On Tuesday, March 4, an hour and a half before midnight, the Eureka City Council declared Eureka a sanctuary city by unanimous decision.
In its capacity as a sanctuary city, Eureka will refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. The Eureka Police Department will not enforce federal civil immigration laws.
Local residents called for Eureka to become a sanctuary city in response to the mass deportations occurring nation-wide, which have left many in Humboldt County, especially the immigrant community, on edge.
While Humboldt County has been a sanctuary county since Measure K was passed in 2018, Eureka’s new Resolution No. 2025 aligns the city with the sanctuary county status.
The full resolution can be found here.
Along with numerous community members, members from different groups such as Centro del Pueblo, the Singing Grannies, the Sanctuary Arcata and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) also attended the meeting.
Sarah Peters Gonzalez is an academic advisor at Cal Poly Humboldt, who made an appearance at the meeting in support of the sanctuary status. Gonzalez expressed her gratitude for SURJ and similar organizations for making her aware of the meeting.
“There’s a lot of humans in Humboldt County who care about equity, justice, safety for all of our neighbors,” Gonzalez said after the meeting. “Just be present for the moments when we can push that forward.”
Rachel Montgomery, also a member of SURJ showed up in support of the new sanctuary status.
“We have far more shared interest, me as a white person, have far more shared interest with my immigrant neighbors than I do with a billionaire,” Montgomery said. “And so together we can be a lot more powerful and protect each other, support each other in that way.”
Story and photos by Ben Hernandez
2 days ago
