In abstract
A conservative group led by Trump adviser Stephen Miller despatched letters to California leaders warning of ‘serious consequences’ over sanctuary insurance policies that defend undocumented residents.
California’s southern border, lengthy ‘ground zero’ within the struggle between federal and native officers over immigration coverage, is now on the middle of renewed controversy over how far native leaders can go to guard folks from deportation.
After San Diego County took steps earlier this month to strengthen safeguards for undocumented residents, a corporation led by President-elect Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller despatched a letter warning that elected leaders and workers of “sanctuary” jurisdictions may very well be “criminally liable” in the event that they impede federal immigration enforcement.
Within the Dec. 23 letterAmerica First Authorized Basis wrote: “We have identified San Diego County as a sanctuary jurisdiction that is violating federal law.”
The conservative authorized nonprofit that day introduced that it had recognized 249 elected officers in sanctuary jurisdictions who it stated may face “legal consequences” over immigration insurance policies. The California Legal professional Common’s workplace and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had been despatched comparable letters.
The letter additionally suggests sanctuary metropolis officers may very well be civilly liable beneath federal anti-racketeering legal guidelines.
With Trump pledging to hold out the “largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history,” San Diego’s board of supervisors enacted a coverage on Dec. 12 prohibiting native legislation enforcement from speaking with immigration authorities about undocumented folks in native jails with out a judicial warrant.
San Diego’s newly enacted ordinance goes a step additional than California’s present state “sanctuary” legislation, which solely limits cooperation between native legislation enforcement and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The legislation prevents jailers from notifying ICE about non-citizen inmates who’re about to be launched from native legal custody except they dedicated one among about 800 severe crimes. State jail officers frequently talk with ICE about folks of their custody, together with U.S. residents, public data present.
San Diego County’s motion confronted fast pushback, with the county’s prime legislation enforcement official, Sheriff Kelly Martinez, saying she wouldn’t observe the brand new coverage and would proceed permitting immigration authorities entry to the jail inmates.
American First Authorized Basis despatched its letter to the chair of San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors, Nora Vargas, who stepped down from her place on Friday citing safety issues simply weeks after being elected to a second time period.
“Federal law is clear: aliens unlawfully present in the United States are subject to removal from the country, and it is a crime to conceal, harbor, or shield them. It is also a crime to prevent federal officials from enforcing immigration law,” states the letter, dated three days after the resignation.
Vargas referred questions in regards to the letter to a spokesperson, who didn’t instantly remark. Vargas, who was born in Tijuana, has lengthy championed rights for asylum seekers and immigrants. She was the primary immigrant and Latina to serve on San Diego’s board of supervisors. She was elected to the board in 2020, flipping the seat from Republican to Democrat for the primary time in a long time.
Spokespersons for Trump’s transition staff didn’t instantly reply to inquiries about whether or not the administration plans to prosecute native officers in sanctuary cities.
California getting ready authorized battles with Trump administration
State officers have requested the Legislature, in a particular session known as by Gov. Gavin Newsom final monthfor $25 million for authorized fights with the incoming administration on points together with immigration.
“This is a scare tactic, plain and simple,” learn a press release from the Legal professional Common Rob Bonta’s workplace, in response to the America First letter. “While we are unable to comment on the specifics of the letter, we want to be clear: SB 54 was upheld by the courts during the first Trump administration, and it prevents the use of state and local resources for federal immigration enforcement with certain narrow exceptions. SB 54 does nothing, however, to block federal agencies from conducting immigration enforcement themselves. California will continue to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, and we expect all local law enforcement agencies to do the same.”
The state is dwelling to a number of main cities with insurance policies limiting cooperation between native police and federal immigration authorities. Proponents say such insurance policies make immigrants much less scared of deportation when reporting crimes to or cooperating with the police. Los Angeles adopted a sanctuary metropolis ordinance in November, fast-tracking the coverage after Trump’s election.
Requested for touch upon the America First letter, Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, known as it “wrong on public safety and wrong on the law.”
“Sanctuary policies are against the law, make a mockery of America’s democratic principles, and demonstrate a shocking disrespect for our Constitution and our citizens. The officials in charge of sanctuary jurisdictions have no excuse and must be held accountable,” learn a press release from James Rogers, a senior counsel with America First Authorized.
Trump focused California sanctuary cities earlier than
The state’s personal sanctuary legislationsigned by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017, curbs native sheriffs’ transfers of detainees to federal immigration custody and likewise prohibits police from asking folks about their immigration standing. That legislation, Senate Invoice 54, comprises an exception for state prisons, which frequently switch ex-inmates who’ve accomplished their sentences to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings.
Trump advisers, together with Miller, have been contemplating utilizing federal stress, resembling withholding federal funds, in opposition to jurisdictions that received’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The final Trump administration tried to get the California sanctuary legislation overturned in federal courtroom, however the Supreme Court docket in 2020 declined to listen to its petition. And in 2018, Trump’s Division of Homeland Safety floated legal prices in opposition to politicians of cities that enact sanctuary insurance policies. It didn’t file prices.
“So-called ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions that forbid compliance with federal immigration law and cooperation with the officials who enforce it are, therefore, breaking the law. Moreover, sanctuary jurisdictions are strictly prohibited from requiring their employees to violate federal immigration law,” the America First letter states.
However Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Middle for Immigration Regulation and Coverage on the UCLA College of Regulation, stated the letter’s reasoning that sanctuary insurance policies quantity to “harboring” or concealing federal fugitives is flawed.
“Not inquiring about someone’s status is not harboring. Neither is declining to share such information,” Arulanantham stated in a textual content message Friday. “I’m not aware of any criminal protections based on such conduct, and the letter fails to cite any.”
To hold out his plan to deport extra folks than another president, Trump will want the cooperation of native officers. Immigrant Authorized Useful resource Middle, a nationwide nonprofit that gives authorized coaching and does pro-immigrant coverage work in California and Texas, estimates 70 to 75% of ICE arrests within the inside of the U.S. are handoffs from one other legislation enforcement company, resembling native jails or state or federal prisons. Since 2019, California’s state jail system has delivered greater than 5,700 previously incarcerated immigrants to ICE, federal knowledge exhibits.
San Diego was the epicenter of a surge of unauthorized crossings earlier this 12 months, straining native assets. In April, 37,370 folks crossed between ports of entry within the San Diego sector, with the bulk surrendering to Border Patrol to say asylum. This made it the highest spot for crossings within the nation for a couple of weeks in 2024, based on federal knowledge. The variety of unauthorized crossings dropped sharply after the Biden administration applied new asylum restrictions in June.
