35,000 ask for their cities and counties to “opt out” of California’s sanctuary laws


Gubernatorial candidate and Assemblyman Travis Allen has photos taken with supporters as he announces the receipt of more than 35,000 petitions he has received from across the state encouraging local elected officials to opt out of California’s sanctuary-state law while speaking at the Huntington Beach pier Friday, April 27, 2018. (Photo by Michael Fernandez, Contributing Photographer)

By ROXANA KOPETMAN | rkopetman@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: April 28, 2018 at 11:27 am | UPDATED: April 28, 2018 at 11:27 am


Assemblyman Travis Allen, a Republican candidate for governor, announced Friday that he’s collected more than 35,000 signatures from people across California who want their communities to “opt out” of the state’s sanctuary law.

Allen plans to forward those signatures to elected leaders in the 300 cities they came from, hoping to build on a new anti-sanctuary movement.

At a press conference next to the Huntington Beach pier, Allen was surrounded by a handful of local politicians from Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos and Fountain Valley — three of the cities that have recently taken steps against California laws to protect people in the country illegally.

“It is a right to keep California safe and that’s what we’re going to do,” Allen told a crowd of about 60.

The sanctuary law, SB-54, limits cooperation between local and state agencies and ICE, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, regarding information and transfers of unauthorized immigrants upon their release from jail. The law, however, does not prohibit agencies from working together in many cases. Police can continue sharing the release dates of inmates if they have been convicted of one of about 800 offenses outlined in another state law called the California Trust Act.



Many have misinterpreted the law, including Allen, who wrote in a news release this week that the law “prohibits local jurisdictions from cooperating” with ICE.

Those gathered Friday to support their hometown gubernatorial candidate echoed some of Allen’s slogans, which are similar to Trump’s.

“We’re taking our state back,” Allen told them.
The lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department lawsuit challenges California’s sanctuary policies as obstructing federal immigration law and violating the Constitution’s supremacy clause.

California Sen. Kevin de De León, who wrote SB-54, argues that it does not violate the Constitution. California is not required to divert state resources to enforce federal immigration laws and the new law looks to ensure that, he reiterated during a press conference in San Diego on Wednesday.

The other two laws targeted in the federal lawsuit are the Workplace Raid law, which can fine business owners for cooperating with immigration agents, and the Detention Review law, which allows California to inspect federal facilities in the state used for immigration detentions.

https://www.presstelegram.com/2018/0...anctuary-laws/