Federal judge denies Trump administration effort to block state ‘sanctuary law’
Wrote: ‘Refusing to help is not the same as impeding’
SACRAMENTO – A federal judge refused Thursday to block California from restricting local law enforcement cooperation with immigration agents, an early legal victory for the state’s “sanctuary” law that drew caustic but predictable reactions from both sides.
U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez, in rejecting the position of the Trump administration that California’s law is an attempt to stymie immigration enforcement, wrote that “refusing to help is not the same as impeding.”
“Standing aside does not equate to standing in the way,” Mendez wrote.
The judge also upheld the legality of a second California law, allowing the state’s attorney general to visit federal immigration detention centers. He rejected part of a third state law – one which imposes fines on private business employers who voluntarily allow immigration agents into the workplace.
Taken together, the three laws represent perhaps the clearest attempt by Democrats in California to push back against the Republican president’s zeal in curtailing illegal immigration. Leaders of the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown have insisted the efforts by Trump and federal agents have had a chilling effect in communities across the state, an agenda they maintain California isn’t required to help carry out.
Brown said the federal judge’s ruling served as a reminder of the inaction in Washington on a comprehensive overhaul of federal immigration law.
“Only Congress can chart the path forward by rising above mindless, partisan divisions and working together to solve this problem, not exacerbate it,” the governor said in a statement.
Mendez heard lengthy arguments from federal and state attorneys on June 20 in a Sacramento courtroom. The judge said at the time that given the high-profile nature of the case, he expected his ruling would ultimately be appealed.
Federal officials didn’t make their next steps clear Students rally in 2017 in Highland Park in support of SB 54.
Thursday, though they praised the limited court victory covering the workplace inspection law.
“While we are disappointed that California’s other laws designed to protect criminal aliens were not yet halted, the Justice Department will continue to seek out and fight unjust policies that threaten public safety,” department spokesman Devin O’malley said in a written statement.
The marquee law of the three statutes that were challenged, Senate Bill 54, has eliminated much of the discretionary power that local law enforcement previously had to privately share information with federal immigration agents about people who have been arrested and put
in county jails. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice argued last month that the state had no right to interfere with the enforcement of immigration law.
But Mendez’s ruling said because Congress had not explicitly required state or local cooperation, the Trump administration could not block what was otherwise the cancellation of a voluntary effort.
“SB 54 does not add or subtract any rights or restrictions upon immigrants,” the judge wrote. “Immigrants subject to removal remain subject to removal. SB 54, instead, directs the activities of state law enforcement, which Congress has not purported to regulate.”