SANTA BARBARA -  Orange County, California, supervisors voted this week to join the federal lawsuit against California's sanctuary state legislation that prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement officers. Other communities have also pledged resistance to SB 54 signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October.

"Community leaders understand that law enforcement officers at all levels – local, state and federal – need to work together," said Toby Nicole White of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). "Failure to cooperate means that criminals will go free and innocent victims will suffer. We applaud the communities in California that are taking a stand against poor policies that put Californians and many others, from across the country and around the world, who come to the state for business and fun at risk."

Localities and departments have taken action to oppose the sanctuary law, and others are considering what steps they might take:

• Shasta County officials approved a resolution to declare that the county complies with federal immigration laws and is not a sanctuary county.
• The city of Los Alamitos passed a measure exempting itself from SB 54.
• The Orange County sheriff's department announced it will publish an online database of the time of release of all inmates. The sheriff's office said the action was "a response to SB 54 limiting our ability to communicate with federal authorities and our concern that criminals are being released to the street."

The language of SB 54 states that its purpose is to limit "assistance with immigration enforcement to the fullest extent possible." The U.S. Justice Department has sued the state, arguing that three state laws violate the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The other laws are AB 103, which implements state inspections of facilities holding illegal immigrants detained under federal law, and AB 450, which forbids employers from cooperating with federal immigration officials and requires them to give a heads-up to their workforce before immigration agents arrive for an inspection.

"Sanctuary policies undermine rule of law, safety and security, and encourage more illegal immigration, which in turn imposes tremendous costs on Californians, from depressing wages of our working poor to burdening infrastructure, among many others," added White.