(The Center Square) – The City of Huntington Beach is suing to overturn the state’s sanctuary state laws protecting illegal immigrants, arguing they violate federal immigration laws and the state and national constitution.
Huntington Beach and the state government have long been at odds, with the state government recently winning a court battle requiring the city to follow state housing laws, and Huntington Beach emerging victorious — or at least for now — in a state challenge to its voter ID requirement for city elections.
Huntington Beach claims the state’s sanctuary state laws, which limit cooperation between state and local law enforcement with federal immigration authorities, force city officials to violate federal law, which, under the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, preempts state law.
“As a matter of law, the State’s “Sanctuary State Law” is unconstitutional and violates other Federal laws; 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,” wrote the city in its lawsuit. “California’s Sanctuary State Law not only limits the ability of City officials, including Huntington Beach Police personnel, to engage in fullest of effective law enforcement practices, but it directs City officials, including Huntington Beach Police personnel, to violate U.S. Federal immigration laws.”
The city also says the sanctuary state laws put its residents at higher risk of crime, citing high re-arrest rates of individuals who were arrested with active detainers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement — meaning they are supposed to be detained to be transferred to ICE for deportation.
Orange County data from 2023 shows 547 inmates had ICE detainers, leading OCSD to notify ICE of the capture of the 302 inmates who met the state sanctuary law’s requirements for being transferred to ice, 221 of whom were transferred to ICE.
Of the 81 for whom ICE was notified but did not accept transfers, 40 were re-arrested for new crimes in Orange County in 2023. Of the 245 inmates for whom the sanctuary state law prohibited ICE notification, 27 were re-arrested for new crimes in Orange County in 2023.
The case also cites a Dec. 17 press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta that “reminds California immigrants of their rights and protections under the law.”
“State and local law enforcement cannot ask for your immigration status,” wrote Bonta’s office in the release. “State and local law enforcement cannot assist ICE with immigration enforcement, with very limited exceptions. This means they cannot investigate, cannot interrogate, cannot arrest, and cannot detain you unless it is as part of [a] joint federal task force where the primary purpose is not immigration enforcement.”
Bonta’s office is yet to respond to Huntington Beach’s lawsuit, which is calling for an injunction against the sanctuary state law.
