The anti-sanctuary movement is spreading in California

Earlier this week we looked at the California city of Los Alamitos which was considering a vote to exempt themselves from Sacramento’s decision to make the entire state into a sanctuary for illegal aliens. That anti-sanctuary vote passed, and if a follow-up vote next month also succeeds, the city will officially stand in defiance of sanctuary state policies. That’s not the end of the story, however. This act of rebellion seems to be spreading like some sort of constitutional freedom virus and other local and municipal governments are looking to Los Alamitos as a blueprint for their own rebellions. (Free Beacon)

Orange County and several other cities in California could follow the lead of Los Alamitos and opt out of the state’s controversial law that restricts local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Los Alamitos, the second smallest city in Orange County with a population of 11,500, late Monday rejected the state’s so-called sanctuary law in a vote of 4-1 of the city council.

Officials with Orange County and the cities of Aliso Viejo and Buena Park reached out to Los Alamitos officials and began publicly expressing support and intentions to take up similar anti-sanctuary language.

“We are a little city in Orange County, but we’re tired of things coming out of Sacramento that just don’t make sense, and now others are telling us they feel the same way,” said Warren Kusumoto, the Los Alamitos councilman who wrote the anti-sanctuary ordinance.

Los Alamitos may be a small city by population, but if all of Orange County follows suit, California’s illegal-loving Democrats in Sacramento have a serious problem on their hands. Orange County is the third largest county in the state with a population in excess of three million. It’s also the home to Anaheim, most famously known for the Empire of the Mouse (Disney). While nothing official has been put on the docket yet, inland cities in other counties are reportedly already discussing similar measures.

So what will the state government do about it? This is where it’s going to get really interesting. The state senate Majority Leader, Kevin de Leon, was the primary author of the original sanctuary state bill. He’s already making disparaging remarks and threats toward Los Alamitos and anyone else who follows that path, calling their choice nothing more than, “a symbolic vote in favor of President Trump’s racist immigration enforcement policies.”

Beyond that, he’s making clear threats of legal action as well.

De Leon, who is challenging Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) from the left, also threatened the city and others considering similar measures with lawsuits if they don’t back down.

“Local governments that attempt to break the law will saddle their residents with unnecessary and expensive litigation costs,” he said, according to the Ventura County Star.

So De Leon wants to take them to court? That’s going to be seriously awkward on two counts and put this battle even more firmly in the national media spotlight. First of all, the rebelling local governments are declaring their right to exempt themselves to be a constitutional duty. This means the state will have to go to court and explain why their constitutional oaths don’t actually matter.

But even more damaging in terms of optics is the question of supremacy. How will De Leon and the rest of the Democrats in Sacramento explain that the cities and counties are bound by state law, but the state isn’t bound by federal law? That should be an excellent trick to pull off. Even if the state prevails in a friendly court in California, when it’s challenged higher up the line California may find that their entire sanctuary scheme was unconstitutional to begin with. And that will be a major black eye for them if it happens.