The U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago, filed Thursday over their policies limiting local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, has raised questions for some on whether California and San Diego County, which have similar so-called “sanctuary” laws on the books, could see legal action as well.
The DOJ’s lawsuit accuses Illinois and Chicago officials of “thwarting” and “deliberately impeding” federal immigration officials by barring local law enforcement from actively working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a criminal warrant. It was filed as President Donald Trump continues to carry out his signature promise of mass deportations, with increased detentions and enforcement taking place in several cities across the U.S.
“Look, sanctuary cities are sanctuary for criminals,” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said Thursday. “We’re going to hold sanctuary cities accountable. We’re going to take them on, and we’ll take them to court.”
“Every elected mayor, every elected governor, every elected city councilman, you would think they would want their community safe too, and they would want public safety threats removed from their community,” Homan continued. “That's your number one responsibility is to protect communities.”
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Both California and San Diego County have similar policies to Illinois and Chicago. The San Diego County Board in December passed a resolution ending the use of any county resources for immigration enforcement. California has several laws on the books, including Senate Bill 54, known as the Values Act, which was passed in 2017 to bar state and local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement, with exceptions for individuals convicted of certain crimes.
“The courts are going to have to determine whether these sanctuary policies are, in essence, a tool to impede immigration enforcement,” San Diego immigration attorney Cesar Luna said.
“The federal government has the obligation to enforce immigration laws,” Luna continued. “Sanctuary policies are not designed to prevent immigration enforcement. They're only designed to limit the scope of local and state enforcement units to not conduct immigration work, which is federal in nature.”
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Luna said he saw the lawsuit against Illinois and Chicago as a sort of trial balloon.
“He’s not going to spread all his resources and try to sue everyone at once without having a strong precedent,” Luna said. “Once we start seeing the arguments in this case, it will be indicative as to whether or not they will move to other cities like Los Angeles, like San Diego, like New York, that have similar immigration policies.”
“I’m guessing he’s probably going to come back to LA right after, if Chicago works for him,” Luna continued, “and then San Francisco and then us.”
Luna said he thought the Trump administration may have first sued Chicago and Illinois in part because California is larger and more powerful, both politically and economically.
The federal government did previously sue California over SB 54 during Trump’s first term and lost in 2019.
“The federal government cannot commandeer state and local resources to carry out its inhumane immigration agenda,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Thursday. “We successfully defended SB 54 from an attack by the first Trump Administration – and we’re fully prepared to do it again if necessary.”
Luna said the lawsuit against Chicago and Illinois was likely in part testing the waters to gauge public reaction as well.
“I think everything is both not just from the sole immigration enforcement perspective, but also there's political overtones all the way,” Luna said. “Immigration has been a political hot potato for the past, what, six administrations? You know, they've used the immigration issue to either unite or to break voters. So I cannot imagine him not making decisions in part for political reasons.”
