The mostly white Butte County city of Oroville has few if any undocumented immigrants, but declared itself a “non-sanctuary city” in a move that just seems intended to irk Gavin Newsom and please Donald Trump.

The city of San Francisco has been making headlines for its legal resistance to Donald Trump’s purported crackdown on sanctuary cities. But one California city is going the other direction, and that’s the Butte County city of Oroville, which is some 150 miles to the northeast of San Francisco, and best known for having the tallest dam in the US. Sacramento’s KCRA reports that Oroville City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to declare Oroville a “non-sanctuary” city, or in the words of the resolution they passed, "a non-sanctuary city for all criminals."

“We’re not wanting to harbor or be a refuge for anybody who has conducted criminal activities, whatever it may be,” Oroville Mayor David Pittman said to the Chronicle. Though he noted that rural Oroville is not struggling with any reported crimes from an undocumented immigrant population, and the resolution was more about “people’s perception.”

The Chronicle adds that there is “virtually no unauthorized immigrant population” in Oroville. KTVU notes that Oroville’s population is 65% white, 12% Asian, 7% Hispanic and 3% Black. But KTVU also adds that Oroville went 49.9%-46.8% for Trump in the 2024 presidential elections, so that may be more what this symbolic move is all about.

In addition to sanctuary cities like SF, California law is informally considered a "sanctuary state" because of the 2017 California Values Act that prohibits using state and local resources to aid federal immigration efforts. This does not bar any federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from carrying out their own operations. And there was some pushback in Oroville over the council’s resolution.

"I am a third generation person who lives in Oroville," one woman said to the council during public comment before Tuesday’s vote. "My family immigrated here from Germany, and I can guarantee you, unless there are any indigenous people or people who are Mexican here, all of your families immigrated here, too."

LA County’s Huntington beach is challenging the California Values Act with a recent lawsuit, and it’s expected that Tuesday’s symbolic vote was a precursor to Oroville joining in that lawsuit. And again, this is all pretty much performative, just like that time in 2021 that Oroville declared themselves a “Constitutional Republic City” because they figured that would help them ignore vaccine mandates.  

Related: It’s On: San Francisco Sues Trump Administration Over Sanctuary City Crackdown [SFist]

Photo via City of Oroville/Facebook