SAN DIEGO—California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones announced a bill Feb. 21 to prevent local jurisdictions from passing stronger illegal immigrant sanctuary measures than the current state law.
The eight other state Senate Republicans co-authored SB 554.
Jones said the bill will do two things: “It prohibits local jurisdictions from further restricting cooperation with immigration officials beyond what current sanctuary law allows and it mandates cooperation for specific violent crimes that are convicted.”
The law gives local law enforcement the option to cooperate with federal immigration authorities for individuals convicted of certain felonies.
Some of the felonies include serious or violent crimes, child abuse, sexual abuse, burglary, robbery, theft, unlawful possession or use of a weapon, DUIs, possession or trafficking of controlled substances, human trafficking, rape, kidnapping, torture, and gang-related offenses.
“My goal is to keep our communities safe, our immigrant communities, all communities in California.” Jones told The Epoch Times, “This is about public safety. This is about removing convicted violent felons and keeping them off our streets in California.”
Among the protestors, Maggie Baker with South Bay People Power told The Epoch Times that she supports SB 54 and thinks it should be strengthened, adding that she thinks no one should be turned over to immigration authorities.
“None should be turned over. Why do they get double punishment? They finished. They should be able to go to the streets. They’re no more dangerous than any other person being released from the doors of our jails.” she said.
Another protestor, Stephanie Cauchon, told The Epoch Times that her grandparents immigrated to the United States in the 1920s “with ease and safety” and “they were all hard workers and they helped build our economy.”
“That is still what is happening today,” she said, “so it woke me up and got me on my feet” when she saw politicians “demonizing the immigrant community to score political points.”
Cauchon said she supports SB 54 because “it made the community safer.”
She said she has volunteered in the past with the domestic violence hotline. “Women who are in families of mixed status, where some are not documented, are afraid to call the police if they need support because of domestic violence because they don’t want their family member deported,” she said.
San Diego County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution in December 2024, giving the green light to a potential Board Policy of limiting the cooperation of county officials and employees with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This makes it easier for convicted illegal immigrant felons to return to San Diego streets and continue their crime spree,” said Jones, whose district includes most of San Diego’s inland regions, that his bill is a direct response to the county’s policy and “was born out of concerns from the immigrant communities in my district.”
San Diego Supervisor Joel Anderson was absent when the board passed the resolution in a 3–1 vote.
Anderson was among a number of local leaders who supported Jones’s bill. He noted that San Diego County’s resolution is “just a resolution” with no binding power: “Resolutions are just statements. They don’t have any meaning, no bite, no teeth.” He said he supports SB 554 because “this is action.”
San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer voted to support the county resolution. The Epoch Times reached out to her office for comment but didn’t receive a response by publication time.
San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez had rejected the county resolution earlier by publicly announcing that she “will continue to follow state law.”
“My greatest priority is public safety ... My ability to share release dates of those with serious criminal convictions who are in local jails ensures our communities are not re-victimized,” Martinez said in a statement to The Epoch Times in response to Jones’s bill.
“My goal is to create an environment where all residents feel safe reporting crimes and cooperating with local law enforcement.”
