Sacramento Passes Useless Resolution to Ban Immigration Enforcement on City Owned Properties

The City of Sacramento passed a resolution Tuesday to uphold existing city policy restricting federal immigration from enforcing federal laws on city-owned land.

City staff recommended the Mayor and City Council “Adopt a Resolution prohibiting the use of City facilities and City property related to immigration enforcement activities and directing the City Manager to develop citywide polices in support of this resolution.”

Why?

“Given recent and anticipated expansions of federal immigration enforcement during the current administration, the Law and Legislation committee discussed and directed staff to bring forward a resolution prohibiting the use of City facilities and City property for immigration-related enforcement activities and that directs the City Manager to develop citywide policies supporting this resolution.”

City staff claims:

“Adoption of this resolution will support immigrant families who reside in the City to remain in Sacramento. Immigrants play a vital role in construction and food sectors, and any significant loss or reduction of this workforce could harm several industries.

What they passed is a resolution, and nothing legally binding because a city in one state in the 50 United States has no authority over federal laws.

So brave.

Their vote “reaffirms” protections for illegal immigrants, free speech rights for anti-ICE protesters, and limits any local police assistance with ICE.

This really wasn’t an update at all, just a reaffirmation of their existing policy, as we noted last week.

Former Assemblyman and Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty attended the meeting, but ducked out of the room for the vote. So brave. It’s a tactic used by many politicians who don’t want a negative vote on their record come campaign time.

The City of Sacramento has been a Sanctuary City since 1985, courtesy of former Mayor Anne Rudin. But that’s not good enough for a group of Sacramento Woodstock relics who are demanding the Mayor and City Council do more to get ICE officers out of the Capitol City.

City sanctuary status was reaffirmed by the brave Mayor and council members in January of 2025.

In January 2026, the City Council unanimously updated its anti-ICE immigration enforcement policies in response to increased federal enforcement under the Trump administration.  

California passed Senate Bill 54 in 2017 during President Trump’s first term, which unconstitutionally prohibits local police departments and sheriffs’ deputies from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and enforcing federal immigration laws. This law led to cities attempting to beef up ant-immigration enforcement policies.

Sacramento City Council members Mai Vang, Eric Guerra, and Karina Talamantes sponsored a separate, more specific resolution, which now targets the use of city property. It directs the City Manager to develop a policy banning ICE and other federal officials from using city properties for “civil immigration-enforcement activities.”

The Sacramento City Council may be the most ineffectual elected body in the state. Sacramento’s numpty officials are signaling their virtue by boosting this policy.

Voters need to tell them to just stop with useless resolutions. Perhaps voting once on behalf of the legal citizens and voters of the City of Sacramento might improve local approval ratings, even in this Democrat Supermajority city. But this latest vote is stupid and useless and means nothing, and takes up valuable time that should have been spent on issues actually plaguing the city.