The Trump administration wants to sue California over its current immigration laws that provide certain allowances for undocumented immigrants. In a recent New York Times article, many details about the disparity between the Trump Administration and California on its immigration laws were detailed. In it, Mayor Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento claimed, “I’m worried about the ‘Dreamers,’ hard-working immigrant families and law-abiding people who are just trying to make their way like the rest of us.”
Why does the Trump Administration want to sue California? It began with three laws California passed in 2017 that limited government intervention for federal immigration agents. The laws California passed were so “police will no longer be able to ask people about their immigration status or participate in federal immigration enforcement actions under a law making California a sanctuary state,” says Washington’s Top News. “The law also allows jail officials to transfer inmates to federal immigration authorities only if they have been convicted of certain crimes.” This law was among many bills that were designed to prevent the policies the Trump Administration put forward. Another law requires immigration officials to present a warrant in order to access the workplace or employee records of an immigrant under investigation. An additional law forbids law enforcement officials from taking someone into custody for an actual or suspected immigration violation or turning them over to immigration authorities without a warrant.
The lawsuit against California is meant to start revisions of government laws so that employees and business owners can turn over undocumented immigrants to ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, if they want to. “California better hold on tight,” Thomas Homan, acting director of ICE, said on Fox News. “They are about to see a lot more special agents, a lot more deportation officers.” However, a study conducted at the State University of New York revealed that in places where the immigrant population increased between 1980 and 2016, seventy percent of the time, the crime rate remained stable or decreased. Homan also highlighted many cases of people being killed by immigrants, asserting, “If the politicians in California don’t want to protect their communities, then ICE will.”
During a three-day sweep through Southern California that ended Thursday, March 15, ICE arrested 115 people. Among those arrested, it is possible that ICE officers arrested those who have green cards but were suspected of engaging in criminal acts or violating their visas, though it is said that the most recent arrests were of immigrants who were in the United States illegally.
California is a well-known sanctuary state, but what exactly does the term mean? On the far right, it is a highly politically charged word, but on the far left, the word is grossly misleading. “Reporters and editorial boards and activists on both sides of the spectrum just keep using it,” says Senate leader Kevin de León on Los Angeles Times. “But it’s a misnomer. The federal government enforces federal immigration law. Nothing can change that, neither state nor cities. That’s what gets lost in the impassioned rhetoric.”
A debated topic among many includes whether California’s sanctuary cities are delaying the federal government’s attempts to enforce immigration laws. For Republicans, the word “sanctuary” means protecting people who came to the United States illegally. For Democrats, it means cutting off Trump’s attempts to deport hard workers who came to the United States illegally. Republicans point out this contradiction repeatedly. “What we’re talking about here,” De León continues on Los Angeles Times, “are law-abiding, taxpaying maids, busboys, housekeepers, cooks, gardeners and people we entrust our children and senior citizens to.”
According to Los Angeles Times, De León’s mom migrated to San Diego illegally and cleaned houses for a living. He rode the bus with her after work. De León says the sanctuary bill is a reaction to Trump. “You know what happens when the head of household is deported? Who pays the rent? The family becomes homeless,” De León says. Despite this, the lawsuit will continue, and the outcome will affect thousands of people who have come to consider California their rightful home.