San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera has been outspoken in his outrage over immigration enforcement in San Diego.
At a rules committee meeting in July, the former council president announced his plans to turn outrage into action in the form of an ordinance codifying certain rights intended to protect San Diegans.
“To do our absolute best to protect San Diegan from what we see as gross overreach by the federal government,” said Elo-Rivera, who represents the area around Normal Heights and City Heights.
Elo-Rivera said the ordinance is not symbolic but has concrete legs. First, it would limit circumstances where the city asks people for personal characteristics.
“While the city would never, you know, do anything harmful with that information, we can’t trust that the federal government wouldn’t breach the system,” Elo-Rivera said.
The legislation would also keep federal agents and out-of-state law enforcement off of nonpublic city spaces and post signage telling people about their rights when it comes to answering questions. Elo-Rivera hopes to see this policy extend as far as the city’s tentacles can reach, by applying it to places that contract with the city or receive city grants.
“This is the time right now — [it’s] too serious to do symbolism — and we we have to do things that actually will make a difference us,” Elo-Rivera said. “I also, though, take really seriously never ever giving someone a false sense of safety.”
A former chair of the San Diego County Republican Party, Corey Gustafson, however, said the policy would thwart the mandate handed to the Trump Administration by voters, and that the city could be overstepping.
“We now know who’s coming in and who’s coming out,” Gustafson said. “So then we can go to the next stage, which is: Let’s figure out what we do with the people who are already here. What they cannot do, whether it be the San Diego City Council, whether it be the governor of the state of California, is to go against federal law.”
Elo-Rivera acknowledges it is a fine line to walk, but said the city is not powerless and that any policy questions will be parsed out in the coming months. He plans to bring the ordinance forward in September.
“What we can do is, again, give people the firmest ground to stand on, to assert their constitutional rights,” Elo-Rivera said.