Santa Clara County, along with San Francisco and a coalition of local jurisdictions from across the nation, said it will file a lawsuit later today against the Trump Administration over the President’s executive orders and federal administration actions illegally harming jurisdictions that have so-called “sanctuary” policies which prohibit the use of local resources to aid federal immigration officials with carrying out civil immigration enforcement.
Local non-cooperation policies focus local resources on local priorities such as providing services to vulnerable populations and carrying out traditional law enforcement activity to protect local public safety. The county said local policies “prohibit the federal government’s commandeering of local government resources to carry out civil immigration enforcement, which is a federal responsibility.”
In a press release, the county said that courts have repeatedly upheld local governments’ constitutional right to choose a policy of non-cooperation. “These policies in no way prevent the federal government from using its own resources to enforce federal immigration laws.” the county said.
“The federal government does not have the legal authority to strongarm local jurisdictions into using their own resources to serve the federal government’s immigration priorities,” said County of Santa Clara County Counsel Tony LoPresti. “The Trump Administration does not have the right to take over our local resources and effectively conscript our own law enforcement officers into being federal immigration enforcement agents.”
Since taking office on Janu.20, President Donald Trump and his administration have attempted to freeze federal funding to states and local governments with non-cooperation policies, and have attempted to commandeer local resources and law enforcement officers to take on the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
"Chaotic orders to hold Congress-approved federal funds to cities and counties is not only illegal but will hurt public safety and health for everyone, including the 2 million people right here in Santa Clara County," said County of Santa Clara Board President Otto Lee.
For example, Executive Order 14159, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” orders federal agencies to illegally cut off federal funding to jurisdictions that do not use local resources to assist in immigration enforcement. And the federal administration has gone even further with threats of prosecution.
Two memos from the U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) sent on Jan. 22 and Feb. 5 have instructed Justice Department personnel to investigate and civilly and criminally prosecute state and local officials in jurisdictions that do not actively assist in immigration enforcement. On Thursday, the Justice Department brought a lawsuit against the City of Chicago and State of Illinois challenging their non-cooperation laws, making the prosecution of state and local officials for following their local laws a reality.
“The orders coming from this federal administration are flagrant, unconstitutional threats against state and local governments across the nation,” said Santa Clara County Executive James R. Williams. “This is the next chapter of the same playbook that was used eight years ago. Thecounty litigated against the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional efforts in 2017 and prevailed in court; we will do so again today.”
Supervisor Betty Duong said Santa Clara County has "always been a welcoming community," going back to the 1970s when her parents arrived as refugees from the Vietnam War as part of the County’s Refugee Resettlement Program.
“I am so proud that the County of Santa Clara continues to be a leader in the fight against the Trump Administration’s unconscionable actions, particularly those that harm our immigrant communities,” Duong said.
During the first Trump Administration, the County of Santa Clara and San Francisco sued the federal government after the federal administration attempted to withhold federal funds from the County based on its noncooperation policies. In that matter and subsequent cases, federal district courts and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the conditions the Trump Administration attempted to place on federal funding were unconstitutional and that County policies complied with federal laws.
“This is a clear message that we will hold the line as we’ve done before, in solidarity with our immigrant communities, to stand up against the Trump Administration’s bullying and intimidation tactics to withhold federal funding for critical County services,” said Board Vice President Sylvia Arenas. “Our region and country were built on the backs of immigrants, and we must have courage to continue standing strong. We will remain united and stand up for justice, if that means noncooperation with mass deportations that aim to separate our families.”
Supervisor Susan Ellenberg said targeting immigrants does nothing to improve public safety.
“It has a chilling effect on the community, making individuals fearful to report crimes or obtain needed healthcare and other County services," Ellenberg said. "It makes children afraid to go to school, the library, or the playground. We do not want residents of Santa Clara County – or anywhere else in the nation – to be forced to live with that kind of fear.”
Led by the County of Santa Clara County and the City and County of San Francisco, the lawsuit to be filed today is also brought by the City of Portland, Oregon; the City of New Haven, Connecticut; and King County, Washington. The matter will be filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
“The county serves to help all residents without regard to immigration status, and without collecting information about immigration status,” said Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga. “Our law enforcement officers do not – and should not – assist in immigration raids. It is simply not the job of local governments, and this lawsuit puts Santa Clara County at the forefront of the effort to resist the Trump Administration’s push to unlawfully force jurisdictions to do its bidding.”
The best and most responsible thing city, county, and state government leaders can do to keep everyone safe is to urge immigrants living here illegally to obey the law and return to their home country. That way, they can still return without penalty and perhaps work through the legal process. Additionally, for the safety of Law Enforcement, ICE, immigrants, and their neighbors, the safest thing Law Enforcement can do is notify ICE when illegal immigrants are in custody. The hand-off is within a control environment, no 4AM door knocks, no chases, no family members swept up, clean and simple.
Anyone laboring under the notion this is a bluff, that Holman, Bondi, Noem are only doing this for a couple of news cycles is betting wrong. Eventually people will be killed – immigrants, their families, their neighbors and it will be the Mayor’s, the Sheriff’s, the Commissioner’, and the Governor’s fault. If an ICE Agent gets killed during a raid that could have easily been avoided by in custody hand-off, it will not turn out how you hope or imagine, it will not be a FAFO story. It will be a dramatic escalation of Federal Force.
It is the sworn duty of every government official to obey the law and the constitution, and as such local and state governments do not have jurisdiction on immigration. Had Democrats changed the laws in their many years in power, things may be different. But they did not and are no longer running the executive. If you want to blame someone look no further than Bill Clinton, Barak Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer. Their cynical multi-decade political calculus of converting immigrant suffering into power and money is shameful.
Funding the Rapid Response Network is not refusing to be commandeered, it is active obstruction of federal law enforcement. What do you think the “rapid response” entails?
Susan Ellenberg and her colleagues were found by the nation’s highest court to have violated constitutional freedom of religion rights of County residents during Covid. She has no respect for the law. Small wonder she is defending other offenders of federal law.