Last Tuesday, members of the Santa Clarita City Council asked city staff to gather more information regarding the pros and cons of “sanctuary city” status.

Within the last year, the topic of sanctuary status has been approached by a number of California’s cities and counties, in addition to the statewide legislation that has passed in Sacramento.

The term “sanctuary city” is a broad term applied to jurisdictions that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions. Cities, counties and some states have a range of informal policies as well as actual laws that qualify as “sanctuary” positions.

Related: ‘Sanctuary State’ Law Now In Effect Throughout California

In 2017, California officials passed SB 54, the California Values Act, that limited the communication and cooperation between local enforcement agencies and federal immigration officers.

Then on March 27, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted in a closed-door session to join the federal government in a lawsuit against California over the state law that went into effect in January, according to CNN.

Now, the fight to join in on the federal lawsuit filed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions against the state of California appears to be becoming a topic of discussion in Santa Clarita City Hall.

Councilmember Bob Kellar asked during the public portion of last week’s city council meeting if his colleagues would be amenable to agendizing a public discussion about Santa Clarita’s stance on sanctuary status.

“I recognize our circumstances as a contract city, and it’s not like we have our own law enforcement and we can direct law enforcement business,” said Kellar at Tuesday’s meeting. “But I think we owe it to our citizens and we owe it to the the numerous people that have sent correspondence to us asking that we take some kind of action on this matter.”

However, not everyone shared Kellar’s enthusiasm to add a discussion on the subject to the formal agenda.

Councilmember Cameron Smythe raised concerns not against opening a discussion on the subject in the future, but that the council does not have all the facts needed to make any formal decisions.

“I’d be comfortable with asking our staff to looking into this,” said Smythe. “But agendizing federal immigration policy in a month is a little presumptuous, given that we’re taking up an issue of cannabis today that has been 15 or 16 months in research and development.”

Related: Santa Clarita City Council Likely To Advance Ordinance On Cannabis

Mayor Pro Tem Marsha McLean also jumped into the conversation in order to clarify for those in attendance that Santa Clarita is “not a sanctuary city,” and has not taken any formal stance on the issue in the past.

However, Smythe’s opinion to not formally agendize the item preemptively, and instead allow city staff to conduct research and gather information regarding the subject, seemed to win over the rest of the Santa Clarita City Council.

It is unclear at this time when the research conducted by City Hall will be brought forward.

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