A Southern California city just threw a gauntlet against Gavin Newsom's immigration policies.
Huntington Beach, a city of about 200,000 in Orange County, has been designated a “secular city,” which directs law enforcement to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies in stepping up the fight against immigrant crime. ' passed the resolution.
The declaration takes aim at a 2017 law championed by Newsom that prohibits state and local resources from assisting federal immigration authorities.
Under that law, local law enforcement can neither detain someone for being in the country illegally nor assist organizations like ICE in identifying and arresting undocumented immigrants. I couldn't do it either.
“It's a basic public safety issue. We know someone has already been arrested for a crime and they're undocumented, but we still have to let them go. And now, They’re out in the community,” Casey McKeon, one of the City Council members who unanimously supported the resolution, told this article.
Huntington Beach officials claim the law has hampered law enforcement's ability to protect the city, and since SB 54, also known as the Sanctuary Sanctuary Act (also known as the California Values Act), went into effect, a 20% increase in violent crimes has been reported. He cited state records showing the rise.
But now, as the new Trump administration begins cracking down on illegal immigration, the city faces a different dilemma.
“We have to protect our police officers from federal prosecution by essentially ignoring sanctuary state laws,” City Attorney Michael Gates said.
“It's a state law that created a conflict with federal law, and what we're trying to do is remove ourselves from that conflict.”
Indeed, one day after the city passed the resolution, the Associated Press reported that a Justice Department memo ordered federal prosecutors to investigate local officials Those who stand in the way of the Trump administration's immigration agenda.
“We're being pulled in two directions,” McKeon said. “We're trying to avoid getting caught in the middle between the states and the federal government.”
In addition to ignoring SB 54, Huntington Beach is also trying to overturn it. Earlier this month, the city filed a lawsuit against the state of California claiming the law violates federal law and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
The lawsuit and subsequent city resolution were inspired by high-profile immigration crimes, including the nationwide unrest of gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
For Gates and other city officials, the final straw was the recent arrest of an undocumented immigrant accused of lighting the Kenneth Fire in Los Angeles last week.
“In Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, there is widespread death and destruction because illegal immigrants have blots, and now they are stuck and unable to coordinate with the federal government,” Gates said. “State policy is so antithetical to good governance and good law enforcement that Huntington Beach is fed up with.”
Gates isn't worried about how California's government will respond to urban uprisings.
“Frankly, we don't care. They're so dysfunctional, so misguided, so lawless that they can bring in whatever they want,” he said. I did.
“You're almost welcome to challenge us.”
