader Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, that aims to curb the use of state and local public resources in aiding federal immigration agents’ deportation actions.

State lawmakers passed SB 54 late Friday, which marked the end of the 2017 legislative session, and sent it to Gov. Jerry Brown, who must decide whether to sign it by the Oct. 15 deadline.

Gonzalez did not return requests for comment on whether the city would still pursue a local policy if a statewide effort failed.

Community pressure to craft a local policy has been mounting for months as residents and advocacy groups have called on lawmakers to make Long Beach a “sanctuary city.” Leaders in February voted to formally support the statewide bill but have not recently had a public discussion at the local level.

Pearce, who is sponsoring the local item, said uncertainty surrounding immigration policies at the federal level has created a state of fear in the community, especially for families with DACA recipients, commonly referred to as “Dreamers” based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections for young immigrants as the DACA administrative order.

“It’s really pulling the rug out from under these folks who have been given an American dream and an American promise,” Pearce said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s a scary time for our youth and a scary time for our immigrant families, even if they have done everything by the book, so it’s evermore important for us to step forward and be that support system the community needs.”

DACA is a program created under Barack Obama’s administration and implemented via an administrative order that, essentially, gives a presidential pass from deportation for eligible immigrant youths who came to the country when they were children. Participants must meet an array of standards to remain here and are granted temporary permission to work.

After expressing intentions earlier this month to phase out DACA — a program that benefits about 800,000 young immigrants, including those brought to the United States illegally as children, and others who have overstayed their visas — President Donald Trump announced a tentative agreement that would enshrine the DACA protections in law in exchange for increased spending on border protection.

But Ben Goldberg, a board member with the Long Beach Area Republican Party, urged lawmakers to put pressure on Congress to “cut a deal” with the president on DACA that beefs up border security and preserves the protections for youths.

“Even though kids are absolutely innocent in this situation, the parents are going to keep coming in here and bringing kids illegally because DACA protects them, and that’s not fair to people who legally come here,” he said. “If we allow that to be an open policy, we are never going to get a handle on immigration.”

Approximately 27 percent of Long Beach residents are “foreign born,” and an estimated 44 percent identify as Hispanic, according to 2015 U.S. census data.

Long Beach Unified School District spokesman Chris Eftychiou said the public school system, which has approximately 74,000 students, could not provide an estimate on the number of undocumented or DACA students because the district does not track immigration status.

In an interview Wednesday, he said the potential suspension of DACA runs counter to the school district’s “firm commitment to serve all students, regardless of immigration status.”

Cal State Long Beach has an estimated 1,000 undocumented students, and Long Beach City College has at least 1,500 DACA students, according to campus spokespersons.

CSULB President Jane Close Conoley on Friday announced that the university had set aside $200,000 to help offset costs for DACA students completing renewals through Oct. 5. Guidance through the process is now available to students through the Dream Success Center, she said.

A separate but related state bill that aims to keep federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of schools was sent to the governor for his signature on Friday afternoon. Assembly Bill 699, written by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, establishes policies and procedures for immigration procedures at school sites, prohibits school districts from collecting information regarding citizenship and immigration status of pupils, and provides support to immigrant students and their families.