El Cajon is accusing California’s sanctuary policies of getting in the way of basic child-safety checks, and the dispute is now part of a bigger fight over how far local police can go when federal immigration officials flag vulnerable minors.
The issue surfaced after City Councilman Steve Goble said he was told in 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. Goble said federal officials asked whether local police could help “ensure these kids are safe” through welfare checks, which led him to ask California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office for guidance before sending officers out.
Mayor Bill Wells said the state is putting city officials in an impossible spot. “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 said he asked Bonta’s office in a March 2025 letter whether officers could use the contact information supplied by federal authorities to check on the children, while making clear the city wanted to protect every child “regardless of citizenship or resident status.” He also pointed to concerns from the inspector general that unaccompanied minors face a higher risk of trafficking, exploitation and forced labor, and said “time is of the essence.”
Bonta’s office answered in a June 2025 letter warning that local law enforcement carrying out wellness checks “alongside or based on information provided by federal immigration authorities” could run into problems under SB 54, the California Values Act. The letter said violations could include officers confirming location information from ICE or reporting the results of the check back to federal immigration authorities.
Goble pushed back on that idea, saying the city was not asking police to act as immigration agents. His argument is simple: if a child might be at risk, someone should check. “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 fight is part of a broader lawsuit El Cajon filed against Bonta on April 28, 2026, challenging California’s sanctuary framework, including SB 54, the TRUST Act and the TRUTH Act. In a May 20 motion for a preliminary injunction, the city asked a court to block Bonta from enforcing those laws against El Cajon while the case moves forward.
The city says the current rules force officers to spend time sorting through legal traps instead of handling public-safety calls fast. Its filing says the sanctuary system is interfering with “basic public safety work” and turning routine child welfare concerns into a legal minefield.
For El Cajon leaders, the question is not complicated. If federal authorities flag a child who may be vulnerable, they say local police should be able to make sure that child is safe without worrying that doing the right thing will trigger a state-law problem.