In a move that the anti-Trump, #Resistance forces in Sacramento could hardly have anticipated, a California county is joining the Trump administration’s lawsuit against “Sanctuary State” rules.
In a dramatic one-two punch, leaders in California’s Orange County voted Tuesday to condemn the state’s sanctuary law that limits police cooperation with federal immigration authorities and to join a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to overturn it.The all-Republican Board of Supervisors in the county that is home to 3.2 million people and many immigrants approved the measures by unanimous votes. One of the five supervisors was absent.The meeting produced a raucous debate between those who say the moves uphold the rule of law and draw a line on illegal immigration and others who said it was racist and more about politics than public safety.
Of course, California Attorney General Xavier Beccera plans to push back on the county’s move:
“A local jurisdiction, whether it’s a county or a city, will have to be able to explain if it decides not to follow state law, why it doesn’t — and of course, any time you don’t follow the law, you’re going to be subject to the penalties that might be part of that law,” Becerra said.
California’s current favorite for the US Senate race also condemned Orange County.
…Sen. Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, slammed the move.”The county that gave us Prop. 187 more than two decades ago is at it again with another unconstitutional attack on our immigrant communities,” De Leon said. “I am confident the courts will reject this challenge to SB 54, just as they roundly rejected Prop. 187.”He added, “This kind of obsessive immigrant bashing is embarrassing to the county and its residents, and seems designed to court the approval of a racist president and his cronies.”
But that isn’t the only act of state-based #Counter-resistance that has occurred. A sheriff’s office plans to provide public information on when inmates are released from jail in hopes to skirt assistance restrictions to federal immigration officials.
The Orange County Register reported that the county’s sheriff’s department will publish a “Who’s in Jail” online database, including the date and time of inmates’ release, to help cooperate with other law enforcement agencies including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE.)Undersheriff Don Barnes cited California’s sanctuary legislation, which limits the instances when state and local police agencies can inform federal authorities about an illegal immigrant’s release from detention, specifically as a reason for the move.“This is in response to SB-54 limiting our ability to communicate with federal authorities and our concern that criminals are being released to the street when there’s another avenue to safeguard the community by handing them over (to ICE for potential deportation),” Barnes said, according to the Register.
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that tiny Los Alamitos began the backlash by refusing to implement the state’s “Sanctuary State” rules. We will likely see more California municipalities and regional governments board the Trump Train to leave the “Sanctuary State” rules in the dust.
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