A California city has voted to opt out of the state’s so-called sanctuary laws.
The city council in Los Alamitos, located in Orange County, voted 4 to 1 earlier this week to opt out of the law, CNBC reported.
“This is important for us, for our city, for our community,” Warren Kusumoto, the mayor pro tempore of Los Alamitos, said ahead of the vote.
Kusumoto cited “a conflict between two governing documents — the Constitution of the United States and the state constitution itself.”
The city’s mayor said he has received calls from other council members and mayors in other cities that are “interested in being part of this.”
“They really want to know what was the process and are trying to get advice on how to go to the next steps,” Mayor Troy Edgar said.
In order for the measure to take effect, a second vote must be held, according to CNBC.
California Assembly member Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat who represents parts of Los Angeles, said the Los Alamitos City Council is “egregiously misinterpreting the U.S. Constitution and are on the wrong side of history.” {mosads}
“Los Alamitos has an opportunity to protect its residents, but is instead siding with a racist and xenophobic Trump administration hell-bent on instilling fear in immigrants across the nation,” Carrillo said in a statement, according to CNBC.
The Trump administration has been highly critical of California’s sanctuary cities and administration officials have said they will crack down on policies that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal authorities.
The Justice Department is arguing that one of the state’s laws — which in certain circumstances prevents local officials from giving information to immigration agents or from handing over detained immigrants to federal custody — is unconstitutional and violates a federal statute on information sharing.