California State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León is pushing a bill that would make his state a sanctuary for illegal immigrants, and he admitted last week that his motivations were not entirely altruistic. Indeed, de León said in a Sacramento hearing last Tuesday that some of the illegal immigrants who would be affected by President Trump’s hardline deportation policies were members of his own family.
“I can tell you half of my family would be eligible for deportation under [Trump’s] executive order,” he said. “Because if they got a false Social Security card, if they got a false identification, if they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB60, if they got a false green card – and anyone who has family members who are undocumented knows that almost everybody has secured some sort of false identification. That’s what you need to survive, to work. They are eligible for massive deportation.”
And? Identity theft is a crime. Falsifying legal documents is fraud. Coming to this nation illegally…is illegal. So while we can argue about whether this immigrant or that immigrant should be a priority for deportation, it currently stands as a matter of federal law that all illegal immigrants are “eligible” for removal. This remains true even in the wake of President Obama’s DACA order, which was a directive to federal agencies and not a permanent change to congressional law.
The bill in question, SB 54, would prevent California law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities unless a judicial warrant required them to do so. It is being opposed by state Republicans like Assemblyman Travis Allen, who say the law would put California residents in peril.
“SB 54 is an illegal and dangerous attempt to silence our law enforcement and endanger our citizens,” said Allen. “Kevin de León’s proposed legislation puts California’s families in danger by turning California into a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants and strips law enforcement of their ability to protect our state.”
Allen said that, contrary to what the media reports, the vast majority of Californians were appalled by sanctuary laws.
“Kevin de León is pandering to a small minority of Californians who want criminals in our streets,” he said. “A recent UC Berkeley poll found that 74% of Californians oppose sanctuary policies, including 65% of Latinos, 70% of independents, 73% of Democrats, and 82% of Republicans.
“There is a huge disconnect on this issue between the California Democrat politicians running the state and the citizens of California,” Allen continued. “The majority of Californians from every ethnic group and political party clearly understand sanctuary policies for what they are: safe spaces for criminal illegal immigrants.”
In an interview with Bill O’Reilly this weekend, President Trump said that California was “in many ways, out of control.”
We can’t disagree.
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