Huntington Beach, California, is suing the state over its sanctuary city law, saying it is unconstitutional by preventing authorities from fulfilling their duties to protect residents.
Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said in a video statement that the state law “interferes with our officials’ ability to coordinate with federal government and to honor and comply with federal immigration laws.”
“And so, we’re going to have this struck down. We’re going to take Newsom, Bonta, and the State of California to court, and we’re gonna win,” he said.
Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns said the city is “fighting the Sanctuary State Law because it obstructs our ability to fully enforce the law and keep our community safe.”
“When the stakes are currently so high, with reports of increases in human trafficking, increases in foreign gangs taking over apartment buildings in the U.S., killing, raping, and committing other violent crimes against our citizens, we need every possible resource available to fight crime, including federal resources,” Burns said. “Huntington Beach will not sit idly by and allow the obstructionist Sanctuary State Law to put our 200,000 residents at risk of harm from those who seek to commit violent crimes on U.S. soil.”
According to the lawsuit, California’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.”
“To put a fine point, as a Charter City, Huntington Beach’s Police Department does not belong to the State. Rather, the Huntington Beach Police Department belongs to the City – and as such, the Police Department should be free from State interference and control,” the filing adds. “The City and its Police Department should be, therefore, entirely at liberty to employ every lawful means to combat crime and promote public safety for the City’s 200,000 residents.”
