By Shari Rendall
FAIR
San Diego County became the latest California county to enact a resolution to prohibit cooperation with federal immigration officials. The resolution, sponsored by Nora Vargas, Chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors, is a sanctuary policy on steroids that goes far beyond the expansive state sanctuary law, the California Values Act (SB 54).
The resolution, formally known as L-2, is sweeping in nature. It prohibits county officials from “expending time or resources” to cooperate or assist ICE. It prohibits county officials from giving ICE access to inmates or allowing ICE to use county facilities for interviews or other investigative purposes. Additionally, it bars county officials from communicating with ICE regarding an individual’s incarceration status or release date.
Policy L-2 also explicitly states that when ICE seeks to take custody of an incarcerated criminal, county employees shall not honor ICE detainers, but instead require ICE to obtain a judicial warrant for arrest. And even then, the resolution says county officials shall maintain “discretion” regarding whether to facilitate a transfer of custody.
San Diego’s new sanctuary policy goes far beyond conduct prohibited by California’s sanctuary law. While the state law, SB 54, significantly hampers state officials’ cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it at least allow criminal aliens to be transferred to immigration authorities if they have been convicted of certain serious crimes.
Despite its extreme nature, the San Diego Board of Supervisors adopted the measure December 10 by a vote of 3 to 1 with one board member absent. In her statement in support of L-2, Chairwoman Vargas said, “We will not allow our local resources to be used for actions that separate families, harm community trust, or divert critical local resources away from addressing our most pressing challenges.” She continued, “Immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and our county will not be a tool for policies that hurt our residents.”
However, Supervisor Jim Desmond, the lone vote against the bill, believes the bill prioritizes criminal aliens over the safety of county residents. Upon the passage of L-2, Supervisor Desmond said, “Today’s outrageous decision to turn San Diego County into a ‘Super’ Sanctuary County is an affront to every law-abiding citizen who values safety and justice. The Board of Supervisors’ 3-1 vote to embrace this radical policy is a direct betrayal of the people we are sworn to protect.”
He was not the only voice in opposition to L-2. After the passage of the resolution, San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez pushed back saying that the board doesn’t set policy for the Sheriff and that she would not honor the policy but would continue to follow state law. She said that she believes the state law “strikes the right balance between limiting local law enforcement’s cooperation with immigration authorities, ensuring public safety, and building community trust.“
In addition to San Diego, eight other counties in California have passed resolutions to prohibit transferring illegal aliens to ICE, Los Angeles being the most recent. However, not every California city or county agrees with sanctuary policies. Newport Beach Mayor William O’Neill recently blasted the state’s sanctuary law after the Coast Guard intercepted a boat with 21 people off the city’s coastline, including two from Uzbekistan and one from Russia. Mayor O’Neill pointed out that California officials would have been prevented from acting because of the state law. “[T]he truth is, illegal immigration means we don’t know who is coming in, we don’t know when, we don’t know what they’re doing. It is not just illegal. It’s dangerous. It’s not peaceful, it’s destructive.”
The passage of L-2 by the San Diego County board of supervisors is an about face from a vote taken by the board of supervisors in 2018. At that time, the board voted 3 to 1 to join the Trump administration’s lawsuit challenging SB 54. Ironically, this shift by the board of supervisors is happening at a time where Americans overwhelmingly want the border secured. In almost every California county, voters shifted right towards Trump.
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells echoed this sentiment saying, “This move couldn’t be more out of touch with what Americans want. In the last election, the message was loud and clear: resolve the border crisis and uphold the rule of law.”
While the resolution was designed to reassure the illegal aliens living in San Diego County that they will be shielded from immigration enforcement, the reality is that L-2 will not hinder the federal enforcement of immigration laws. In fact, incoming Border Czar Tom Homan recently said, “When you release a public safety threat back in the community, you put the community at risk. You put my officers at risk. You put the alien at risk. Here’s what’s going to happen – you release that guy in the community, I’m going to send an entire team to go look for the guy in your community. And what’s going to happen? We’ll find that guy. And when we find that guy, there’s probably going to be others that are not a priority. However, if they’re in the country illegally, they’ll be arrested, too.”
