What began as a routine policy discussion shifted when the City Council waded into a debate about immigration enforcement and California’s sanctuary state laws.
At its Jan. 20 meeting, the council amended its legislative policy guidelines and 2026 legislative goals, a document in which city leaders outline which issues lobbyists will champion during the 2026 legislative session. At a previous meeting, the council had discussed focusing on the Tijuana sewage crisis, affordable housing, and e-bike regulations.
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, council members were invited to submit proposed changes to the draft document presented by city staff in December.
Two suggestions prompted robust discussion from city leaders and the public about immigration enforcement. The conversation echoed a broader national debate about US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including recent federal operations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where an ICE agent fatally shot a woman during an immigration enforcement action earlier this month. The incident has drawn protests and legal scrutiny and remains under investigation.
The proposed additions were both submitted by Councilmember Mark Fleming and read as follows: “Support legislation that would appeal or amend the sanctuary status of both the state of California and the county of San Diego, to include efforts to modify or eliminate California SB 54 and related laws.”
The second read, “Support legislation requiring local and state law enforcement agencies to cooperate fully with federal law enforcement and homeland security agencies in the enforcement of laws and protections of the citizens of the United States.”
City Attorney Johanna Canlas noted that “sanctuary cities” is not a legal term, though it is used in casual conversation. California’s 2017 SB 54, which limits local law enforcement from assisting with federal immigration enforcement except for serious offenses, has long been ratified.
“We see a lot of things going on across the country, frankly, that tied back into resistance and a lot of violence,” Fleming said, explaining his reasoning for the additions. “I feel that as a state and a county and locally, we should not be restricting legal, federal law enforcement activity.”
The council as a whole did not support the changes, and they were not included in the final legislative priorities document. However, much of the two-and-a-half hours of deliberations on the matter centered on immigration.
Councilmember Amy Steward said she thought the language would needlessly polarize the community over a national issue. She added that the role of the city council should be nonpartisan, focusing on the governance of Coronado itself. Mayor John Duncan echoed this sentiment, saying his personal feelings on the national debate were not relevant to the role of governing Coronado.
Councilmember Carrie Downey said it would not only be ineffective, but also inappropriate, for Coronado as a whole to posit an opinion on state and national politics. The point of the legislative priorities, Downey said, is to lobby for issues that directly impact Coronado.
“Are we going to pay somebody to lobby for these? No, the taxpayers wouldn’t want us to spend our money doing that,” Downey said. “These are national issues, so for those reasons, regardless of how you feel specifically on these issues, I don’t think we have a dog in that fight now. I do think it’s an issue that everybody cares about. We have lots of people on both sides that care deeply, and I encourage them to keep caring and doing what they want to do on state and national levels.”
Councilmember Kelly Purvis echoed the fear that such language would create problems in a community that already supports its law enforcement. She suggested adding language to the legislative priorities that would support law enforcement, which the rest of the council supported.
Public comment on the suggestions was divided. Frank King, whose mother spent nine years under a suspended deportation order, said that broad cooperation mandates put law-abiding immigrants at risk.
“More than 70 percent of those being detained by ICE have no criminal history,” he said, citing numbers from TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse), a non-profit research and data organization based at Syracuse University that collects, analyzes, and publishes detailed data on federal enforcement, including immigration enforcement and ICE detention.
“Requiring our state and local law enforcement to cooperate does not make us safer,” he said.
Resident Carolyn Rogerson disagreed, saying that local law enforcement should cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
“Any anti-ICE and border patrol local law enforcement actions are essentially condoning crimes, and coddling violent criminals at the expense of innocent children and others, especially in our immigrant community,” she said.
Rogerson said that people should not interfere with ICE operations.
“It is one thing to stand on the side and protest,” Rogerson said. “It is another thing to try and physically block or vocally interfere with law enforcement activity as it is taking place. This is not what we want to teach our children; this is promoting anarchy.”
The proposed additions were not included in the final legislative priorities, which passed in a unanimous vote. The council also approved some clarifications and language-tightening changes in regard to the state’s affordable housing mandates, military relations, and the environment.
The city’s priorities will be on addressing cross-border sewage, lobbying for e-bike regulation, infrastructure funding, and ensuring a fair affordable housing allocation for Coronado in the state’s next Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA).
