One municipal government in California is standing up to seemingly the rest of the state’s decision to willingly house illegal immigrants, using an upcoming city council meeting to declare they will be a “Non-Sanctuary City” within the state.
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The mayor of Huntington Beach, California, released a statement on Thursday announcing he was proposing an initiative to declare the city a “Non-Sanctuary City for Illegal Immigration for the Prevention of Crime.” That proposal will go before the city council at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Here’s Mayor Pat Burns’ statement:
Today I am introducing my initiative for Council consideration at the January 21 meeting to Declare the City of Huntington Beach a “Non-Sanctuary City for Illegal Immigration for the Prevention of Crime.” Estimates are that nearly 20 million illegal immigrants were allowed to enter the Country under the Biden administration, which has led to an increase in crime. Crime is at an unacceptable level nationwide and according to the California Department of Justice, violent crime in our State is up nearly 20% since 2018. Since the election of President Trump, our Governor has now doubled down on subverting our federal government’s enforcement of our immigration laws, and we have seen both Los Angeles and now San Diego make announcements advancing their sanctuary city policies. In fact, reports indicate that an illegal immigrant was arrested for starting at least one of the recent devastating fires in Los Angeles, and that the suspect is being shielded in California by the Sanctuary State law from the federal law enforcement agencies.
As government leaders, and as a 30-year veteran of law enforcement myself, I know our primary function is to fight crime and protect citizens, i.e., to keep them safe from crime. That means employing every possible measure and mechanism to fight and reduce crime. For this reason, I am presenting this Declaration to the City Council in hopes that my colleagues will join me in taking a stand in favor of our City by cooperating with the Trump Administration and the federal government law enforcement agencies with regard to enforcement of immigration laws in order to further combat crime. City Attorney Michael Gates supports and states, “with the recent passage of Prop 36 by an overwhelming margin, it is clear Californians are in favor of more tools to fight crime, not fewer, and they hunger for the return to law and order. As the top attorney and prosecutor in this City, I support the Mayor’s initiative to support our great police department and fight crime at all levels and by whatever means necessary and this initiative is consistent with the lawsuit we filed last week challenging the State’s unconstitutional Sanctuary law.
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California passed a “Sanctuary State” law in 2017, which was signed into law in 2018. SB 54, the “California Values Act,” prohibited the use of state and local resources from being used to “investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.” It also prohibited the transfer of people to ICE custody without a judge’s warrant.
Essentially, it barred any state or local law enforcement from cooperating with federal authorities in investigating and arresting those who were in the country illegally.
What Huntington Beach appears set to do is defy state law, claiming that SB 54 is actually a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The city will instead assist in the enforcement of federal immigration, a move that may be in part emboldened by Joe Biden’s loss in November and the incoming Trump administration’s promise to crackdown on the border issue.
