Donald Trump

Santa Ana Officially Voted a ‘Sanctuary City'

The City Council on Tuesday officially voted to make Santa Ana a "sanctuary city" for all residents regardless of their immigration status, the Orange County Register reported.

On a 6-0 vote (Councilman Vincent Sarmiento was absent), the council formally approved the ordinance, which was first read on Dec. 20. It prohibits the use of city resources for immigration enforcement, requires the protection of sensitive information, and calls for law enforcement officials to exercise discretion to cite and release people instead of detaining them at a county jail or local facility, based on the nature of their alleged crime.

It also calls for more training and the establishment of a citizen task force to report to the council on related policies.

A provision in the original reading of the ordinance that would have provided an exception for using city resources in the case of criminal defendants was removed from the final ordinance, the Register reported.

The ordinance was drafted in response to the candidacy and election of Donald Trump, who made stricter immigration enforcement one of the main tenets of his campaign. Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds to sanctuary cities, but acting City Manager Gerardo Mouet told the Register that he wasn't worried about that possibility "based on my reading."

Santa Ana is Orange County's second-largest city. According to the Register, about 46 percent of the city's residents are immigrants.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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