California Dems accused of putting sanctuary law over migrant child welfare checks: 'Real children'
California Democrats are facing accusations that the state’s sanctuary policies are leaving vulnerable migrant children unchecked after California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office warned that local police welfare visits on unaccompanied minors using information from federal authorities could violate state law.
The warning from Bonta has become a flashpoint in a broader lawsuit brought by the City of El Cajon against California's sanctuary state policies. City officials, like Mayor Bill Wells and City Councilman Steve Goble, argue that the state is putting law enforcement in an impossible position, such as forcing them to make a determination on whether to check on potentially vulnerable children flagged by federal immigration authorities and risk violating state law, or leave the vulnerable unaccompanied minors unchecked.
Goble told Fox News Digital he was informed during a February 2025 meeting with San Diego-area Homeland Security officials that federal authorities had a list of unaccompanied migrant children, including 52 with addresses in El Cajon. He said federal officials asked whether local police could help "ensure these kids are safe" through welfare checks, prompting Goble to seek guidance from Bonta’s office before dispatching officers.
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"It’s kind of hard to imagine why they’re choosing this hill to die on," Wells told Fox News Digital. "What they basically want to say is, 'Because our narrative is so important, and protecting illegal aliens is so important, that, yeah, if a few kids get sex trafficked along the way — you know, you're just making this up. You're just using this as a way.' I mean, these are real people. These are real children. I think it's an incredibly insensitive argument."
Goble had asked Bonta’s office in a March 2025 letter whether local police could conduct the checks using contact information provided by federal authorities, writing that the city wanted to ensure all children were safe "regardless of citizenship or resident status."
In the letter, Goble cited the inspector general's concerns that unaccompanied minors are at heightened risk of trafficking, exploitation and forced labor, and wrote that "time is of the essence" in determining whether the children were safe.
Meanwhile, Bonta’s office responded in a June 2025 letter, warning that local law enforcement pursuing wellness checks "alongside or based on information provided by federal immigration authorities" could implicate conduct prohibited by SB 54, known as the California Values Act.
Bonta's letter said these violations could include if officers confirmed location information provided by ICE, or reported the results of the check back to federal immigration authorities.
But Goble told Fox News Digital that the city was not asking police to act as immigration agents, but primarily wanted to confirm whether the children are safe.
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"All I care about is, is the kid safe?" Goble told Fox News Digital. "I don’t care the immigration status or citizen status of anybody else in the room."
The welfare-check dispute is one piece of a broader legal challenge El Cajon filed against Bonta on April 28, 2026, seeking relief from California’s sanctuary policies impacting how local law enforcement do their jobs, including SB 54, the TRUST Act and the TRUTH Act. In a May 20 motion for a preliminary injunction, the city asked the court to temporarily block Bonta from enforcing those laws against El Cajon while the case proceeds, arguing the policies are preempted by federal immigration law and put local police in the position of choosing between state restrictions and federal obligations.
The May 20 injunction motion specifically cites the Goble-Bonta exchange as an example of how the city says California’s sanctuary laws prevent El Cajon officers from engaging in "basic public safety work." The filing argues that the state’s legal framework forces officers to spend time navigating "legal hairsplitting" instead of responding quickly to public-safety concerns, including checks on children in the community.
"Every time an El Cajon police officer steps out onto the street, they’re going to be breaking one of two laws," Wells said to Fox News Digital. "They’re either going to be breaking federal law or they’re going to be breaking state law. And you cannot put police officers in that situation."
El Cajon’s lawsuit is not limited to the welfare checks. The April 28 complaint broadly asks a San Diego County court to declare California’s sanctuary restrictions invalid and to stop Bonta from enforcing them against El Cajon police.
Bonta's office's June 2025 response said it "share[s]" El Cajon’s concern for children who may be at risk of harm, but suggested county social service agencies may have a role when there is no evidence of criminal activity requiring law enforcement.
Wells and Goble pushed back on that argument; however, arguing Bonta's suggestion ignored San Diego County’s December 2024 vote restricting county resources from being used to assist federal immigration enforcement.
"That means we’re not going to let our social service workers go do welfare checks on unaccompanied minors for the Department of Homeland Security," Goble told Fox News Digital. "It’s another rock and a hard place."
Wells added that it was difficult to accept Bonta’s suggestion that county agencies could serve as a neutral fallback for welfare checks tied to information from federal authorities. "This is the same county we would be deferring to, to check on these kids," Wells added. "They’re not neutral. They’ve been very, very clear."
Immigrant-rights advocates nationally have warned that ICE "welfare checks" on unaccompanied migrant children can function as immigration enforcement under the banner of child safety. The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights has called the Trump administration’s ICE "wellness checks" harmful enforcement "in disguise," while other advocates have warned that DHS visits can discourage sponsors from coming forward or expose families to deportation fears.
But Wells and Goble rejected that framing, arguing local police could check on children without reporting immigration violations discovered during the visit.
"That doesn’t make us federal immigration officers," Wells said. "It just means that our officers could do their job like they’ve always done in the past before this unconstitutional law of SB 54 was passed."
"All a welfare check on anybody in our city, regardless of immigration status, is: Are they okay?" Goble added. "If they are, thank you very much. Have a good day. See you later."
Wells noted the lawsuit is not about deputizing local police as immigration agents, but about ensuring officers can do basic public-safety work without running afoul of state law.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bonta's office, as well as the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but did not hear back in time for publication.