Citing Executive Order 14287, the Department of Homeland Security today released a list of what it called “sanctuary jurisdictions” – states, counties and cities that “obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
California was one of 38 states listed, Santa Clara County was one of 48 (of 58) California counties and San Jose was one of 63 cities (27 in the Bay Area) on the list.

President Donald Trump’s executive order, called “Protecting American Communities from Criminal Aliens,” required publication of the list, saying the governments “are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws, endangering American communities.”

The Homeland Security announcement declared that “Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril.”

The agency said it compiled the list using multiple factors, including compliance with federal law enforcement, information restrictions, and legal protections for undocumented immigrants.

Homeland Security said each jurisdiction listed will receive formal notification from Washington of its non-compliance with federal statutes, and said it “demands that these jurisdictions immediately review and revise their policies to align with federal immigration laws and renew their obligation to protect American citizens, not dangerous illegal aliens.”

In addition to Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties, the list included Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. Contra Costa, Napa, Marin and Solano counties were not on the list.

These Bay Area cities were on the Homeland Security list: Alameda, Albany, Belmont, Benicia, Berkeley, San Rafael, Concord, El Cerrito, Emeryville, Fremont, Hayward, Healdsburg, Martinez, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Newark, Oakland, Pacifica, Petaluma, Pleasanton, Richmond, San Francisco, San Jose, San Leandro, San Pablo, Santa Rosa and Union City. Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Salinas and Monterey also were on the Homeland Security list.

Some communities told the Associated Press that the list make sense.

In Orange County, the city of Huntington Beach is on the list even though it has sued the state over its policies that protect immigrants, and its City Council supports Trump. But the nearby city of Santa Ana, which has policies to protect members of its sizable immigrant community, is not.

In North Dakota, seven mostly small, rural counties wound up on the list, including Slope County, which has about 700 people and overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.