Santa Ana Prepares For President's Crackdown On Sanctuary Cities

SANTA ANA, CA — President Trump is expected to sign an executive order as early as Wednesday cracking down on sanctuary cities such as Santa Ana in the wake of the city council's vote, 7-0, in favor of declaring itself an official sanctuary city at its Jan. 17 meeting.

Santa Ana joins with cities such as Portland, Seattle and Boston as a sanctuary for immigrant residents. Sources who spoke with Patch stated that the details of the order were to still be worked out but could include withholding federal funds to those local governments that offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

Sanctuary cities and counties are called that because they offer sanctuary to illegal immigrants, refusing to turn them over to federal officials for deportation. Most sanctuary cities and counties have also passed laws preventing employees from even turning over information to immigration officials.

While it is the cities — such as Portland, Seattle, New York, San Francisco and Chicago — that tend to get the most notice, it is often counties, which usually run the jails, that have real power to protect immigrants.

Sources say that the most likely target of funding would be the various grants given to local governments through the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The two departments administer billions in grants — many of which go to law enforcement agencies in the more than 300 cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuary cities.

These range from Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative, which helps cities prepare for acts of terrorism, to the Edward Byrne Grant Program, which was named for a New York City Police Officer killed in the line of duty and provides funding for a range of programs including crime victim assistance, drug patrols, and drug treatment.

Santa Ana and other sanctuary cities were expecting the Trump administration to act against such ordinances. During the campaign, he often vowed that, if elected, he would move to cut funds going to these cities.

"I believe Santa Ana is the first Orange County city to adopt the kind of resolution voted on Tuesday," City Manager David Cavazos said.

Following the resolution's passage, the city of Santa Ana, which houses 340,000 residents, will no longer enforce federal immigration laws or take action against someone solely because of that person's immigration status, as ABC7 reported.

A citizen who spoke on the issue said that there was no need to "criminalize people that don't need to be criminalized."

The sanctuary city ordinance does have teeth with regards to reducing bed space used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Santa Ana jails.

It was unanimous, 5-0, as council members first agreed to adopt a sanctuary resolution requiring the city to strengthen existing policies that are meant to protect the residents of the second-most populated city in Orange County.

By Dec. 20, Santa Ana adopted a formal ordinance to the original Sanctuary City resolution. At that meeting, Councilman Vincent Sarmiento addressed community concerns that then-President-elect Donald Trump and his administration would pull federal funding from sanctuary cities.

"We feel it’s so important that it’s a risk we have to take," Sarmiento said.

The ordinance presented in December and adopted in January went one step beyond the resolution, as it is a specific law that upon violation could be punishable by either a fine or imprisonment, according to Jorge Garcia, senior management assistant for the City Manager’s Office, the Orange County Register reported.

According to the Jan. 17 city council meeting, Councilman David Benavides stated that "with regard of declaring the City of Santa Ana a sanctuary city for all, important to let all know that we stand behind all members of our community."

The motion carried unanimously to adopt the ordinance at the Jan. 17 meeting, 7-0.

"I wanted to thank the council for getting this motion passed, and the community expects to have a task force put into place, actions speak louder than words," one citizen said.

Another citizen stated the ordinance is significant but not complete until the commitment with ICE is ended in the Santa Ana Jail.

Officials are said to be monitoring the developments, waiting to see what the president actually signs before deciding on a response.

One possibility being considered would be to challenge the legality of the executive order in court.

The signing is expected to happen Wednesday when Trump visits the Department of Homeland Security for a 1:25 p.m. Eastern town hall meeting with employees.

The action against sanctuary municipalities is expected to be one part of a series of executive orders on immigration issues that will be unveiled over a couple of days.

Trump is also expected to impose visa restrictions for people from the Middle East, authorize the building of a wall on the Mexican border, and suspending the program that admits refugees into the United States.

The sources who spoke with Patch were not sure what would be announced on Wednesday and what on Thursday.

Colin Miner contributed to this report.

Photo via The White House