{"id":426870,"date":"2026-08-07T23:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/426870\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:20:17","slug":"bakersfield-residents-weigh-in-at-city-council-meeting-on-possible-sanctuary-city-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/426870\/","title":{"rendered":"Bakersfield residents weigh in at City Council meeting on possible sanctuary city status"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) Residents packed Wednesday\u2019s Bakersfield City Council meeting to weigh in on whether the city should consider becoming a sanctuary city, delivering emotional arguments on both sides as the council ultimately signaled the issue is not moving forward for now.<\/p>\n

City Clerk told the council, \u201cMayor Goh we have received 25 requests to speak in person. And no request to speak via phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public commenters offered sharply different views during the meeting. <\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield residents weigh in at City Council meeting on possible sanctuary city status (Photo by Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One speaker said, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing inhumane about asking individuals who broke our law to depart from this country, go back to their country of origin. Fill out the paperwork. Do things properly. Allow us to vet them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another speaker argued, \u201cNo family should have to wake up in the morning and have to fear going to the grocery store. Taking their kids to school in fear of being killed or kidnapped by armed government goons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion followed a July 15 council meeting in which Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur expressed support for exploring the option.<\/p>\n

While there is no specific definition of what a sanctuary city is, the U.S. Department of Justice website classifies it as \u201ccities, states or counties that publicly declare themselves a sanctuary jurisdiction or equivalent, with the intent to undermine federal immigration enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield residents weigh in at City Council meeting on possible sanctuary city status (Photo by John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Before Wednesday\u2019s meeting ended, Ward 6 Councilmember Zach Barishtash made a referral, saying, \u201cYeah I just have a quick that we let staff cease to work on any sanctuary city or truth act meeting from this moment forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

No other council members commented on the possibility of Bakersfield becoming a sanctuary city after that. <\/p>\n

\"Bakersfield<\/p>\n

Bakersfield residents weigh in at City Council meeting on possible sanctuary city status (Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The city also confirmed there would be no further discussion on the topic for the time being, writing in an email, \u201cIt is not expected to come back to any future council or committee meeting at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) Residents packed Wednesday\u2019s Bakersfield City Council meeting to weigh in on whether the city should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-426870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}