Huntington Beach – with an all Republican, pro-MAGA city council – ended up on President Donald Trump’s sanctuary city target list issued by the Department of Homeland Security Thursday night.
“Each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification of its non-compliance with Federal statutes. DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens,” reads the department’s website.
As of 9:30 pm. on Thursday night, HB was on the list.
Yet all seven Huntington Beach City Council members have voiced opposition to California’s sanctuary law.
Mega MAGA on the Dais
The day after Trump’s inauguration, city council members voted Jan. 21 to direct Surf City’s police department to disregard state sanctuary law and work with U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
[Read: Huntington Beach Disregards California’s Sanctuary Laws, Directs Police to Work With ICE]
Huntington Mayor Pat Burns said that Surf City is not a sanctuary jurisdiction and that there has been a mistake.
“We are a non-sanctuary city. We made a policy on that. We brought that before on the council, and we voted unanimously that we are not a sanctuary city,” Burns said in a Thursday phone interview
“We went out of our way to declare non-sanctuary status.”
Burns said adding surf city to the list was a “misprint” or “grave error on someone’s part” and said he plans to reach out to his contacts in Washington about it.
“Believe me, I did enough news interviews – there can be no doubt that we are a non-sanctuary city.”
Will the Designation Hold?
The Department of Homeland Security notes that the list isn’t final and could be changed.
“Note that the list can be reviewed and changed at any time and will be updated regularly. No one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information,” states the department’s website.
On Friday morning after publication of this article, the Department of Homeland Security said cities were determined to be a sanctuary jurisdiction based on several factors including self-identification, noncompliance with federal law enforcement, restricting information sharing and protecting undocumented immigrants.
“The list is actively reviewed, will be regularly updated, and can be changed at any time. President Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: sanctuary jurisdictions should immediately cease violation of Federal law and cooperate with law enforcement,” reads a statement from an unidentified Homeland Security spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Santa Ana – Orange County’s only sanctuary city – isn’t on the Department of Homeland Security list.
Elected officials there are currently weighing the risks of disclosing Immigration & Customs Enforcement courtesy calls they get about immigration enforcement actions to the public.
[Read: Santa Ana Officials to Assess Risks of Publicly Disclosing ICE Activity in the City]
In Santa Ana, Homeland Security agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have made 42 courtesy calls about their activities throughout the city between Jan. 22 to April 26.
Several city council members in Santa Ana are now raising concerns that publicly disclosing those calls – something they already did a public records request – could result in a loss of federal funding, open them up to liability and put law enforcement officers at request.
The debate on disclosing ICE calls comes after city officials released the data showing the 42 calls to Inadvertent and later the Voice of OC despite top city executives repeatedly denying federal immigration enforcement action in town.
[Read: Have Santa Ana’s Police Chief & City Manager Been Up Front With Residents About ICE Activity?]
The discrepancy led Santa Ana City Council members Johnathan Hernandez and Ben Vazquez to request a discussion on publicly disclosing courtesy calls to the public online and through social media two days after the police department was notified.
[Read: Will Santa Ana Alert Residents of ICE Activity Amid Federal Immigration Crackdown?]
Their request led Mayor Valerie Amezcua to publicly warn elected leaders earlier this month to not land on Trump’s radar and keep a low profile – advice she says was given to council members by Congressman Lou Correa.
[Read: Santana: The Art of Standing Up While Laying Low on Immigration Crackdown]
Correa reacted to accuracy issues with the published DHS list on Thursday night, saying it’s not the first inaccuracy coming from the Trump Administration, pointing to questioning of the accuracy of the tariff list earlier this year or DOGE firings that were later reversed.
“This administration continues to move at lightning speed, disregarding accuracy and moving forward with policies that are flawed,” Correa said, adding that as a legislator, “the way you react is you try to correct them with facts.”
Correa said he laments that the immigration issue continues to be used politically, pointing out that both the Obama and Biden administrations deported record numbers of immigrants.
Who’s on the List?
Nearly every Southern California county is on the list except for Orange County and Kern County.
Yet it’s not just Southern California that’s seeing some inconsistencies with the list.
The Associated Press reports that officials from Baltimore, MD and Las Vegas, NV are pushing back against being listed by the Department of Homeland Security – saying their respective municipalities aren’t sanctuary cities.
Homeland Security’s freshly minted list of sanctuary cities stems from President Trump’s April 28 executive order pushing federal officials to crack down on sanctuary cities and states.
“This invasion at the southern border requires the Federal Government to take measures to fulfill its obligation to the States,” reads Trump’s order. “Yet some State and local officials nevertheless continue to use their authority to violate, obstruct, and defy the enforcement of Federal immigration laws.”
Trump directed the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to compile a list of sanctuary cities and states.
According to the order, federal officials could withhold funding from sanctuary cities and states if they end up on the list.
And if the jurisdictions don’t revoke their sanctuary policies, the order states legal action might be taken.
“With respect to jurisdictions that remain sanctuary jurisdictions after State or local officials are provided notice of such status under section 2(b) of this order and yet remain in defiance of Federal law, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures to end these violations and bring such jurisdictions into compliance with the laws of the United States.”
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.