Yet another city in the progressive state of California could soon find itself added to the list of sanctuary cities that protect illegal aliens after a proposal was presented urging Bakersfield to adopt the policy, which has led to a heated debate among residents. The proposal, which is fully supported by the Kern County Young Democrats — was brought up during a recent city council meeting.
During the meeting, left-wing activists urged officials to declare Bakersfield a sanctuary city after three deaths during Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests this month. Several individuals who spoke at the meeting also noted immigration sweeps that have been transpiring in Kern County since January 2025.
Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur and Councilman Andrae Gonzales both shared support for taking up the issue, though they presented different ways to approach it. Kaur requested that City Attorney Virginia “Ginny” Gennaro to come to the next meeting with guidance on how to organize a Transparent Review of Unjust Transfers and Holds (TRUTH) Act forum.
According to a report from The New York Post, this would allow local governments to examine whether local law enforcement agencies assisted ICE by providing access to individuals in custody during the last year. Gonzales referred the issue to the council’s Laws and Legislation Committee to look into formal sanctuary city policy.
He then referred to the work being done by immigration enforcement officials as “nothing short of, you know, terrorizing our neighborhoods and our communities, immigrant communities, and frankly, many of our citizens who are also people of color.” Gonzales then said that the city needs to send “a clear message to our community and to the rest of the country” that every tax-paying member of the community should be treated with dignity.
Manny Ramirez, a longtime resident of the city, asked officials to revisit the sanctuary city issue during their next meeting, going on to quote the last words spoken by a man who was fatally shot by an ICE officer a week ago. Another resident, Lindsey Parker, urged the council to protect individuals who have settled in Bakersfield, while Charlotte O’Brien described Bakersfield as a “city of immigrants.”
O’Brien then called on the city to take action to reduce the impact of federal immigration enforcement operations. Kaur then revealed that she had been prohibited from taking a tour of a local immigrant detention center, going on to add that the concerns of local residents mattered more to her “than someone’s road in front of their home needs to be repaved.”
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Not every member of the council was on board with making Bakersfield a sanctuary city. Councilman Larry Koman stated that California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom already established that Sacramento will not allow local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and said that taking additional action would simply be a waste of time. “I don’t want to see any time spent … developing a sanctuary policy until it comes back to the City Council for discussion,” Koman said.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video