It looks like I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to live in a sanctuary state.
Last October, after Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that designated California as a so-called “sanctuary state,” I wrote a long blog post here — titled Dear California Legislature: What if I Don’t Want to Live in a “Sanctuary State?” — that said, in part:
“I can’t stand the thought that the State of California, where I have spent most of my life living, working, and raising a family, is now a “sanctuary state.” …
An irresponsible and short-sighted law like this one just makes me sad and embarrassed to be a Californian.
I would not be surprised if there aren’t a lot of other people up and down the Golden State who really feel that way, too.”
Well, at least one city has decided that THEY don’t like living in a “sanctuary state,” either — the little Orange County community of Los Alamitos.
Challenging the “sanctuary” movement
This week, the Los Alamitos City Council took a stand and voted 4-1 for an ordinance “that exempts their Orange County municipality from Senate Bill 54, a law that took effect Jan. 1 and restricts local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
And the LA Times story added this important note: “It marks a rare effort by a city to challenge the sanctuary movement, which has wide support among elected officials in left-leaning California.”
As the local Orange County Register pointed out, the action by the Los Alamitos City Council just isn’t for show; they put some teeth into it, too:
“The (Council) majority also voted to direct the city attorney to write an amicus brief to a federal lawsuit filed earlier this month against California, alleging that three of the state’s laws are unconstitutional. One of those laws was the same one the Los Alamitos council looks to opt-out of: the “California Values Act,” which limits cooperation between law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities.”
It will be interesting to see how the State of California — mainly Gov. Brown, the Legislature and Attorney General Xavier Becerra — reacts to what little (population 12,000) Los Alamitos did.
The smart move would be for the state to simply ignore it, but California’s politicians are more about grandstanding these days, and they will have to exhibit a measure of previously unseen self-control to avoid their instinctive want to sue and punish Los Alamitos for the City Council’s action.
To levy such punishment, of course, would show simply show what we have always known: that California politicians are hypocrites and behave no better than the federal government they are so quick to sue and complain about.
Is this a reaction to what Oakland’s Mayor did?
Nobody is saying this yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the action by the Los Alamitos Council wasn’t triggered by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff after she single-handedly decided that it was smart public policy for elected officials to publicly and loudly tip-off the public when they knew that the federal government was planning to try and take a lot of criminals off the streets.
Although Schaff has mostly been applauded by the media for her action, there was some push-back from a very unlikely source — the Editorial Page of the Los Angeles Times.
Usually, the Times editorials are predictably liberal, but once in a while they surprise you with an unexpected burst of common sense, as they did in gently chiding Mayor Schaff. They wrote:
“Local officials should not actively impede or interfere with immigration enforcement for the same reason they should not aid in rounding up the undocumented — it’s not their responsibility. Further, if we want people to engage with the legal system, trying to subvert lawful enforcement of immigration codes sends the opposite message. Local subversion of federal rules would be justified in only the most dire circumstances. …
Certainly there are Trump policies — OK, nearly all of his policies — that deserve strong political opposition and pushback, but it’s dangerous ground to declare that because one disagrees with a federal (or even state) law that it should be disobeyed.”
Los Alamitos is just the first city to push back
Give the LA Times Editorial Page team credit for some reasonable perspective on what the Mayor of Oakland did, but it makes me wonder: Why don’t we read or hear more people in the media saying similar things?
Given how most of the media has turned far left and believe they are part of the “resistance” these days, you know the answer to that question.
But, the City Council vote in Los Alamitos should be a wake-up call for that kind of thinking.
As I said back in October when Gov. Brown signed the “sanctuary state” bill, it’s “not only an incredibly bad law but also terribly wrongheaded public policy, too.” Others know this as well, and they’re finally starting to react.
Los Alamitos may be the first to push back against this terrible dictate from Sacramento, but believe me, they won’t be the last. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot more to come.