Another California city plots becoming sanctuary city for illegal migrants

Another California city could soon join the state’s list of sanctuary jurisdictions after a proposal urging Bakersfield to adopt the policy for illegal migrants sparked a heated debate.

The proposal—backed by the Kern County Young Democrats—was raised during Wednesday’s City Council meeting, where activists urged officials to declare it a sanctuary city following three deaths this month during ICE arrests.

Several speakers also pointed to immigration sweeps in Kern County in January 2025.

Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur and Councilman Andrae Gonzales each voiced support for taking up the issue, though they proposed different approaches.

Kaur asked City Attorney Virginia “Ginny” Gennaro to return at the council’s next meeting with guidance on organizing a Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act forum—which allows local governments to review whether local law enforcement agencies granted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement access to people in custody during the previous year.

Gonzales instead referred the matter to the council’s Laws and Legislation Committee to explore a formal sanctuary city policy, saying immigration enforcement was “nothing short of, you know, terrorizing our neighborhoods and our communities, immigrant communities, and frankly, many of our citizens who are also people of color.”

He claimed the city should send “a clear message to our community and to the rest of the country” that every tax-paying member of the community should be treated with dignity and humanity.

Residents who addressed the council also urged city leaders to act.

Longtime resident Manny Ramirez called on officials to revisit the issue at their next meeting after quoting the last words of a man fatally shot by an ICE officer last week.

Lindsey Parker urged council members to protect people who have made Bakersfield their home, while Charlotte O’Brien described Bakersfield as a “city of immigrants” and said the city should do what it can to reduce the impact of federal immigration enforcement.

Kaur also told the meeting she had been barred from touring local immigrant detention facilities and said residents’ concerns mattered more to her “than someone’s road in front of (their home) needs to be repaved.”

Not every council member agreed the city should move forward.

Councilman Larry Koman said Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it clear that Sacramento intends to ensure local law enforcement agencies do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities and further argued that additional city action would waste government time.

“I don’t want to see any time spent … developing a sanctuary policy until it comes back to the City Council for discussion,” Koman said.

Councilman Eric Arias also warned that adopting a sanctuary policy could give residents false confidence they would be protected from federal immigration enforcement.

By the end of the meeting, Gennaro she would return with a plan for a TRUTH Act forum, while City Manager Christian Clegg said the legislative committee would hold a special meeting within three to four weeks to consider a proposed sanctuary city policy.

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