Huntington Beach has filed a federal lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta that challenges the legality of a 2017 California law limiting interactions between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents.
The Orange County city filed the lawsuit on Jan. 7 in the Central District of California. The city’s legal complaint argues that California’s “Sanctuary State Law,” Senate Bill 54, violates the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy and naturalization clauses and federal immigration laws.
Crime carried out by illegal immigrants, including rapes, murders and assaults, continues to take place in California, which has the largest illegal-immigrant population – 2.6 million in 2022 – of any state in the union, according to the lawsuit.
“As a matter of law, the state’s ‘Sanctuary State Law’ is unconstitutional and violates other federal laws,” the complaint states. “As a matter of enforcement policy, it is a clear and present danger to the health, safety and welfare of the city of Huntington Beach.”
More communications between local law enforcement and the U.S. Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) would help local law enforcement agencies better ensure the well-being of city residents, according to the lawsuit. Under the current system, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department is often barred by state law from notifying ICE about the release of inmates with ICE detainers, leading to additional crimes being committed by undocumented immigrants when they’re back on the streets, the complaint says.
“While the federal government cannot commandeer state and/or local resources to effectuate its operations or achieve its goals, local agencies, like Huntington Beach, should be at liberty to voluntarily cooperate with the federal government in its operations in order to combat local crime and promote local public safety,” the lawsuit says.
Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the timing of the city’s lawsuit was due to multiple reasons, among them increasing safety dangers to local communities from illegal immigration. One of those suspected of starting the recent devastating fires in the Los Angeles area was an illegal alien, Gates said.
“Also, because the incoming Trump administration has indicated it will be actively reaching out to state and local authorities with expectation of cooperation with agencies and compliance with federal immigration laws, we are now seeing a clearer confrontation between federal authorities and the Sanctuary State Law of California,” he told the Southern California Record in an email.
The state law creates a conflict between local and federal authorities, leading to “an untenable ‘Hobson’s Choice’ for the city of Huntington Beach,” according to the lawsuit.
“(The city must) comply with the state’s new Sanctuary State Law and violate U.S. federal immigration laws, or comply with the federal immigration laws and violate the Sanctuary State Law,” the complaint says. “This conflict must be reconciled by this court.”
The law is causing the city to ignore alien smuggling cases, in which people are illicitly brought into the United States and become victims of human trafficking, according to the lawsuit. It is also forcing the city’s Police Department to shield illegal aliens in their custody from detection, the complaint says.
A 2020 University of California, Irvine, study, however, found no correlation between the enactment of the sanctuary law, which is also referred to as the California Values Act, and rising crime rates.
The lawsuit seeks to enjoin California officials from enforcing the law and calls on the court to declare it violates provisions of the U.S. Constitution and federal laws.