El Cajon Delays Vote On Resolution to Remove Sanctuary City Status

A vote on a new resolution in the San Diego County city of El Cajon aiming to revoke their sanctuary city status was delayed this week following resident backlash. Many are concerned with how the decision could clash with the California sanctuary law and federal changes to erase such measures likely to be moved forward soon in the upcoming Trump administration.

Currently in California, the entire state has sanctuary protections. Passed in 2017 and signed into law in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown, Senate Bill 54 prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies in California from assisting federal immigration authorities. By not allowing state law enforcement money or manpower being used for immigration enforcement, it in effect created a sanctuary for illegal immigrants who were arrested. While they can still be punished under California law, SB 54 halted or delayed outright deportation.

The election of Donald Trump in November prompted many cities and counties to create their own sanctuary city or county laws, including San Diego County and the city of Los Angeles. In addition, the state “Trump-proofed” the existing sanctuary laws, making it more difficult for ICE to get any kind of local help.

However, many cities in California also went the opposite way, looking to either be legally exempt from sanctuary laws, or reversing earlier laws the city passed to “de-sanctuary” themselves. Since November, the most prominent city to do this is Huntington Beach, which has been working to exempt itself from sanctuary laws. Huntington Beach has fought such laws dating back to when SB 54 first became law seven years ago. But with Trump returning to office soon, they’re hoping to get an exemption through.

Others, like El Cajon, have faced different issues. The person behind the sanctuary city revocation resolution, Mayor Bill Wells, has said that it is necessary to get clarification on what the town can do legally once Trump is in office. By getting rid of any city sanctuary laws, El Cajon would fall back on state and federal laws and would then need to follow where those two are at legally.

As documented in the minutes to the City Council meeting on Tuesday, they just want to know if they should follow state or federal immigration laws.

El Cajon’s sanctuary city resolution

“We have the federal government saying we could be prosecuted if we don’t cooperate with them, we’ve got the state government saying our police officers could be prosecuted if they do cooperate with the federal government,” said Wells this week.

Some local residents, meanwhile, protested the proposed resolution. As El Cajon, a city of over 100,000 people, has a large migrant population, many are afraid that revoking the sanctuary law could lead to many deportations and arrests in the city once new Trump migrant measures are put into place.

“The fact that we’re even discussing this, allowing police to help out ICE, is crazy,” explained San Diego migrant assistance worker Sofia Alvarez to the Globe on Friday. “El Cajon has always been one of the better city to migrants. About 20% of the city is made up of Arab immigrants, and many more are from Latin America. And now, look what they are doing. They want clarification all right. They want clarification to help deport people.”

With so much backlash coming from residents, the vote on the resolution wound up being delayed. The vote is now expected to take place in the coming weeks, with supporters firing back that the resolution would simply allow the police to assist the federal government to the maximum legal extent permissible.

“This is not about taking our police force and turning them into Border Patrol agents, this is about cooperating with the federal government and following the law,” added Wells. “The intention is not to take our police department and have them rounding people up, that’s not the intention at all.”