Close up of Border Patrol at the San Diego and Mexico international border wall, May 12, 2023. (Photo: Aaron J. Hill/Shutterstock)
El Dorado DA Wants Legal Opinion on State/Federal Immigration Enforcement Conflicts
CA’s SB 54 prohibits local police from assisting ICE officers enforcing federal immigration laws – or they will be prosecuted
By Katy Grimes, January 27, 2025 2:45 am
El Dorado District Attorney Vern Pierson just sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta requesting a legal opinion on the very clear conflicts of the state’s immigration law, and federal enforcement laws.
In a move that could impact local law enforcement and immigration policies, DA Pierson has formally requested a legal opinion from Attorney General Bonta regarding immigration enforcement practices.
And here is why – it was only in December, that AG Bonta issued a memo to help “immigrants” understand their “rights and protections” under California law. Notably, missing from his memo was the word “illegal.” To AG Bonta, they are just “California immigrants,” “Californians,” and residents.
Here’s part of his memo:
California Attorney General Rob Bonta today issued two guidances to help California immigrants better understand their rights and protections under the law and avoid immigration scams by those seeking to take advantage of fear and uncertainty resulting from the President-elect’s inhumane threats of mass detention, arrests, and deportation. The guidances build on the Attorney General’s announcement earlier this month of updated model policies and recommendations to help public institutions like schools, hospitals, and courts comply with California law limiting state and local participation in immigration enforcement activities. Over the coming weeks, Attorney General Bonta will continue to help Californians prepare for changes to federal immigration policy in convenings with immigrant rights groups, elected officials, and others in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco, and San Diego, where the Attorney General and California Department of Justice (CADOJ) staff will share resources, hear concerns, and discuss ongoing efforts to protect California’s immigrant communities.
“In California, we know that our immigrants are the backbone of our communities, a driving force behind our economy, and an essential part of our history as a state,” said Attorney General Bonta. “With the President-elect making clear his intent to move forward an inhumane and destructive immigration agenda once he takes office, CADOJ is releasing new and updated guidance to help immigrants understand their rights under the law. In California, we will ensure that the rights of our immigrant communities are respected and protected. I will be convening a series of discussions in the weeks ahead – the first here today in Los Angeles – focused on this essential mission.”
Blue states governors like California’s Governor Newsom have vowed to fight Trump administration immigration policies, including deportations of criminal illegal aliens.
Bonta doesn’t really offer anything concrete to prevent illegal aliens from being deported. He’s merely offering up roadblocks and soundbites. And, Bonta, who claims “our immigrants are the backbone of our communities,” is ignoring the illegal aliens, and especially the criminal illegal aliens, cartels and gangs now in the US.
At the heart of California’s non-existing illegal immigrant enforcement is SB 54, which now prohibits local police departments and sheriffs’ deputies from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and enforcing federal immigration laws. But that law conflicts with federal law and federal immigration rules.
California is already a “sanctuary state” thanks to Assembly and Senate Democrats and former Gov. Jerry Brown who signed Senate Bill 54 by then-Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) in 2017.
In his letter, DA Pierson identifies the legal conflicts between SB 54 and federal law, also noting that SB 54 calls for prosecution of any California law enforcement member who assists in deportation.
“SB54 arguably stands in conflict with federal law because it obstructs the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws effectively,” Pierson said in his letter.
In December, the Globe reported:
Remember when in 2010 the Obama administration sued Arizona over the state’s passage of strict new immigration laws because the state was under attack from violent Mexican drug and immigrant smuggling cartels? Remember that Obama announced he was taking back control over the issue while ignoring that border states were desperate for more security?
The Obama administration argued the Arizona law, which required state and local police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they reasonably suspected of being an illegal immigrant, is unconstitutional and would sap law enforcement resources, Reuters reported.
“Seeking to address the issue through a patchwork of state laws will only create more problems than it solves,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, said in a statement.
So which is it California? Do the state’s immigration policies to “protect” illegal immigrants trump the federal government’s, or is President Donald Trump right to deport those in the state and country illegally?
DA Pierson says the legislative history of SB 54 demonstrates its intent to shield those in the state illegally from federal enforcement is in direct conflict with the intent of Congress to keep an open channel of communication between federal and local authorities.
The bottom line is that California’s SB 54 law shielding illegal immigrants violates federal immigration law. Ironically, Arizona’s law authorized their own deportations of illegal aliens. It was the Obama administration that halted that.
President-elect Trump’s incoming Border Czar Tom Homan warned, “It’s a felony to knowingly harbor or conceal an illegal alien from immigration authorities. Don’t test us.”
DA Pierson sent a similar letter to then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra in 2017, but never received a response.
This list is from AG Bonta’s December memo directing illegal immigrants to use California’s taxpayer funded services, rent apartments and homes, avail themselves of free (taxpayer funded) medical care, and do it with impunity because California’s law enforcement officials will be prosecuted instead of those who are in the state illegally, should they attempt to assist federal immigration officials.
Know Your Immigration Rights and Protections Under the Law
- You have the right to apply for and secure housing without sharing your immigration status. California law prohibits housing providers from asking about your immigration status unless you are applying for affordable housing funded by the federal government. Additionally, housing providers cannot harass or intimidate you by threatening or sharing information about your immigration status to ICE, law enforcement, or other government agencies.
- You have the right to access emergency medical care. Federal laws and regulations ensure the rights of all people to access emergency medical care, including undocumented immigrants.
- You have the right to an attorney. If you are arrested by police, you have the right to a government-appointed attorney. If you are detained by ICE and/or are facing immigration proceedings, you have the right to seek legal assistance through an attorney.
