photo credit: Sanfranman59/wikimedia
Downtown Petaluma at the intersection of Petaluma Boulevard and Western Avenue.

Earlier this month, in a closed session vote, Petaluma's city council directed their legal team to join a lawsuit led by the City and County of San Francisco.

The case is being heard by federal court judge William Orick at the Northern District of California courthouse in San Francisco.

Petaluma Mayor Kevin McDonald said the aim is to protect the city's federal funding against threats by the administration to withhold money from jurisdictions that don't assist federal immigration enforcement.

"The city sees things as going horribly for both the people and for the economics of the region," McDonnell said. "[With] all the federal benefits that have come, we wanted to stand up and be counted that this is not right what's going on."

McDonnell said almost ten percent of Petaluma's budget comes from the federal government, via agencies like the Army Corps of Engineer who dredge the Petaluma River and HUD, the Housing and Urban Development Department.

"We identify $29 million in particular federal project money that comes into Petaluma," McDonnell said. "That's before you count all the things that are weighed on people directly, and also county program money that's dedicated for homelessness and housing that's all being clawed back."

The County of Sonoma has joined onto a different lawsuit led by King's County in Washington state.

In a written response, a county representative said the directive to comply with federal immigration enforcement is vague, but "the cooperation requested very well could be something that would be a violation of state law."

Sonoma County receives federal funding for work at the Charles M. Schulz Airport.

Both Petaluma and the County of Sonoma said the federal immigration directives could place them in violation of 2017's California Values Act.