One of my favorite TV shows airing this season is “Feud“, which depicts the legendary rivalry between Joan Crawford (Jessica Lange) and Bette Davis (Susan Sarandon) during their collaboration on the psychological thriller, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Another legendary feud is currently taking place between President Donald Trump and California’s political leaders. The policy conflict has now substantially escalated after the state senate approved “Sanctuary State” legislation bill that bars local and state law enforcement from using their resources to help federal immigration authorities.
The 40-member body approved Senate Bill 54, introduced by Sen. President Pro Tem Kevin de León, on a 27-12, party-line vote. It now heads to the Assembly.“We are trying to make our communities safer and be intelligent about this,” de León said. “No rhetoric and no bluster.”Facing heavy opposition from law enforcement, the Senate leader accepted several amendments to the bill over the last month.
As a professional who applies regulations, this development is very perplexing. After all, states that have their own safety guidelines must have rules that are at least as stringent as federal rules. How is the state senate able to trump federal immigration laws…so to speak?
However, constitutionality never seems to be a serious consideration to those in Sacramento. Interestingly, our political leaders might be shocked to learn that the federal government, including those who will be doling out tax dollars, already consider California a “Sanctuary State” anyway!
The Department of Homeland Security added the entire states of California and Connecticut to its list of U.S. jurisdictions that hinder cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in detaining illegal immigrants.Both states had enacted legislation called “Trust Acts,” allowing local law enforcement to ignore ICE’s requests to detain certain illegal immigrants in custody. However, the legislation maintains that an illegal immigrant would be detained if the individual had a criminal past.
So, when the inevitable grant-slashing occurs, perhaps our state can open up a GoFundMe page!
Austin is in Travis County, where its so-called sanctuary policy has already cost it $1.5 million in state funding that would have paid for drug courts, veterans’ courts, and aid to domestic violence victims….State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, whose district includes part of Austin, told The Daily Beast the $1.5 million loss will have “a tremendous impact.”“It’s going to have a pretty big effect on not just veterans, but family violence cases, you name it,” he said. “It’s a big deal.”“You have our governor and the president playing political football with people’s lives,” he added.So Rodriguez started a crowdfunding page, Travis County #StrongerTogether, to try to raise enough money to offset the lost $1.5 million. So far, according to the site, which went live in early February, has raised about $136,000—less than one tenth of the lost funding.
The GoFundMe approach will probably go over better than the looming gasoline tax that is already on the California legislature’s docket. Furthermore, the “Sanctuary State” bill may not as popular as the politicians believe, either.
“Don’t get caught up with ‘I hate Trump’ fever,” said Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine). “SB54 is the wrong direction.” Sen. Anderson collected 41,000 petitions signed by “ordinary Californians,” opponents of SB 54, but de León would not allow either a photo of the thousands of petitions, or the 10 boxes of petitions inside the Senate Monday.
Since de León doesn’t want them to be seen, I decided to share a view of the documents here.
Dawn Wildman, founder of the California Tea Party Groups, indicates that citizen activists are doing what they can to persuade our Assembly members to nix Senate Bill 54. “We working hard to make sure our Assembly members know exactly how unhappy many Californians are about this bill, and they are are concerned about the consequences that will impact them directly should it pass,” Wildman said.
However, should it pass and be signed by Governor Jerry Brown, the state’s descent into anti-Trump madness will be complete and the only thing left will be the dance on the beach.
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