A Southern California city just threw down the gauntlet against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s immigration policy.
Huntington Beach, a city of around 200,000 in Orange County, passed a “non-sanctuary city” resolution that instructs law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies as they ramp up their fight against migrant crime.
The declaration takes aim at a 2017 law, championed by Newsom, that forbids state and local resources from aiding federal immigration authorities.
Under that law, local law enforcement could not detain someone for being in the country illegally, nor assist organizations like ICE in identifying and apprehending undocumented immigrants.
“It’s a basic public safety issue … If someone has already been arrested for a crime, and we find out they are undocumented, we still have to let them go. And now they’re out in the community,” Casey McKeon, one of the city councilmembers who unanimously supported the resolution, told The Post.
Huntington Beach officials claimed the law hamstrung their law enforcement’s ability to protect the city, citing state records that show a 20% upswing in violent crime since the sanctuary law — SB 54, aka the “California Values Act” — went into effect.
But now, as the new Trump administration begins to crack down on illegal immigration, the city faces another dilemma: Shun SB 54 and work with the federal government or abide by state law and potentially face litigation.
“We have to protect our police officers from federal prosecution by, basically, ignoring the sanctuary state law,” City Attorney Michael Gates said.
“It’s a state law that created a conflict with federal laws, 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 who impede the Trump administration’s immigration agenda.
“We’re being pulled in two directions,” McKeon said. “We’re trying to remove ourselves from being caught in the middle between the state 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 Newsom and the state of California that claims the law violates federal laws and the supremacy clause of the Constitution.
The lawsuit and subsequent city resolution were inspired by high-profile migrant crimes, including the nationwide mayhem of gangs like MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
For Gates and other city officials, a final straw was the recent arrest of an undocumented migrant accused of lighting the Kenneth Fire in Los Angeles last week.
“There is widespread death and destruction in LA in part due to an illegal immigrant with a blowtorch, but now they’re stuck, not able to coordinate with the federal government,” Gates said. “The state’s policies are so counter to good governance and good law enforcement that Huntington Beach is just fed up.”
As for if and how the government of California will respond to the city’s rebellion, Gates isn’t worried.
“Frankly, we don’t care. They are so dysfunctional, so misguided, and so lawless, that they can bring whatever they want,” he said.
“I would almost welcome them to challenge us.”
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