- State and local law enforcement cannot ask for your immigration status. California law expressly prohibits law enforcement from inquiring about a person’s immigration status for immigration enforcement purposes.
- State and local law enforcement cannot share your personal information. This includes sharing your home or work address for immigration purposes, unless that information is available to the public or unless that information involves previous criminal arrest, convictions or similar criminal history.
- State and local law enforcement cannot assist ICE with immigration enforcement, with very limited exceptions. This means they cannot investigate, cannot interrogate, cannot arrest, and cannot detain you unless it is as part of joint federal task force where the primary purpose is not immigration enforcement.
District Attorney Vern Pierson’s letter to AG Bonta:
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There is not just preemption but there is no Common Law legal principal that a subsidiary jurisdiction can arbitrarily nullify or or otherwise ignore misdemeanor and felony criminal offenses that are statute law in the the superior jurisdiction. They cannot pick and chose which laws to enforce.
What I find puzzling is why the “immigration activists” both civilian and government officials are not prosecuted as Accessories After the Fact when they directly impeded the enforcement of 8 U.S. Code § 1325 / 8 U.S. Code § 1326. When I look at what Attorney General Bonta has said and done he looks like a prime candidate for prosecution under 18 U.S. Code § 3. As an Accessory After the Fact. The wording of the law is very clear. This is quite separate from his falling to abide by his oath of office as AG. An act of malfeasance which is also a serious criminal offense.
Sincerely hope we soon see some ACTION to prosecute Rob Bonta regarding what you have described.
These remain very serious matters and Bonta continues to flip the bird at Californians with his nonsense talk. Adding insult to injury, his defense of law-breaking alongside his paper-thin but nevertheless pompously self-righteous role as illegal alien apologist, all the while conflating illegals with “immigrants” who are in the U.S. legally, hoping to confuse, are annoying and obnoxious in addition to being wrong and dangerous.
Dangerous is correct , Show (it is great to see you back)
need I remind everyone about the rape trees along the border ? Evil !
On Bonta’s list of rights ,he states –
[State and local law enforcement cannot share your personal information. This includes sharing your home or work address for immigration purposes, unless that information is available to the public or unless that information involves previous criminal arrest, convictions or similar criminal history.]
How DARE he ?
I will never let it go that Rob (Fine! I guess I’ll give the shady money back) Bonta
‘shared’ personal details about LAW ABIDING citizens,
who happen to own guns, on his website .
Gavin Newshame and Rob Better Give it Back Bonta would be wise to
learn that political lawfare is no longer
fashionable. Duh !
Tfourier, thanks for the legal reference. Per Trump’s directive the US is already deporting certain illegal aliens. Columbia has backed down. We will know very soon if Trump is bluffing about California. My sense is he is not.
Realistically, I don’t think we can deport millions. However, we sure as hell can deport all illegal aliens who have felony convictions. Then the US should establish a system for applicants to stay. The application process should have conditions and strict timelines. If those conditions and timelines are not met, out you go.
California is now the #1 state for illegal crossings…
I like this DA, because he is forcing the action. Every first year law student learns Federal law trumps State law. Even Bonta knows that. He cannot issue any opinion otherwise. The problem is that it invalidates much of the web of state laws meant to “Trump proof” the state. This is why the former AG Becerra didn’t issue any opinion when asked. When cornered, Bonta, , like Newsom just starts talking faster cloaking his powerlessness in making laughable claims about illegals being the “backbone of our communities” (they’re not) when the reality is they are a huge drain of taxpayer money. Homan is coming, and Pam Bondi will not back down. I can’t wait.
Like all state appointments under the current regime, Becerra was a convenient proformer, who bent the logic of gender biology and citizenship like a pretzel, according to the whims of his patron, Gubernadora Osita Blanca de la Fuega.
“So which is it California? Do the state’s immigration policies to “protect” illegal immigrants trump the federal government’s, or is President Donald Trump right to deport those in the state and country illegally?”
This KG article correctly identifies the fact that Bonta and his kind are using legal obfuscation as a tool to create “fear and chaos” among the innocent (legal immigrants) to protect the guilty (illegals, who are the ones they REALLY want to protect). This has worked in the past and is an integral part of the super majority’s political strategy – contrived conflation and confusion. Listen to and read the local leftist media and you will see the same Bonta-type proclamations repeated to the masses. There are now “workshops” being conducted to “inform and educate” immigrants (of all kinds, presumably) of their rights. Every person who has crossed the border and been allowed to stay in-country claiming “asylum”, without providing evidence of political persecution in their home country, is an ILLEGAL and are therefore subject to deportation after adjudication. The known CRIMINALS among them, legal or illegal, can be arrested and jailed or deported forthwith.
Please let us know if Vern gets stonewalled.
Thanks
It will be interesting to see what happens once Trumps AG is confirmed and how Californias liberal government is assaulted. Guys like Bonta have been hiding behind Merrick Garland and now have no place to hide. Trump is going to work hard to flip California, and my money is on Trump flipping California before the CalExit folks take California out of the United States of America.
Be a Patriotic American and defend our borders and the rule of law or be declared an enemy of the people of the United States. No more fooling around. Send these people to GITMO if they side with the enemies of this country.
We need the ICE raids in San Francisco, LA, and Sacramento. I would imagine Trump could have DOJ sue California and Gavin? Perhaps charge them? We need legal action SOON since this has been going on since 1996. Tfourier in the above comment seems to know EXACTLY how to proceed.