Shawn Nelson, a Republican member of the Orange County board of supervisors, said on Sunday that California is trying to prevent the county from keeping its citizens safe.
Orange County recently joined the Justice Department in a federal lawsuit against California that opposes the state’s “sanctuary” laws.
California last October signed legislation making California a “sanctuary state” in part by blocking local law enforcement from complying with federal immigration officials on detainment requests for immigrants in the country illegally.
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“We are tired of the state trying to use these arguments to prevent us from keeping the citizens safe,” Nelson added.
Nelson, who was one of the board members who voted for Orange County to join the federal lawsuit, said that the current law lets certain people go free even though he thinks they need to be assessed by the federal government.
“We’ve had 244 people as of last week released that we could not stop and our people could not tell ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officials that we believe ICE would have wanted to speak with and likely wanted to do something about,” Nelson said.
President Trump tweeted on Wednesday that his administration stands in solidarity with Orange County against “California’s illegal and unconstitutional sanctuary policies.”