Do California’s sanctuary laws protect immigrants in the second Trump era?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal agents continue immigration raids in sanctuary jurisdictions like Sacramento.
- California laws limit local cooperation with ICE but don’t block federal action.
- Trump officials pledge aggressive enforcement despite legal and political pushback.
Following an immigration operation at a south Sacramento Home Depot last Thursday, a border patrol chief stood in front of the state Capitol with his hands on his holster and challenged both state and local sanctuary policies.
“Sacramento’s not a sanctuary city,” Gregory Bovino, chief patrol agent for the border patrol’s El Centro sector, said during an interview with Fox News after federal agents with Customs and Border Protection arrested 12 people, including one U.S. citizen. “The state of California is not a sanctuary state. There is no sanctuary anywhere.”
Local Democratic leaders condemned the raid; Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty called it “a violation of civil rights and an affront to democracy.” Assemblymember Maggy Krell, D-Sacramento, questioned the legality of such an operation, and state Sen. Angelique Ashby, D-Sacramento, called it “barbaric.”
Trump administration officials have shown no signs of slowing down their immigration enforcement — instead, they have continued to promote it. Border czar Tom Homan said Monday he would “flood the zone” with federal agents in sanctuary cities across the country.
President Trump and his allies have long opposed sanctuary policies, which seek to protect undocumented immigrants from arrest and deportation by barring local law enforcement agencies from helping federal agents detain them. During his first term, the Trump administration sued California over sanctuary laws which were ultimately upheld by the courts.
But the current administration’s ratcheted-up immigration agenda, and public broadcasting of it, highlights how narrow these protections are, said Sacramento immigration attorney Arturo Benavidez.
“If my client gets a DUI in Sacramento County and he’s undocumented, odds are he’s not going to be detained by (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) through law enforcement,” Benavidez said, because the law prohibits police from sharing information about an undocumented inmate’s release with ICE unless they committed a serious crime such as murder, rape or kidnapping.
“But if my client is brown and speaks Spanish and he happens to be outside of Home Depot, it doesn’t matter that we’re a sanctuary state at that point,” he said.
What do sanctuary laws do?
California’s sanctuary law, also known as Senate Bill 54 or the California Values Act, was signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown in 2017, during Trump’s first term.
It prevents state and local law enforcement from enforcing immigration law or using public resources to assist federal immigration authorities. That means police and sheriff’s departments are not allowed to supply staff, equipment or office space to aid with immigration enforcement. Many California sheriffs oppose these policies.
State law bars jails and prisons from holding undocumented immigrants until they can be transferred to federal authorities.
Beyond state law, blue cities have also championed sanctuary policies.
Sacramento became one of the first “sanctuary cities” in the country when the city council approved an ordinance in 1985 banning city employees from asking about a person’s immigration status. Other cities, including Chicago and San Francisco, approved similar policies that year.
Importantly, the laws do not prevent federal authorities from operating in the state to arrest or deport people in the country without authorization.
The Trump administration is still trying to find ways around the sanctuary laws. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice urged some California sheriffs to share data about non-citizen inmates housed in county facilities.
Benavidez said federal officials argue that “because of the Supremacy Clause, the federal government has sole jurisdiction authority over immigration matters, and therefore local law enforcement needs to cooperate with their investigations to enforce immigration law.”
“You could just turn that argument on its head and say, California has no jurisdiction over immigration matters or immigration enforcement, therefore California will not comply. That’s really where we’re at,” he said.
California Democrats are also trying to pass legislation that would require ICE and Border Patrol agents to show their faces or wear some type of identification as a federal agent. But it’s unclear whether such laws would change how immigration agents operate. California Sen. Alex Padilla’s attempt to gain support for a federal bill doing the same failed to pick up much steam.
“I completely understand the frustration of Democrats, especially those that are advocating for the undocumented and have a lot of undocumented in their communities,” said Republican political strategist Mike Madrid. “The truth is there is almost nothing they can do from a federal immigration law perspective.”
Trump vs. sanctuary cities
Trump and his allies have pushed back on sanctuary policies, arguing they inhibit public safety.
“I’ve seen the damage that SB 54 and state and locals not able, by law, to work with immigration officials,” Bovino said during a Saturday interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles, two days after the Home Depot operation. “That is why you have aggravated felons, child rapists, standing in front of big box stores, walking our streets with impunity.”
Multiple studies have shown sanctuary cities do not have higher crime rates.
Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations and border security, is emboldened by his election win and the Big, Beautiful Bill’s infusion of billions of dollars to ICE.
However, approval of the president’s immigration agenda has fallen since enforcement has ramped up in Los Angeles and other cities across the U.S.
Madrid questioned how far the federal government will go in its deportation agenda and compared it to the War on Drugs in the 1980s.
“(Immigration) is so ingrained in the culture and society of California after four decades, including Donald Trump’s first term. Donald Trump did nothing to solve the problem,” he said, noting Trump blew up a bipartisan border security package last year.
“The bigger issue is it is an impossibility to extract all of these immigrants from California society,” Madrid said. “If the federal government thinks they’re going to do that, good luck.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
