California Moves Further Left; Sacramento Ignores Citizens, Promotes Illegal Immigration

By Joe Guzzardi
February 8, 2016
 
People outside California often have a hard time grasping how poisonous the state’s political atmosphere is. In his recent testimony to the Public Safety Commission, Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon made it abundantly clear just how far conditions have come undone.
 
Overreacting to President Donald Trump’s commitment to enforcing U.S. immigration laws, De Leon confessed that Trump’s policies would make “half [his] family” deportable. But, Trump has repeatedly said in various public forums that his first order of business is to remove criminal aliens. Getting rid of criminals could take years, so De Leon’s family has no immediate concerns. Trump’s pledge refers to the most dangerous offenders – murderers, rapists, sex offenders, kidnappers and drug dealers.
 
But, if per chance the Trump administration decided to expand its definition of who’s removable to include criminals that committed identity fraud, falsified work applications, lied to receive permanent residency cards, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses under false pretenses – all felonies – then De Leon’s family could be in hot water.
 
In his statement defending SB 54 (the California Values Act), his bill that would make California officially a sanctuary state, De Leon said that within the illegal alien community, “almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification. That’s what you need to survive, to work.” The law prohibits employers from hiring aliens, and for those aliens to work.
 
During a later interview, De Leon doubled down on his insistence that identity theft to secure fake documents is perfectly acceptable, not a deportable crime, and reconfirmed that many in his family had done just that because “it’s what you need to survive.”
 
De Leon’s brazenness proves how far to the left California has shifted. De Leon is a high-ranking elected official with no qualms about publicly identifying his family as felons, and without the least concern that he might suffer political consequences. In fact, the California rumor mill predicts that De Leon will be a 2018 gubernatorial candidate to succeed Jerry Brown. He might run on the platform that because his family is corrupt, he’ll legalize corruption, a position that would be popular in the Los Angeles area that De Leon represents. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that L.A. County has more than one million illegal immigrants.
 
Brown, the California Latino Legislative Caucus and the state’s sanctuary city mayors insist that they will defy Trump on immigration, and promise not to let the federal government withhold funding. To that end, California state lawmakers have retained former Attorney General Eric Holder to advise them on challenging Trump. Holder’s $25,000 weekly salary comes from taxpayers’ pockets, as does half of the $10 million fund Los Angeles created to provide legal services to aliens allegedly facing deportation.
 
Unwittingly, De Leon has provided Trump with a great forum to defend his immigration agenda. Build a wall or a physical barrier, and illegal immigration is reduced. Pass mandatory E-Verify, and De Leon’s family living here illegally can’t get jobs. Defund sanctuary California, and the nation hails Trump as a hero.
 
Lost in the Latino Caucus’ ceaseless illegal immigrant advocacy is that of California’s 39 million population, about 36 million are citizens and legal residents. In Sacramento, the majority is poorly represented.
 

###
A Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow, Joe can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @joeguzzardi19.