Press Stories

Five cities, one story: Californians rejecting anti-immigrant agenda

2018.4.4 – Last night, city councils in Fullerton (Orange County) and West Covina (LA County) rejected anti-immigrant attempts to join the Trump administration’s baseless lawsuit against California’s “sanctuary” laws, while a city council member in Porterville (Tulare County) withdrew an ordinance to exempt the city from SB 54 after community outcry. Also last night, the city of Santa Ana, the county seat of Orange County, passed a resolution in defense of SB 54, and the city of San Gabriel (LA County) passed a “Safe City” resolution.

Each of these city council meetings saw passionate commentary and strong mobilization by local residents.

The following is a statement from the ICE Out of CA Coalition steering committee, including ACLU of California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – California, the California Immigrant Policy Center, the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Last night, local residents in communities across the state made their voices heard and stood up to defend our values of compassion, equal treatment, and common humanity. The actions in these five cities are a reminder that the majority of Californians support local and state action to protect immigrants, who are a vital part our families and communities.

Meanwhile, the shameful behavior of anti-immigrant extremists – who shouted racial slurs at a high-school student in West Covina – lays bare the hate-filled agenda that a vocal, but relatively small, number of unrepresentative entities in our state have aligned with. SB 54 is the law of the land, and we will continue to work to build on the law’s foundation in order to defend the due process rights and humanity of everyone who calls California home, including immigrants.

Even in San Juan Capistrano, one of a handful of places where an anti-immigrant resolution went through, Mayor Sergio Farias opposed the resolution and referred to himself “[a]s mayor of everyone who calls San Juan Capistrano home, regardless of their legal status.”