SANCTUARY CITIES & NOW STATES TOO? LOS ANGELES & MARYLAND DEFY FEDERAL AGENCIES
Los Angeles Mayor Is Defiant Against Trump’s Executive Order Regarding Illegals
BY BOB ADELMANN
SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/25664-los-angeles-mayor-issues-letter-of-defiance-against-trump-s-eo-re-illegals;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has thrown down the gauntlet,
defying President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in January,
entitled “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.”
That executive order provides a three-step procedure to ensure that
illegals are apprehended and deported: 1) the “name and shame” list of
illegals committing crimes in so-called “sanctuary cities”; 2) threat of
legal action against officials endorsing “sanctuary city” policies; and
3) threat of withholding federal funds if they persist in resisting
federal immigration enforcement officials from performing their duties.
Even the title of Garcetti’s own executive directive is a poke in
Trump’s eye: “Standing with Immigrants: A City of Safety, Refuge, and
Opportunity for All,” even if those “All” are among Los Angeles’
estimated 2.6 million illegals.
Garcetti opens with a summary of West Coast liberalism:
founding], we have grown into the most diverse city on the face of the
earth — a city that champions inclusiveness and tolerance, and welcomes
everyone who seeks to realize their dreams and build their families
here, regardless of national origin or immigration status. [Emphasis added.]
All are welcome to LA — especially those who are in the country
illegally — and to help themselves to all manner of taxpayer-provided
free services, said the mayor:
Garcetti reminded his citizenry that the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD) has been prohibited since 1979 “from initiating any
action to determine a person’s immigration status and from arresting
anyone due to the person’s civil immigration status.” Since 2014,
according to the mayor, “The Police Department has not honored any ICE
[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] request to hold an individual
otherwise eligible for release from custody absent a judicial
determination of probable cause for that detainer or a valid warrant
from a judicial officer.”
Enforcement of federal immigration laws is the responsibility of
federal officials, says the mayor, and his law-enforcement people are
not allowed to assist them in performing their duties in any way:
federal responsibility … the [Los Angeles] Policy Department has never
participated [in] and will not participate in the voluntary programs
authorized by … the [federal] Immigration and Nationality Act … or any
other program….
with any effort of federal immigration agents to use public facilities
or resources [of the city] for the purposes of enforcing federal civil
immigration law.
He ordered the chief of police to affirm that this policy is still in place:
maintain the Police Department’s existing policies and procedures with
respect to immigration enforcement … and the policy against partnering
with ICE to perform civil immigration enforcement.
Garcetti then ordered the fire department, the airport police and the port police to adopt the same hands-off policies:
Police, and the Chief of Port Police shall issue policies and procedures
consistent with the Police Department’s existing policies … including
the policy against partnering with ICE to perform civil immigration
enforcement.
This now applies to city employees: “No … City employee shall assist
or cooperate with, or allow any City monies or resources to be used to
assist or cooperate with, any federal agency or agency in any action
where the primary purpose is federal civil immigration enforcement …
[nor shall any city employee] grant any federal immigration agent access
to any city facility not open to the general public unless such access
is legally required.”
The mayor’s order now officially grants illegal immigrants full
“equal access to [the city’s] facilities, services, and programs without regard to any person’s citizenship or immigration status to the maximum extent that the law permits, [and] foster[s] a welcoming atmosphere for all regardless of immigration status.”
There is more to his order, including keeping any information that a
city employee might have, or might have access to, regarding an
immigrant’s status, private and away from ICE agents. But the message
being delivered is clear: All are welcome to Los Angeles’ welfare
benefits, including illegals, where they may be safely protected from
intrusion by federal officials attempting to enforce federal laws.
It’s also the most blatant pushback against President Trump’s
policies as stated by his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who said, “It
is not acceptable for jurisdictions [such as Los Angeles, and others]
to refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement.”
Wait until Sessions and Trump get wind of efforts by California
itself to become the nation’s first “sanctuary state”! Senate Bill 54,
entitled the “California Values Act,” is already being fast-tracked in
Sacramento, and says:
enforcement agencies or school police or security departments transfer
an individual to federal immigration authorities for purposes of
immigration enforcement, or detain an individual at the request of
federal immigration authorities for purposes of immigration enforcement
absent a judicial warrant.
The Wall Street Journal added that SB 54 would
resources in civil immigration detentions or arrests. It would block
federal immigration officials from entering local jails to conduct
interviews with detainees or gain access to police databases for
immigration enforcement purposes.
police could tell federal immigration authorities about people in
custody, and limit enforcement in places such as schools and courts.
The contrast with the decision by Mississippi to cooperate with ICE
is startling. Its Senate Bill 2710, just passed by the state senate and
headed for the desk of Governor Phil Bryant, who is expected shortly to
sign it into law, prohibits local governments and universities from
enacting ordinances or policies that would limit enforcement of or
cooperation with federal and state laws and enforcement. In anticipation
of his signing the bill into law, Governor Bryant said — in stark
contrast to California — that “taxpayers expect their state and its
political subdivisions to abide by federal immigration laws.”
The order by LA’s Mayor Garcetti and California’s SB 54 have set in
motion the confrontation between Trump’s policies and California’s
policies of inclusion, regardless of immigration status. There will be
test cases resulting in lawsuits, which will take years to sort out. But
one thing is certain: That coming confrontation is going to be nasty,
with repercussions affecting generations to come.
Related articles:
DHS Issues Report Listing Jurisdictions Failing to Cooperate With ICE Detainers
Number of Former Sanctuary Cities Reversing Policy
Miami-Dade County First to End Sanctuary Status
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Maryland
wants to be the first Sanctuary State for Foreign Citizens Criminally
Trespassing (aka “undocumented immigrants”). The Rockville Rape and the
spate of murders perpetuated by MS-13 in Montgomery County show that
selective law enforcement that grants immunity to politically favored
individuals like the Clintons or politically favored groups is not law
enforcement but criminal corruption and collusion.