Huntington Beach is continuing its rebellious streak against the state’s sanctuary immigration law, which limits local resources from assisting federal immigration enforcement officials, declaring itself a “non-sanctuary city” at its Tuesday, Jan. 21, City Council meeting.
Mayor Pat Burns said the resolution approved unanimously by the City Council is “a signal to would-be criminals, do not come to Huntington Beach.”
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“The intent of this resolution is to deliberately sidestep the governor’s efforts to subvert the good work of federal immigration authorities and to announce the city’s cooperation with the federal government, the Trump Administration and Border Czar Tom Homan’s work,” the city said in a news release. “This new city policy and declaration are common sense, supports our law enforcement, and advances public safety throughout the city.”
All councilmembers spoke enthusiastically in support of the non-sanctuary city resolution, which says police and other city departments should coordinate and communicate with federal law enforcement agencies and honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers.
An immigration detainer is a request from the agency to hold noncitizens who are in custody for up to 48 more hours and to notify the agency before they are released to allow ICE to take custody.
Councilmember Don Kennedy said the resolution must be enacted even if it only prevented one crime committed by someone who was in the country illegally.
“Because if you are the recipient of that crime, it’s going to change you and your family’s life forever,” he said.
The resolution also calls for the city attorney’s office to defend against any legal action brought by the state in response to the city’s stance.
“This is in the best interest of our community, Huntington Beach, to make sure we utilize every facet of law enforcement to make it the best place to live,” said Burns, who had a small white bust of President Donald Trump displayed in front of him during the council meeting.
City Attorney Michael Gates said the declaration has already taken effect and the Police Department is working closely with him to move forward with the City Council’s direction.
“As a long-standing practice, the Police Department does not announce law enforcement or investigative tactics,” Gates said in response to a request for more information about how the resolution would be enacted.
The Santa Ana-based Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice denounced the resolution’s passing as “purely performative” and said it would be defeated in court.
“Instead of focusing on these life-or-death issues that residents face every day, politicians are wasting their energy blaming immigrant and refugee neighbors, undermining sanctuary policies that have been proven to decrease crime, and attacking the constitutional due process protections in our sanctuary state law, which have withstood numerous legal challenges over the past several years,” the organization said in a statement.
Resident Merlyn Gonzalez said the council’s declaration sends a dangerous message and is a waste of police resources, which should focus on real crimes.
“Immigrants are an asset, not a threat,” Gonzalez said. “Many industries in California, especially in tech, agriculture and hospitality, rely on immigrant labor.”
The California Values Act, which went into effect in 2018 and survived lawsuits at the time brought by the Trump administration and Huntington Beach, declares that trust between California’s immigrant community and state and local agencies is central to public safety, and immigrant community members may fear cooperating with police if they are working with federal immigration enforcement.
Andres Kwon, an American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California senior policy counsel and organizer, said the resolution makes Huntington Beach “extremely unwelcoming and essentially standing for hate and bigotry.”
“They are on legal quicksand,” Kwon said of Huntington Beach. “What I think is very harmful here is they are opening the city up to tremendous legal liability.”
Kwon pointed to how Los Alamitos, which had claimed in 2018 it was exempt from the California Values Act, was forced to repeal the ordinance its councilmembers passed at the time and had to pay $200,000 in attorneys’ fees as part of a settlement agreement in a lawsuit.
Break out the PARTY HATS!
The Democrats are in complete denial. Faced with 40 years of failed economics, playing racial and ethnic bigotry instead of working to build the economy and society they should be worried.
Yesterday talked with a student from UCSB and was astounded to hear her being willing to hear a different point of view. This comment in the article ““purely performative” …… what a pile.
Laugh, as the State Burns, as the State loses solid energy and backups, as the State sees its infrastructure crumble, the outdated Vaudeville act called the Democrat Party does anything it can. What is that? To survive with even the least educated finally getting it.
Socialist and Communist economics and social warfare is always a failure.
Still voting D?
Why?