If a blue state can sue the federal government on behalf of illegal aliens, why shouldn’t a beleaguered town within its domain be able to do the same when that anti-immigration law enforcement stance causes it tangible harm? California may be about to discover the possibilities that arise when a weary citizenry finally has had enough.
“The city of El Cajon has sued the state of California over its so-called sanctuary laws, arguing that offering [illegal aliens] drivers’ licenses and workplace protections, as well as prohibiting local police from working with immigration agents, amounts to illegal enticement under the federal statute that outlaws human smuggling,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reported April 29.
The only wonder here is why this hasn’t happened more throughout the United States. A protected class of politicians comfortably perched in their governors’ mansions or legislative seats at the state capitol, often at the behest of outside interest groups, for years has dropped one executive decree or bill after another negatively affecting the welfare of American cities and towns in demonstrably measurable ways.
Eventually – inevitably – it has to reach a tipping point. Are we there yet? Is El Cajon a hint of what is to come?
‘No Explanation for How You’re Supposed to Save That Child’
At a press conference on April 29, El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells and council member Steve Goble argued that police officers in the San Diego County city are being prevented from protecting the community due to reckless pro-illegal alien policies being enacted into state law in Sacramento.
Earlier this year, Wells highlighted just how outrageous these policies can be.
“We sent a letter to the California [Department of Justice] with a simple question: ‘If a child in our city is being sex-trafficked by an illegal alien, can we at least do a welfare check on that child?’” Wells wrote in a March 24 X post.
“The answer? No. That would violate SB-54 [sanctuary state law]. No workaround. No alternative. No explanation for how you're supposed to save that child. That’s what California’s sanctuary law protects. Not the child. The trafficker.”
Closely situated by the Mexican border, San Diego is a notorious hotbed for human trafficking. The FBI earlier this decade listed San Diego and San Diego County among the 13 worst regions in the country for human trafficking. Illegal aliens are often involved. And the mayor of a prominent city in this county is saying California state policies protecting illegal aliens are handcuffing his town’s ability to do anything about it.
Unalloyed Cruelty of California Crazy
He's not exaggerating. Wells was quoting a June 3, 2025, letter from California Attorney General Rob Bonta to council member Goble on El Cajon’s ability to conduct welfare checks on minors when illegal aliens are involved.
“Pursuing wellness checks of unaccompanied children alongside or based on information provided by federal immigration authorities may implicate conduct prohibited by SB-54,” Bonta stunningly wrote to Goble.
The attorney general of the state of California is instructing a city official that his town cannot act upon a report that a child may be endangered if that information came from federal immigration enforcement sources. This in a county engulfed in an illegal immigration crisis far worse than most American communities due to its geographical location.
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) helped El Cajon file its suit against the state. “California wrote these laws to defeat federal enforcement, and their own legislators admitted it. When that strategy ends with a police officer being told he can't check on a potentially trafficked child, it's a legal and moral emergency, and it's time for a court to settle it,” AFPI vice chair of litigation Richard Lawson stated.
“What law should our police officers follow?” Wells asked at the April 29 press conference. “Should they follow the laws of the United States of America, or should they follow the laws of the state of California?”
The mayor pointed out that there are more than 50 recent cases of children living in El Cajon who illegally crossed the Mexican border into America. His police officers are severely limited in their ability to ensure these alarmingly vulnerable youngsters are not being abused in any way by the restraints imposed upon the authorities in their interactions with illegal aliens.
“They don’t get to ask [illegals] what country they’re from. They don’t get to ask if that backpack is full of fentanyl. They don’t get to ask if that five-year-old is really their daughter or son or are they here being sex-trafficked? These are questions our police officers should be able to ask,” Wells detailed.
Whether the lawsuit succeeds in court or merely serves as an enormous public relations embarrassment to the imperious lawmakers in Sacramento who foisted such a grotesque burden on cities and towns throughout California, it’s the local pushback itself that matters most. Hopes in federal enforcement action against illegal immigration only go so far. Things will truly change in America only when those affected most take strong and uncompromising stands against the imposition from on high of an enormous and wholly avoidable human and civil tragedy right where they live.
