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California became a sanctuary state when Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 54 (SB 54), also known as the California Values Act, into law on October 5, 2017. The law took effect on January 1, 2018. SB 54 limits the cooperation between state and local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, prohibiting the use of state and local resources to investigate, detain, or arrest individuals for immigration enforcement purposes, except in cases involving serious or violent crimes. Was It Voted on by Citizens? No, the designation of California as a sanctuary state was not directly voted on by citizens through a ballot measure. SB 54 was a legislative action, introduced by State Senate President Kevin de León, passed by the California State Senate (27-11) and the State Assembly (51-26) in September 2017, and then signed into law by Governor Brown. This process did not involve a public vote. However, there were attempts to challenge or repeal SB 54 through the ballot process: • California Repeal the Sanctuary State Law Initiative (2020): This was a proposed initiated state statute (#18-0002) that aimed to repeal SB 54 and require full cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Proponents needed to collect 365,880 valid signatures by December 19, 2018, to qualify for the November 2020 ballot. They failed to submit the required signatures, so the measure did not appear on the ballot. • California Sanctuary State Law Veto Referendum (2018): This was a citizen-initiated veto referendum (#17-0040) intended to overturn SB 54 by putting it to a public vote. It required signatures equivalent to 5% of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election to qualify for the November 6, 2018, ballot. On January 17, 2018, the California Secretary of State announced that the initiative failed to collect enough valid signatures, so it did not appear on the ballot.