A protester kicks a burning Waymo vehicle during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. The protest erupted after a wave of federal immigration raids began on June 7, with National Guard troops deployed to the city despite objections from local officials. Demonstrators called for an end to deportations and the dismantling of ICE. (Photo by Benjamin Hanson / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by BENJAMIN HANSON/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Sacramento, California – A new resolution introduced in the California State Assembly by Republican lawmakers is seeking to dismantle the state’s sanctuary laws, citing what they described as violent attacks against federal immigration agents earlier this month in Los Angeles.
Assembly Concurrent Resolution 98, authored by Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher of East Nicolaus and Assemblyman Stan Ellis of Bakersfield, urges Governor Gavin Newsom to immediately end California’s sanctuary state policies. The lawmakers say these policies, in place since 2017, have hindered cooperation between law enforcement agencies and created conditions that put federal officers at risk.
“Federal officers were violently attacked in the streets of Los Angeles for doing their job—and Gavin Newsom’s policies helped create the conditions that allowed it to happen,” Gallagher said in a statement announcing the measure. “Newsom’s sanctuary state agenda has made it harder to enforce the law and easier for mobs to take over our streets.”
Though the resolution does not carry the weight of law, it signals a broader political confrontation over the role of local law enforcement in federal immigration efforts. The Republican-authored measure asserts that California’s sanctuary framework has introduced “dangerous gaps in communication and coordination between agencies,” and has emboldened individuals to interfere with immigration enforcement operations “without consequence.”
Since 2017, California has limited the extent to which state and local police can collaborate with federal immigration authorities, through the California Values Act signed into law by then-Governor Jerry Brown. Supporters of the sanctuary framework have argued that it is essential to building trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement, ensuring that victims and witnesses of crimes are not discouraged from cooperating due to fears of deportation.
Republican lawmakers argue the pendulum has swung too far. They are now calling on Newsom to reassert coordination with federal agencies, restore full cooperation across jurisdictions, and rethink a legal framework that they believe is contributing to public disorder.
With Democrats holding a legislative supermajority in Sacramento, the resolution is unlikely to advance far. Still, it arrives amid renewed tensions over immigration policy across the state. In January, the Huntington Beach City Council — representing a reliably conservative enclave in coastal Orange County — passed a resolution declaring the city a “non-sanctuary” jurisdiction.
Though largely symbolic, ACR 98 marks a renewed effort by California Republicans to turn immigration into a political wedge issue, especially as national debates over border enforcement, asylum policy, and public safety continue to intensify in an election year.
