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Pleasanton finds itself as the lone Tri-Valley city on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s new list of obstructive sanctuary jurisdictions – and the city administration is unclear exactly why.
DHS officials this week released their catalog of states, counties and cities that they allege are “deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws” as required under President Donald Trump’s executive order dubbed ”Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens”.
Pleasanton is among the scores of jurisdictions on the list, confusing city officials who say they have no so-called sanctuary policy on the books.
“The City has taken no formal action to become a sanctuary city. As we are unaware of the basis of the City’s inclusion on this list, any further inquiries should be directed to the Department of Homeland Security,” the city told the Pleasanton Weekly in a statement Friday afternoon.
The federal agency did not provide specific evidence pertaining to Pleasanton and other listed jurisdictions on the public webpage, but cited general determining factors “like compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for illegal aliens”. DHS officials said each jurisdiction would receive formal notification of non-compliance at some point.
Alameda County and the California state government are on the list too.
The Pleasanton city government did put out a public statement during the week of Trump’s inauguration saying the Pleasanton Police Department “does not intend to play a role in enforcing federal immigration laws” in alignment with comments made days earlier by the California Police Chiefs Association – of which Pleasanton Police Chief Tracy Avelar was president at the time.
It is unclear whether the Jan. 24 statement played a role in Pleasanton’s designation by DHS; other members of the association’s executive committee, including San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson, work in jurisdictions that are not on the new federal list.
A sanctuary jurisdiction is a local or state government whose law enforcement agency generally restricts information-sharing and cooperation with federal authorities on the immigration status of arrested people and other residents.
“Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril,” Homeland Security officials said. “DHS demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with Federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens.”
“Note that the list can be reviewed and changed at any time and will be updated regularly,” they added. “No one should act on this information without conducting their own evaluation of the information.”
Pleasanton’s statement on Jan. 24 did not use the word “sanctuary” but did expound on the city’s mindset on immigration status and law enforcement.
“As Chief Avelar and the CPCA have emphasized, protecting all Californians, including undocumented immigrants, is central to local law enforcement’s mission. This includes fostering trust within our community to encourage crime reporting and cooperation with law enforcement without fear of immigration-related consequences,” the city statement read.
“The safety of our community is our guiding focus, and we remain committed to addressing criminal activity and safeguarding every individual, regardless of their immigration status. While federal immigration enforcement policies may evolve, it has never been the role of local police to enforce federal immigration laws,” city officials said in January, adding:
“The City of Pleasanton remains open and transparent as these policies continue to unfold, and we encourage our community to reach out with any questions or concerns.”
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They also put Huntington Beach on the list, and they are the opposite of a sanctuary city.
I bet they used AI to generate the list.
The federal government is taking steps to suspend funding to all sanctuary cities.
They absolutely used an AI to produce the list like so many other things this administration has produced with AI. The training data used by these AIs are inaccurate so the result is “garbage in, garbage out”.
But let’s now watch all the bootlickers coming here to support not only attacks on the 10th Amendment (police power is reserved to States), but the normalization of violence in our community by ICE – see their flashbang grenade raid on restaurants down in San Diego. Imagine sitting for a meal in downtown Pleasanton and ICE shows up, putting you and your family in danger.