Escondido Council Vote 4-1 In Favor Of Supporting Trump's Sanctuary Lawsuit

>> I am Maureen Cavanaugh for the "KPBS Midday Edition". By a vote of 4 -1 the city Council voted in favor of adopting a resolution supporting the Trump administration's lawsuit against California's sanctuary state law. It limits police departments from working with the police departments and Matt Hoffman has more. Welcome. >> Hi Maureen. >> What was the meeting like last night at Escondido City Hall. --? >> It was a 4:30 start but people were out there at 3:00. There was a lot of immigrant rights advocacy groups out there protesting this. In the middle of the news conference, it got broken up when two women came in, one with a bullhorn and the other with a flag. It became a huge shouting match at that point. We have sound of that. >> Racists leave! [ Crowd Chanting ] >> After this point, it turned into whoever had the loudest bullhorn, loudest sound system. The news conference was done at that point. Then there was a council meeting. They only had a capacity for 200 people and I quickly filled up before it even started. They ran out of speaker slips and people were lined up outside the door. They didn't allow people to take in their signs. They only had two minutes to speak so people were upset about that as well. >> Hour members voted to join with the Trump lawsuit -- four members voted to join with the Trump lawsuit. What was their perspective? >> They say before SB 54 they had a good working relationship with I.C.E.. They deported people based on criminal records, violent criminals. They said in a 10 year period that through this relationship with I.C.E. -- since this SB 54, they can no longer protect their community and they no longer have a good relationship with I.C.E. The mayor spoke about the recent Redan Escondido which captured some people and they believe that could have been prevented. >> They arrested and deported 115 illegal immigrants, many of them who had not committed a crime. Yes, in some cases they separated families. This is what SB 54 is doing to our city. Is not what we want? I don't think so. >> It's interesting; the only one who opposed this, Councilwoman DS says even though we had this relationship with I.C.E., it was just a handshake and a nod, nothing written down on paper. >> Quite itchy vote no when all of the other city Council members voted yes. >> She said the main reason was why are we even voting on this as a city Council. She didn't believe they have the authority to weigh in on this, especially because of what they are doing, the resolution. It's a legal document that has no legal standing in court. She pointed out that SB 54, what it doesn't is protects immigrants in Escondido. >> Escondido was not the first city to declare its support for the Trump administration on this issue. What have other cities in our region done? >> Huntington Beach just filed a separate lawsuit and the Orange County supervisors, last week became the first ones to lead this charge. They joined that lawsuit just like Escondido did Leslie. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is set to look at this issue. They are doing this in closed session over the coming weeks. It seems like a lot of cities are doing and what Escondido is saying, this is a breach -- a huge overreach of state authority. They want to have these relationships that they claim they had with I.C.E. before SB 54. >> What is Escondido planning to do next? >> A lot of people were upset because they only have two minutes to speak. Multiple times they said, we will throw you out if you keep talking. Many people wanted to talk more and councilmember Diaz said, we could readdress this issue with giving people more time to speak. >> Reporter: I have been -- >> I have been speaking with Matt Hoffman. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.