Deep in red California, these city councilors need to quit grandstanding for Trump | Opinion
You may know Oroville as the home of Oroville Dam and Lake Oroville, or perhaps as the closest city to Table Mountain. And while it’ll always be the childhood home of Erle Stanley Gardner to me, as of March 4, it is also now a “non-sanctuary city.”
What is that? I’m so glad you asked.
It’s the most grandstanding, virtue-signaling, dumbest idea I’ve ever seen come out of the Oroville City Council — and that’s saying a lot: I used to attend Oroville City Council meetings as a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record.
According to reporting from that same paper on Tuesday, City Councilman Scott Thomson drafted a resolution declaring Oroville to be a “non-sanctuary city for all criminals” in an obvious attempt to thumb his nose at immigrants, whom he conflates with criminals.
But instead of laughing him down, the city council approved it unanimously, “affirm(ing) its commitment to work in full cooperation with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, for the apprehension and prosecution of criminals.”
In effect, the council directed the Oroville city administrator and police chief to flat out ignore the 2017 California Values Act, which limits local law enforcement from notifying federal agencies like ICE about people’s immigration status.
Passed in 2017, the Values Act is one of the state’s strongest laws preventing the persecution and deportation of people based on their immigrant status, and stops the federal government from using local and state resources in pursuit of that goal. It ensures that institutions like schools, hospitals and courthouses remain open to everyone, regardless of their resident status — and cops in California can’t rat out detainees to the feds.
In a stunning display of bravado over comprehension, Thomson said his resolution was about protecting residents from “dangerous criminals” who he believes are released back into our communities instead of being “turned over to ICE.”
Vice Mayor Eric Smith said he believes the California Values Act has unintended consequences of giving people a “free pass” on crimes (also not true) but suggested an amendment removing the mandate in the resolution that directed city staff and police to ignore it because it had “no teeth or power,” as one colleague put it.
City Attorney David Ritchie told the council they could do whatever they wanted, but the resolution wouldn’t be legally enforceable. He later refused to tell the reporter from Chico if Oroville could win a lawsuit if city staff ignored the state law. The resolution with the amendment passed unanimously.
Thomson’s insistence that if the council were to simply pass the resolution, then it would be protected under First Amendment freedom of speech rights is a disturbing interpretation of constitutional law by an amateur masquerading as a community leader. The council’s exploration into disobeying a state law is putting their community at risk for litigation.
Congratulations to the Oroville City Council on wasting everyone’s time, including their own.
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
