Back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump is once again trying to break a policy California Democrats adopted during his first term to protect certain undocumented immigrants from being deported.
One of his first executive orders targets the state鈥檚 so-called sanctuary law, which generally limits how local law enforcement interacts with federal immigration officers. Trump鈥檚 , titled the 鈥淧rotecting the American People Against Invasion鈥�, would deny federal funds to sanctuary jurisdictions across the country.
It鈥檚 not clear yet what kind of federal funds the Trump administration would withhold. But, for a state of 39 million people that relies heavily on federal dollars for its public programs and currently for its wildfire recovery, withholding money could be a crippling blow.
It鈥檚 worth noting that during his first term. California sued and the courts sided with the state.
Before Trump took office, a nonprofit led by his policy adviser Stephen Miller around the country warning them they faced 鈥渓egal consequences鈥� if their sanctuary policies interfered with immigration enforcement.
So what does the state鈥檚 sanctuary law do exactly and what does it mean for Trump鈥檚 mass deportation plans?
Here are five things to know about the California Values Act.
It鈥檚 about what California cops can do
In October 2017, signed into law Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act, commonly referred to as the state鈥檚 sanctuary law. That law bars state and local police from investigating, interrogating, or arresting people for immigration enforcement purposes, and limits 鈥� but does not entirely prohibit 鈥� police cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Kevin De Leon, the former state Senate leader who authored the law, that the point of the law was to make clear that the feds cannot enlist local police 鈥渁s a cog in the Trump deportation machine.鈥�
The 鈥渟anctuary鈥� movement goes back to the 1980s when Central American refugees fled civil war and immigrated to the U.S. When they were denied asylum, they sought protection from deportation in churches and other places of worship.
Today the sanctuary law does not actually refer to a place or territory where immigrants can seek protection. Living in California alone does not shield someone from deportation.
Instead, the law clarifies what state and local law enforcement in California can and cannot do with regard to immigration. For example, the law says that local police cannot detain or keep someone in custody more than 48 hours past their release date just for immigration officials to pick them up.
The law does not restrict what the federal government can do in the state. To be clear, that means U.S Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) can still arrest and deport undocumented people living in California and other sanctuary jurisdictions.
鈥淭he federal government has a lane that they are entitled to move in, they can enforce immigration law,鈥� California Attorney General Rob Bonta said last week during a press conference in San Diego. But 鈥淭hey can鈥檛 conscript or force the city or the county or the state law enforcement entities to do their job for them.鈥�
Who isn鈥檛 protected by sanctuary law
have repeatedly argued that sanctuary laws shield dangerous criminals. They have at times pointed to specific crimes committed by undocumented immigrants to argue the sanctuary law puts the greater public at risk. In 2019, for example, Trump pointed to the slaying of a to criticize the sanctuary law and demand more funding for border protection.
But that鈥檚 not the whole story. The law says police can tell immigration authorities about an inmate鈥檚 upcoming release if that person has been convicted of : murder, rape, kidnapping, robbery and arson, among many others.
And as some , there is nothing that stops immigration officials from using jail websites and fingerprints databases to identify people of interest.
It is up to ICE to pick up individuals on their release. Between 2018 and 2023, California jails to immigration authorities. At the same time, ICE doesn鈥檛 always show up when someone is released from jail or prison. For example, ICE picked up about 80% of undocumented immigrants released from state prisons between 2017 and 2020, according to a 2022 .
鈥淚t is an absurdity to be talking about SB 54 as preventing bad, non-citizens with serious criminal convictions from being turned over to (the Department of Homeland Security), it doesn鈥檛 do that,鈥� said Niels Frenzen, a professor at USC鈥檚 Gould School of Law and co-director of the school鈥檚 immigration clinic. 鈥淏ut those facts are just not part of the political debate.鈥�
Immigrants who are protected by the sanctuary state law are usually those who are arrested for less serious offenses, such as traffic violations and driving without a license or insurance, Frenzen said.
Courts upheld California鈥檚 sanctuary state law
After California enacted its Values Act, Trump鈥檚 Justice Department took the state to court, 鈥渋nterferes with federal immigration authorities鈥� ability to carry out their responsibilities under federal law.鈥�
Some immigration attorneys, however, have pointed out that the state law seemed to have little impact on ICE鈥檚 ability to do its job.
For example, said that in 2017 ICE apprehended 20,201 unlawfully present people in California, which represented about 14% of all ICE arrests made that year.
ICE was on track to exceed that number in the following year. In the first two months of 2018 after the sanctuary law took effect, it arrested 8,588 people in California, or about 14% of all arrests nationwide, according to a filing in the lawsuit by Trump鈥檚 Justice Department.
In 2019, that the California Values Act did not impede enforcement of federal immigration law. When the Trump administration , it refused to do so, leaving the law as is.
In a separate fight, California sued the Trump administration for its policy to withhold federal law enforcement grants from jurisdictions with sanctuary policies. A federal judge sided with California.
Studies show no effect on crime
Critics of the law have long claimed that the sanctuary state law harms public safety. The Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford, for example, , noting that a spike in fentanyl-related deaths started happening around 2018, soon after the sanctuary policy went into effect. Whether causation or coincidence, there isn鈥檛 much in the way of official research that proves this.
To prove such a claim, one would have to isolate the sanctuary state law鈥檚 specific impact on crime, researchers say.
A by researchers at the University of California, Irvine examined the state鈥檚 2018 violent and property crime rates and compared them to estimated crime rates had Gov. Brown not signed the sanctuary policy. The study found that the law did not have a significant impact on either violent crime or property crime.
Charis Kubrin, who authored the study, said the takeaway of her research was that changing the state鈥檚 sanctuary status is not likely to result in major reductions in crime. 鈥淕etting rid of SB 54, for example, is not going to make crime go down because it didn鈥檛 cause crime to go up in the first place,鈥� Kubrin said.
by researchers at Stanford and Princeton looked at sanctuary policies across the country and found that these measures reduce the overall number of deportations by one-third, but they did not reduce the number of deportations on people with violent criminal convictions.
That study also found that these policies don鈥檛 have much of a direct effect on crime.
Conflict expected in 鈥榮ensitive areas鈥�
During the Biden administration, the federal government had in place a 鈥渟ensitive areas鈥� order, which discouraged immigration agents from making arrests in places like schools, hospitals, churches and courthouses. Last week, the Trump administration rescinded that order.
鈥淲hen ICE engages in civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses it can reduce safety risks to the public,鈥� reads a Jan. 21 memo to staff from ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello.
The sanctuary state law asks officials at the same places to adopt policies to limit public participation with immigration enforcement, such as requesting a warrant from ICE agents before they attempt to arrest anyone. That could create a conflict for local officials if the immigration crackdown in the new administration hits their venue, said Alvaro Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
Given Trump鈥檚 recent rule reversal, Huerta said, 鈥渢he federal government may attempt some (immigration) enforcement in those spaces, but the state government is asking those spaces to require warrants.鈥