The mayor of Newport Beach Monday criticized a state law that prevents his city from using resources for federal immigration enforcement after a group of migrants on a boat were detained outside Newport Beach.
Mayor William O’Neil said the U.S. Coast Guard stopped the boat with 21 people attempting to enter the country illegally after spotting the 34-foot vessel “behaving irregularly” one mile west of Newport Beach last Thursday evening.
O’Neil said while most of the people on the boat were Mexican nationals, there were a Russian national and two Uzbekistan nationals.
“Clearly folks traveling from Uzbekistan through Mexico to enter our country illegally on a boat off the Orange County coast is – or at least should be – out of the ordinary,” the Newport Beach mayor said in a social media post.
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O’Neil went on to say that while, the Coast Guard is allowed to cooperate with Customs and Border Patrol to enforce immigration laws, his police department as well as the Orange County Sheriff’s Department are prohibited to do so because of SB 54, which made California a so-called sanctuary state.
“SB54 severely limits how much local law enforcement can cooperate with federal authorities to enforce immigration law,” O’Neil said, explaining how he and the Newport Beach City Council unanimously opposed that legislation in 2017.
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Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes also said over the years that the sanctuary state policy made County County “less safe,” calling for the end of SB54.
“Rather than protect our immigrant community, the law has enabled offenders to be released, oftentimes back into the immigrant communities they prey upon and create new victims," Barnes said in a social media post in 2020.
SB 54 has made OC less safe. The 2 year social science experiment with sanctuary laws must end. Rather than protect our immigrant community, the law has enabled offenders to be released, often times back into the immigrant communities they prey upon, and create new victims. https://t.co/QyPMcPD5OU
— OC Sheriff Don Barnes (@OCSheriffBarnes) February 3, 2020
NBC Los Angeles has reached out to Governor Newsom’s office for a response to the criticism against the sanctuary state law policy.
The Coast Guard said all the detained migrants were transferred to U.S. Customs and Borden Patrol.
