SAN DIEGO — The attorney general of California has promised to fight back against newly elected President Donald Trump if he breaks the law during his four years in office.

What You Need To Know

  • California Attorney General Rob Bonta chose San Diego as the last stop in his series of immigration rights presentations

  • Bonta has already filed several lawsuits challenging President Trump's executive orders, including a move to end birthright citizenship, which is protected under the 14th amendment

  • Bill Wells is the mayor of El Cajon, a city with a large immigrant and refugee population

  • Wells says he’s in a precarious position, wanting to help crack down on illegal immigration in their community, but also being bound by a state law that limits the involvement of local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement

California Attorney General Rob Bonta chose San Diego as the last stop in his series of immigration rights presentations.

Bonta said during the last Trump presidency, he sued the administration for over 120 times. This year, Bonta has already filed several lawsuits challenging President Trump’s executive orders, including a move to end birthright citizenship, which is protected under the 14th Amendment.

“That’s why we sued President Trump on his first day because he violated the law and constitution on his first day,” Bonta said. “It will be non-negotiable that we will have a president that must follow the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law. A president cannot, with the stroke of a pen, amend the U.S. Constitution; that is civics 101.”

Ian Seruelo is an immigration lawyer and chairperson of the San Diego Immigration Rights Consortium. He said he’s received a skyrocketing number of calls since Jan. 20.

“People who are worried about this development, about how it would affect their petition or pending, or how it would affect their family,” Seruelo said. “That’s the first thing that right away hit me.”

Bill Wells is the mayor of El Cajon, a city with a large immigrant and refugee population.

“If you ask a mayor what keeps him up at night, it’s keeping people safe,” Wells said.

He said he’s in a precarious position, wanting to help crack down on illegal immigration in their community but also being bound to follow SB 54, the state law that limits the involvement of local law enforcement in federal immigration enforcement.

“We’ve got to get people like me and our police officers out of the middle of this,” Wells said. “This has to be settled between the federal government and the state government, and I don’t think it’s going to be settled until it gets to the Supreme Court.”

He said he values the legal immigrants in his community and hopes the changes under the Trump administration will make things safer.  

“Anything we can do to keep people safer is a good thing and I think that cooperating with the federal government who I think they’re rightly wanting to deport criminals and people involved in child sex trafficking, I think we should get rid of all those people and I want to be part of that process, I want to be part of the solution,” Wells said.  

Bonta said his office will be a resource for people throughout the next four years and his job will be to make sure President Trump follows the constitution.

“I made a promise to haul [Trump] into court any time he violates the constitution or breaks the law,” Bonta said. “We deserve a law-abiding president.”

Seruelo said he will continue to educate his clients and is thankful for the support of the attorney general in protecting their rights.

“I think if we start to educate the population, our neighbors, our friends, the community, that’s the only way that we could make sure that all the impact of these policies can be mitigated,” he said. “It gives us that additional strength that we need.”