El Cajon Sues California AG Over Sanctuary Law Blocking Police Welfare Checks on Children

El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells announced outside City Hall that the city is suing California Attorney General Rob Bonta. He called it one of the most important official acts of his life.

A few months ago, the federal Department of Homeland Security sent the city a list of names and addresses of children who may be living unsupervised in unsafe conditions with illegal alien adults. Given the prevalence of human trafficking in the region, city officials grew concerned for the children's wellbeing. They asked the attorney general's office if El Cajon police could conduct welfare checks on these potentially endangered children. The office said no, if officers wanted to stay compliant with California law. It told them such checks would violate Senate Bill 54, the state's sanctuary law.

The state informed a city of 110,000 people that police could not check on potentially endangered children because it might expose addresses of illegal aliens.

Wells, mayor of the working-class border city 10 miles from Mexico, said his residents are nurses, teachers, mechanics, veterans and small business owners. They pay taxes and follow the law. They expect elected officials to do the same. When Sacramento bars police from cooperating with federal authorities to protect children, every parent in California should be alarmed, he said.

California's sanctuary laws prohibit local police from working with federal immigration enforcement. The state also provides driver's licenses to people here illegally, in-state college tuition and disability benefits. State government websites brag about these policies.

Federal law makes it a felony to encourage or induce someone to reside in the country unlawfully. California is doing exactly that, Wells said.

The lawsuit, filed by the America First Policy Institute, asks courts to decide which law reigns supreme: federal or state. The Supremacy Clause settled this in 1788, he said.

Other cities have challenged sanctuary laws differently. Huntington Beach went to federal court last year and lost. El Cajon's case differs. It argues California's sanctuary regime, including licenses, tuition and benefits, induces illegal residence in violation of federal criminal law. That argument has not been tested.

The battle will likely be long. If California courts do not settle it, the city is prepared to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bonta told the press El Cajon should prepare for another loss. He called the lawsuit a baseless attack and said SB 54 makes Californians safer.

Wells said tell that to the children the law endangers.

This is a rule of law issue, not a partisan one, he said. When the state hands out benefits designed to attract illegal border crossers, something has gone wrong. When police must break either federal or state law, something has gone wrong.

El Cajon lacks Sacramento's budget, lobbyists or political machine. It has a City Council that voted to follow federal immigration law, a supportive community and a Constitution that means what it says.

The American Dream is not a sanctuary policy. It is the promise of one set of laws applied fairly to everyone. That promise is worth defending.