Pro-sanctuary protestors watch the Los Alamitos city council meeting on televisions outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Los Alamitos council listens to public comments ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Protestors on opposite sides of the issue face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Fashion designer Andre Soriano joins the protest outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors on opposite sides of the issue face-off against each with megaphones outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Pro-sanctuary law protestors lock arms in unity outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A pro-sanctuary law protestors stands holds up her sign for passing cars outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

An anti-sanctuary law protestors brings his megaphone to the protests outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Protestors on opposite sides of the issue face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors on opposite sides of the issue face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors on opposite sides of the issue face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Protestors face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Los Alamitos council listens to public comments ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Protestors face-off against each other outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A pro-sanctuary law protestors joins protestors on both sides outside the Los Alamitos council chambers ahead of the expected vote by the Los Alamitos City Council giving final approval for an ordinance that would exempt them from complying with the California Values Act, otherwise known as the state’s sanctuary law in Los Alamitos on Monday, April 16, 2018. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Los Alamitos City Council approved an ordinance that in essence says the city doesn’t plan to follow California’s key sanctuary law, a vote that figures to add fuel to a regional anti-sanctuary movement started in the city last month.

Following some five hours of public testimony – and a very loud and contentious rally outside – the council voted 4-1 late Monday for final approval of the ordinance it originally passed on March 19.

The ordinance says Los Alamitos police will not follow SB-54, also known as the California Values Act, which limits how police in the state can work with federal immigration officials working to detain undocumented immigrants. Though state law allows police to turn over immigrants accused of violent crimes and many drug crimes, people frustrated by so-called sanctuary laws want police to turn all undocumented immigrants over to federal officials when they are released from jail on local crimes.

The lone holdout in Los Alamitos was Councilman Mark Chirco, an attorney who told his colleagues that the local law is divisive, flawed, ineffective and unnecessary in their city.

“When was the last time there was an (immigration) raid in our city?” he asked the police chief. None in at least the last decade was the response.

The ACLU said Tuesday that it plans to file a lawsuit Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court.

The costs associated in defending any lawsuits the ordinance could “bankrupt our city,” Chirco said Monday night. Los Alamitos, which has an annual budget of about $17.2 million and a population of about 11,600, spent several thousand dollars in the past month in attorney fees, according to the city attorney.

Councilman Richard Murphy suggested holding off on the vote and asked staff to come back at a future meeting with different options. But no one on the council backed him and Murphy ended up voting with the majority: Troy Edgar, Shelley Hasselbrink and Warren Kusumoto, who first brought the issue to the council.

Mayor Edgar said he has recently spoken with a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative and told him he would welcome the agency to Los Alamitos, which is home to the Joint Forces Training Base.

“We would love to host you,” Edgar said.

The council, Edgar said, set in motion a movement against California’s protective laws toward unauthorized immigrants when it gave initial approval last month.

Since the council’s initial vote, at least nine other Orange County cities and the county Board of Supervisors have passed similar resolutions or supported a federal lawsuit by the Trump administration against SB-54 and other California laws.

Those cities are: Aliso Viejo, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Newport Beach, Orange, San Juan Capistrano, Westminster and Yorba Linda. One other city, Santa Ana, has voted to support sanctuary laws.

This week, the San Diego Board of Supervisors, as well as Orange County cities Dana Point, Lake Forest and Laguna Niguel, are expected to consider similar resolutions. Riverside County cities Beaumont and Murrieta are also weighing the issue.

Los Alamitos, however, is the only city that, to date, has passed an official ordinance. On Monday, a number of speakers, as well as council members Chirco and Murphy, questioned why the majority didn’t consider the option taken by many other cities — to pass a symbolic measure expressing support for the federal lawsuit against California.

Like many sanctuary votes over the past month, the meeting Monday in Los Alamitos drew hundreds of people, for and against sanctuary laws. Throughout the afternoon and evening they confronted each other in front of city hall, and sometimes inside the council chamber.

Sanctuary proponents called the council’s planned move ill-conceived and a waste of taxpayer money.

“We’re so much more than this,” said Huntington Beach resident Bethany Webb, speaking on behalf of her mother, Los Alamitos resident Hattie Stretz.

Referring to repeated claims linking crime to illegal immigration, Webb said: “We know white men commit horrendous crimes as well.” Her sister, Laura Webb Elody, was killed during the 2011 mass shooting at a Seal Beach hair salon and her mother, Stretz, was the lone shooting victim who survived.

On the opposing end, anti-sanctuary proponents said the state law is unconstitutional and encourages more illegal immigration.

“Nobody is above the law. We have elected officials in Sacramento who think they can do whatever they want to do,” said Raul Rodriguez, from Apple Valley.

As speakers addressed the council, some 25 police officers from Los Alamitos and four nearby cities broke up minor skirmishes outside City Hall, where people from both sides got in each other’s faces with cameras, banners and bullhorns.

Before the meeting, at least 200 people gathered outside a City Hall that has a council chamber that seats just 44 visitors.

Not all of the protests expressed anger. There was cumbia music and Korean drumming, courtesy of the Korean Resource Center, which supports immigrant-rights. And most of those who don’t support sanctuary laws were restrained, some offering a nuanced stance on the idea of immigration.

“We love legal immigrants,” one woman said as she passed a group of sanctuary supporters earlier in the afternoon.

Over the past month, the immigration debate has prompted grass-roots groups frustrated by California’s liberal laws on immigration, and those who support those laws, to show-up at city councils around the region.

Their presence has been noted at many council meetings by locals who say they don’t appreciate the outsiders butting into their local affairs. Some meetings have been tinged with anti-Semitic and racially-charged remarks.

On Monday night, both sides accused each other of inappropriate words and actions.

As the evening wore on and the crowd got testier, there were also some anti-gay comments from the anti-sanctuary side, including outbursts from one man, who said he was from Las Vegas, against a gay Los Alamitos resident: “Shame on you. I’m masculine.”

Some speakers said the topic brought “hate” to their city. Jessica Riegert, a Los Alamitos High School teacher, told the council that the proposed ordinance is affecting students at her school.

“Students are not confident that the community they’ve grown up in is safe for them. Immigrant students, undocumented or documented, are being targeted because of this,” she said.

“Look outside,” she added. “This bill is more than just rule of law. This lawsuit has become permission for students to target their immigrant neighbors.”

The council heard from both sides, including support for the anti-sanctuary move from three former council members.

“Do not waver in the threat of litigation,” former Councilman Art DeBolt urged them..

The crowd included members of faith, immigrant, civil rights, labor and youth groups who rallied to “defend immigrants and celebrate sanctuary,” said pro-sanctuary organizers. More than a dozen groups were represented at the rally.

The anti-sanctuary opponents came from across Southern California and represent various conservative groups. What unifies them is their support for President Donald Trump, said Robin Hvidston, who heads a group called We the People Rising in Claremont.

Trump, Hvidston said in an earlier interview, is giving a voice to conservative Californians who “feel as if we live in the shadow. It’s as if we don’t exist in the state.”