The Department of Homeland Security recently listed Huntington Beach as a sanctuary city, and officials within one of SoCal’s most prominent Republican strongholds are strongly denying the designation.
A press release issued by the City of Huntington Beach states that the community’s inclusion on the DHS list of more than 500 sanctuary jurisdictions was a “serious mistake” and “does not reflect the city council’s formally adopted policy.”
In January 2025, the city passed a law that did the exactly opposite of what federal officials did in the list that was issued Thursday: Huntington Beach is officially a “non-sanctuary city.”
“We adopted a formal policy on this,” Huntington Beach Mayor Pat Burns said in the press release, which was issued Friday. “It went before the council, and we unanimously agreed that Huntington Beach is not a sanctuary city.”
“We took deliberate action to make our non-sanctuary stance clear,” Mayor Burns added.
Burns elaborated that the DHS’ inclusion of his city in the list is “either a misprint or a serious mistake,” and that federal officials have been notified; he is also “confident the DHS error will be corrected promptly,” however, as of Saturday morning, Huntington Beach still appeared on the list.
The city’s press release noted that several other jurisdictions across the U.S., including Baltimore, Las Vegas and Shasta County, California, have been misidentified as sanctuary jurisdictions. Mayor Burns said that Santa Ana is the only city within Orange County that has been “publicly identified” as a sanctuary city; however, it was not included in the DHS list.
Santa Ana was still not on the list as of Saturday morning.
The full list of sanctuary jurisdictions in America can be viewed here.
Huntington Beach has long been considered one of California’s most conservative cities; the Wall Street Journal described the city council, which, as of December, is made up entirely of Republicans, as “America’s Trumpiest.”
Earlier this year, the city council introduced plans to install a “MAGA” plaque at the Central Library to celebrate Huntington Beach’s 50th anniversary. Instead of signifying “Make America Great Again,” the plaque’s acronym stands for “Magical, Alluring, Galvanizing, Adventurous.”
The city council confirmed that the acronym was deliberately chosen to represent the “Make America Great Again” slogan used by President Donald Trump and adopted by the Republican party.
After some pushback from residents — including former NFL punter Chris Kluwe, who was arrested while protesting at a February city council meeting — officials unanimously approved the $7,000 plaque, albeit with a slightly modified design and added security.