The Board of Trustees voted 4-3 Thursday to give Superintendent President Beebe authorization to sign the district to a legal statement which supports two lawsuits against the Trump Administration.

“I don’t want to miss this opportunity to support our students,” said Trustee Marty Blum.

In January, President Trump signed Executive Order 13768, which he intended to use to support immigration enforcement and punish local governments that do not comply with federal authorities, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. In particular, the order was meant to threaten “sanctuary cities” and similar entities with a withholding of federal funds.

However, the order was temporarily frozen through a court order by Federal Judge William Orrick, and thus is not currently in effect.

Two lawsuits by the County of Santa Clara and the City and County of San Francisco challenged the legality of the Executive Order on the grounds that it violates the Tenth Amendment, and each plaintiff seeks a court decision which will permanently prevent implementation of the order.

In response to the two lawsuits, the California Community College Chancellor’s Office invited all California colleges to join an amicus brief as signees, noting that “there is a risk that public colleges and universities could be impacted by this (or a related) executive order in the future.”

The intent of the brief is to influence the court’s decision on whether to enter a permanent injunction against the executive order.

Although the chancellor’s invitation stated the intent of the legal statement and was available for the board to view, many felt uncomfortable with how they were unable to view even a rough draft of the amicus brief before being asked to decide whether the Santa Barbara Community College District would sign on to it.

“I have not read an actual draft of [the brief] . . . I am leery because I don’t know what I’m signing on to,” stated Trustee Craig Nielsen.

Board President Marsha Croninger, one of the few trustees to have read the draft of the amicus brief, expressed her disappointment in the content of the draft.

“The arguments were not convincing to me. . . they did not seem to further the court’s position. I felt like it was not doing what it needed to do.”

However, Trustee Jonathan Abboud and Student Trustee Panbehchi felt that since the UC system and the Chancellor’s Office had already decided to sign on to the brief, the District should too.

Trustee Peter Haslund voiced that “It’s tragic to vote on something you haven’t seen. . . it’s essentially a matter of trust in the process.”

There will be an update as to whether Beebe decides to sign on to the brief pending his review of its final draft. The final draft of the brief will be released on Sept. 20, 2017.

Update:

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017: Beebe sent out a campus-wide email saying he will move forward to inform the chancellor’s office that City College is joining the amicus brief.