Having fielded threats and insults from the federal government for the past year under the administration of Donald Trump, leaders in Sacramento are now facing a thunderous revolt from within.
On Wednesday, Huntington Beach sued California over its sanctuary state law, SB 54.It will also join an existing legal case against the state launched by the Department of Justice, just as Orange County voted to do last week.
On Tuesday, Costa Mesa appeared poised to join the fight as well. The city has directed staff to study SB 54’s local impacts. That decision came less than two weeks after Los Alamitos voted to exempt itself from SB 54.
It doesn’t stop there. Two more important votes were held by city councils last night.
This is a fight California should have seen coming. A year ago, California City News conducted a first-of-its-kind opinion poll of California mayors and council members across the state, which revealed deep polarization on the issue of sanctuary cities. At the time, our survey showed local elected officials about evenly split on sanctuary policies, with 49% agreeing with President Trump and 51% in support of sanctuary cities. All it took was a one city to fire the opening shot. The rest, as they say, is history.
City Lab has an excellent piece on the emerging civil war over sanctuary policies in California. Be sure to check that out here.