Critics take Fountain Valley council to task over joining court brief against state ‘sanctuary’ laws

Tuesday’s Fountain Valley City Council meeting was much quieter and shorter than it was April 3, when a raucous crowd packed the chamber to plead, argue or shout views about California’s “sanctuary state” laws and why Fountain Valley should or should not weigh in.

This week, the largest group in the audience consisted of green-clad Girl Scouts observing local government in action.

But the council’s vote this month to support a federal lawsuit against state laws expanding protections for undocumented immigrants was still weighing on the minds of several people in attendance. The council initially voted April 3 to file a brief supporting the lawsuit, which contends the laws obstruct federal immigration law and thus violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which gives federal law precedence. The vote came after U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Costa Mesa) offered to help the city pay the legal costs for the brief.

A couple of days later, however, the city decided instead to sign on, at no cost, to a brief written by the Immigration Reform Law Institute. Several other Orange County cities also have joined the brief.

About a half-dozen speakers Tuesday told the council they were disappointed with its actions. The Immigration Reform Law Institute is the legal affiliate of the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a “hate group” because of what it calls white supremacist and eugenicist statements by its founder, John Tanton.

Fountain Valley officials have said they were unfamiliar with IRLI or the hate allegations before signing on to the brief but said they agree with the document’s content and considered it a suitable opportunity to express the council’s position.

Councilman Larry Crandall, a leading voice on the sanctuary topic, said Tuesday night that people should keep things in perspective.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center happens to be a very radical left-wing outfit,” he said.

However, Rabbi Stephen Einstein said: “It so happens that the group you signed with now turns out is a legal arm of a hate group. This brings great shame on the city of Fountain Valley.”

“I would urge the City Council to make a public statement separating itself from that organization and what it stands for,” he said. “Otherwise, people will conclude that the city of Fountain Valley is aligned with hate. I know that’s not anybody’s intention.”

Kelly Kraus-Lee, who previously urged the city not to take a stand against the sanctuary laws, said she was disappointed that the city went ahead on the brief “without so much as a Google search on the background of the organization.”

“By signing on with the Immigration Reform Law Institute brief, we’re opening ourselves up to further influence from this organization that doesn’t have our city’s best interests at heart, but rather is focused only on their own anti-immigrant mission,” she said.

The city’s attorney, Colin Burns, said the city is against hate and that the content of the brief wasn’t offensive. He said Fountain Valley joined the brief because it addressed an issue of legal concern and eliminated what would have been a repetitive filing.

“We didn’t align ourselves with any of these groups that have been talked about,” Burns said. “What we did was we aligned ourselves with several other Orange County cities who are also joining the brief, including Yorba Linda, Aliso Viejo, facing the same problem — facing a conflict that the state put each city in.”

Briana Valadao said that although the content of the brief wasn’t extremist, “it still matters who we are aligning ourselves with and who we are partnering with. It’s symbolic, but it sends a message.”

But Mayor Pro Tem Steve Nagel said sanctuary state laws are like “flipping off” the federal government.

“I voted the way I did because I felt I was elected to be a leader of the community,” he said, “and to do nothing meant that I agreed with what the state did, and I don’t.”

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD