SANCTUARY
enforcing federal immigration law at the border.
“Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!”
In the solid blue San Francisco Bay Area, where Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf gained notoriety in February by warning the community of impending immigration raids, there are no signs of the growing resistance against the state’s highly publicized fight against the Trump administration and its hard-line immigration policies.
Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the front-runner in the race for governor, shot back on Twitter: “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many cities want OUT of Trump’s ridiculous & xenophobic policies.”
But in Orange County, the city of Los Alamitos took the first step last month to fire back at the sanctuary policy, shattering the Golden State’s reputation as anti-trump territory.
Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar argued that his city was simply abiding by federal law.
“As a U.S. Navy veteran and a council member for 12 years, I feel very strongly that this is constitutionally wrong,” he said of the state’s sanctuary law, which took effect at the start of the year, and spreading sanctuary policies in effect for years in places like the Bay Area and Los Angeles. “I don’t think this is an immigration issue. But I take issue with the state stepping in the middle.”
Edgar said he wants to be clear that local law enforcement should cooperate with federal immigration officials to turn over undocumented immigrant criminals before they are released from jail.
“We just don’t want these people being released into the community,” he said.
After Los Alamitos took action, Edgar said he started receiving calls from other cities that wanted to follow suit. Eleven Orange County cities, including Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, San Juan Capistrano and Yorba Linda, have made – or are considering – similar moves, passing resolutions, ordinances or joining lawsuits challenging the policy. So have the Orange County and San Diego County boards of supervisors, and the San Joaquin County town of Ripon, Riverside County town of Beaumont and San Diego County city of Escondido.
While the anti-sanctuary wave is rolling across some of California’s most Republican strongholds, they aren’t an aftershock from the 2016 election: Democrat Hillary Clinton trounced Trump in Orange County by 8 percentage points and San Diego County by 20 percentage points.
“This issue is really bringing up a complicated set of legal arguments with no clear answers at this point,” said Garrick Percival, a political science professor at San Jose State University. “It illustrates that liberal California has a lot of diversity in its ideologies.”
Senate Bill 54 limits communication between California police officers and federal immigration
agents about people detained by police or in jail awaiting trial. Exceptions include those who have been convicted of serious crimes within the past 15 years and suspects in serious crimes punishable with prison time for which a judge has found probable cause. It also prohibits California officers from inquiring about a person’s immigration status.
SB 54’s author Sen. Kevin de Leon on Friday said he’s sad to see mayors and council members “promoting these wasteful taxpayer proposals that only seek to divide our community.”
“These proposals won’t make our communities any safer, bring back jobs or grow our economy,” he said. “They are a symbolic waste of time and clearly a waste of taxpayer dollars.”
Cities cannot choose which laws they wish to follow and exempt themselves from the laws they disagree with, de Leon added.
Percival said the growing dispute “very likely” will be headed for a showdown at the state or U.S. Supreme Court.
“Although this is local politics in action, it’s most likely going to require a state or national solution,” he said. “It’s both symbolic and legal. We have real disputes here where the question is, how much discretion do cities have to abide by state law, but also federal law.”