LOS ALAMITOS — Earlier this month, the Los Alamitos City Council voted to rescind an anti-sanctuary ordinance the city passed two years ago as part of a settlement with three plaintiffs.
Rev. Samuel Pullen, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the plaintiffs, which included himself, Los Alamitos Communities United and the American Civil Liberties Union, worked closely with attorneys to agree upon the terms of the settlement.
"To me, it really represents a real victory for the community," Pullen said in an interview with the Southern California Record. "We achieved reversing the ordinance, which was a very foolish ordinance in the first place. It served no public interest."
Pullen said it was more of a political stunt that didn’t have any impact in the community.
"They didn’t even really intend to carry it out in an actual way," Pullen said. "They nonetheless passed it into law and defended it while we challenged it in the courts. To reverse that was an important step."
Pullen said the settlement terms also included the city paying all the legal fees, which he said was important to note that none of that money went toward the plaintiffs and only went to the attorneys representing them.
"They’re also going to update their internal police policies to have a policy that respects immigrants' rights more appropriately in terms of compliance with the California Values Act," Pullen said. "That will be implemented as terms of the settlement."
Pullen said he and the other plaintiffs hope to work with the city in the future as well.
"We hope to work with the city and the chief of police and whoever they chose to designate to do some awareness in the community about restoring trust with the immigrant community and city offices and institutions," Pullen said. "They’ve committed to working with that and we hope to work with them moving forward with that."
Pullen said the ordinance should've never been passed to begin with.
"It was all just a big political messaging thing," Pullen said. "They should not have passed that policy if they did not intend to carry it out and if they had been carrying it out they would’ve been challenged in court and lost."
Pullen said when the previous mayor and mayor pro tem left, they sensed a willingness among the new leadership to resolve the issue.
"I think that was a good opportunity to make amends and benefit the community moving forward," Pullen said.
Pullen clarified that he was a plaintiff in the lawsuit as an individual and that his church was not involved. He pointed out that many church members were involved via Los Alamitos Community United, which was formed to help people in the community.
The ordinance passed in 2018 and involved the city trying to exempt itself from the state's sanctuary law.