Newly inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom has pledged to make his home state of California “a sanctuary to all who seek it” in direct defiance of President Trump’s drive to secure the nation’s border with Mexico and enforce U.S. immigration laws.
California’s grossly unconstitutional obstruction of federal immigration laws is about to get ramped up, Newsom’s speech suggests. The state already has unprecedented sanctuary laws on its books that shield its 2.4 million illegal aliens from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE). Federal prosecutors are considering filing criminal charges against elected officials harboring illegal aliens in sanctuary jurisdictions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee a year ago.
The Trump administration is suing California over its “sanctuary state” laws that punish compliance with federal immigration laws and provide legal cover for corrupt officials to continue brazenly flouting immigration laws and interfering with federal agents trying to enforce them.
The federal lawsuit targets three statutes curbing the power of California’s state and local law enforcement to hold, question, and transfer detainees at the request of immigration authorities, and punish employers for cooperating with those authorities. The laws also impose draconian restrictions on communication between local police and federal immigration enforcement, including information regarding when criminal aliens are scheduled to be released from local jails.
Under the longstanding doctrine in American constitutional law known as “dual sovereignty,” states cannot be compelled to enforce federal immigration laws, but they are obliged not to hinder their enforcement. The so-called sanctuary cities that form the bulk of the sanctuary movement really ought to be called traitor cities because they are in open rebellion against the United States, just like the slave states that seceded from the Union before the Civil War.
The sanctuary movement gave illegal aliens permission to rob, rape, and murder Americans by, among other things, stigmatizing immigration enforcement and characterizing it as somehow racist. Some left-wingers use the dreadful euphemism “civil liberties safe zones” to describe sanctuary jurisdictions. The phrase deliberately blurs the distinction between citizens and non-citizens by implying illegal aliens somehow possess a civil right to be present in the U.S.
But dealing with the illegal alien problem is the furthest thing from Democrat politicians’ minds. They view illegals as future Democrat voters and demonize anyone who supports enforcing federal immigration laws that could lead to the deportation of their future voter base.
“People’s lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe — they all hang in the balance,” the leftist politician said Monday outside the state Capitol in Sacramento.
Children should not be “ripped away from their parents” at the border or left hungry while Trump promises to expend billions of dollars on “a wall that should never be built.”
Newsom (D) became the state’s 40th governor, succeeding Jerry Brown (D) who was term-limited. Before being sworn in as governor, Newsom was the state’s lieutenant governor and before that, mayor of San Francisco.
While Newsom vowed to worsen the nation’s illegal alien crisis, another leftist, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), promised this week to provide “free” health care to all his city’s residents, including illegals. The program, according to one ridiculous low-ball estimate, will cost only $100 million.
“This is the city paying for direct comprehensive care (not just ERs) for people who can’t afford it, or can’t get comprehensive Medicaid — including 300,000 undocumented New Yorkers,” de Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Newsom’s pledge came as President Trump’s negotiations with Democrats over $5 billion needed to fund construction of the border wall continued to go nowhere and the federal government continued to be partially shut down for lack of appropriated funds. Trump has vowed to keep the shutdown going as long as it takes to secure funding for the wall.
“Just left a meeting with [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck [Schumer] and [Speaker of the House] Nancy [Pelosi], a total waste of time[,]” Trump tweeted Wednesday. “I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!”
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 217 to 185 on Dec. 20 to approve a temporary spending bill after adding $5.7 billion in appropriations for the wall. The measure floundered in the Senate and the partial shutdown got underway Dec. 22. But that was back in the previous Congress. Now the Democrats control the House.
The meeting came the day after President Trump took rhetorical aim at his enemies as he delivered his first-ever prime time address from the Oval Office in a bold attempt to rally the country in favor of building a wall on the porous U.S.-Mexico border, his signature campaign promise.
Vice President Mike Pence said the White House has delivered numerous proposals and offers in three weeks of negotiations, but Democrats stubbornly refused to support any funding for the wall.
“I can give you 15 speeches [Schumer] gave, in which he talked about border security,” Trump said prior to the meeting. “The only reason they’re against it is because I won the presidency.”
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