SAN FRANCISCO — President Donald Trump’s fight against sanctuary cities is about to get some help from deep behind enemy lines in California.

More than a dozen conservative officials from across the state are flying into Washington to meet with the president on Wednesday afternoon — a session that current and former administration officials say is intended to highlight Trump’s commitment to eradicate municipal safe harbors for immigrants.


“It’s a show of force,” said a Republican familiar with the discussions.

The political component of the meeting is hard to miss. The president gets an opportunity to amplify his recent message about the need for California officials to cooperate with federal officials to stem what he says is a new tide of illegal immigration. And for the local Republicans, the bulk of whom are from Southern California, the event offers a national megaphone to broadcast their anti-sanctuary resistance — a central theme in their efforts to roll back recent Democratic gains in traditionally red San Diego and Orange counties, a region that’s pivotal to the fight for control of the House.

Republican strategist Matt Cunningham, a veteran of Orange County politics, says the meeting is a savvy move by the administration on an issue that’s gaining resonance even in solidly blue California.

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The debate over Senate Bill 54, the California Values Act, he said, “kind of touches on a disconnect between the liberal elites who run this state and ordinary people who feel like the elites are more concerned with protecting illegal aliens from deportation than they are with rising crime and homelessness and a crumbling infrastructure.”

On the record, White House officials are downplaying the political significance of the Wednesday meeting.

“We believe that California should help us, and all municipalities and states should help the federal government in enforcing federal law, in helping to deport — when appropriate — criminal, illegal immigrants, and help … stem the tide of illegal immigration in the United States,” said deputy press secretary Raj Shah.

Asked Monday about the purpose of the meeting with California officials, Shah added that unauthorized immigration is “actually on the rise now. It’s a point of frustration for the president and for the administration. So that will be part of, obviously, what’s discussed.”

Shah appeared to be referring to Department of Homeland Security figures announced earlier this month, claiming that Border Patrol agents arrested 37,393 people in March, which the agency said was a 200 percent increase over last year.

But critics have suggested those numbers are suspect — and some, like California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, have also raised concerns over Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recent statement in California that officials may act to separate children and their undocumented parents if they are placed under arrest.

The White House meeting on sanctuary cities comes as Republican leaders around the state acknowledge the issue’s potency in the 2018 midterm elections. In Orange County — a legendary GOP bastion — the stakes are especially high for the party, which hopes to energize its base in advance of the June 5 primary.



The DCCC has ramped up ads and attacks on incumbents, including Reps. Mimi Walters and Dana Rohrabacher, as well as on GOP candidates hoping to fill the seats of retiring Reps. Darrell Issa and Ed Royce.

Among those who have said they will attend the White House meeting are Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel, who has in recent weeks taken on a high-profile role, appearing on Fox News to defend the administration’s stance on sanctuary cities. Steel is married to a high-powered GOP national operative — Orange County attorney Shawn Steel, a former chairman of the California Republican Party and now a member of the Republican National Committee.

Shawn Steel, in a series of local newsletters, has celebrated what he’s called a red state “revolution” against SB 54, the so-called “sanctuary state” law aimed at protecting undocumented immigrants without criminal records from deportation. He recently denounced “storm troopers” who demonstrated against the GOP effort, saying they were tied to the bill’s author, state Sen. Kevin de León.

Shawn Steel has issued calls to arms to cities and counties across Southern California to back the president’s agenda.

Michelle Steel told Politico that local officials who have questioned the validity of SB54 have been buoyed by an “incredible” outpouring of support.

“We will not sit idly by and watch Sacramento leverage the safety of our communities in order to make a political point,” she said. “For too long politicians in Sacramento have used California as a pawn to further their own agenda and this issue has brought us to the tipping point.”

Steel is expected to be joined in the West Wing session by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, San Diego Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar and Mayor Pro Tem Warren Kusumoto, and more than a half-dozen other California municipal and law enforcement officials. Administration officials in attendance will include Sessions, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Thomas Homan, director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Democrats contend Republicans are digging themselves only further into a political hole with their movement focusing on the sanctuary cities bill, arguing that it will safeguard public safety by encouraging immigrants to cooperate with law enforcement officials in reporting crimes.

De León, a candidate for Senate who is challenging Feinstein in the Democratic primary, told Politico: “We have surging violence in the Middle East, a brewing crisis in Iran, a trade war unfolding with most of the world and our president is fixated on California’s refusal to serve as the shock troops in his war on immigrants.”

“How can he make peace on the global stage,” he asked, “when he won’t stop warring with his own citizens?”



Democrats insist the effort to use the law as a cudgel will only further weaken the GOP’s standing in California, which has continued to slide statewide since former Gov. Pete Wilson pushed the landmark anti-immigration Prop. 187 in 1994.

The latest figures show that in solidly blue California, Republicans are now down to 25.2 percent in voter registration rolls, said veteran campaign adviser Garry South.

“They can try to fire up that base all they want, but it’s still 25 percent,” South added.

But Trump, who has made immigration the centerpiece of his message, has continued to link illegal immigration with a swell in violent attitudes toward the authorities. On Tuesday, he turned his attention to the MS-13 gang at an event to honor fallen and injured law enforcement officials, using the opportunity to link the violent gang to the sanctuary cities issue.

“The first duty of government is to protect our citizens, and the men and women of DHS are on the front lines of this incredible heroic fight. That is why we are calling on Congress to secure our borders, support our border agents, stop sanctuary cities, and shut down policies that release violent criminals back into our communities,” Trump said. “We don’t want it any longer. We’ve had it. Enough is enough.”

