On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to formally make the city a “sanctuary city” that will defy federal law enforcement and shield illegal aliens, including criminals, from deportation.
As reported by Fox News, the measure passed unanimously, with all 13 council members voting in favor. The draft ordinance was released last week by City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, with the support of Mayor Karen Bass (D-Calif.). The new law says that the city will forbid the use of city resources in aiding federal enforcement of immigration laws, including arrests and deportations.
California as a whole has been a “sanctuary state” since 2017, when the Democratic legislature and then-Governor Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) passed SB 54. It has since become a hive of illegal aliens, which has resulted in an artificial increase in the size of the state’s population, as well as a spike in crime, homelessness, drug use, and disease.
Sanctuary jurisdictions often do not inform federal authorities of when illegals have been apprehended, even if they have committed additional crimes since entering the country illegally. These states and localities usually release such criminals right back onto the street before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or any other immigration enforcement agency can have a chance to detain them.
The measure was passed in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory two weeks prior, in which the 45th President was elected as the 47th President in an historic second, non-consecutive term. A key component of President-elect Trump’s agenda was his immigration stance, which included calls to finish building the southern border wall and to carry out the largest mass deportation operation in American history.
To this end, the incoming President announced former ICE Director Tom Homan as his new Border Czar, in charge of overseeing deportation operations in a capacity that does not answer to any Cabinet secretary, but instead reports directly to the President.
“President Trump has made it clear we will prioritize public safety threats and national security threats first,” said Homan in an interview last week. “And that’s what the focus should be.”
If this is the LA City Council’s response, I believe the appropriate counter response is to withhold any and all federal grants until they are ready to stop trying to interfere with the federal government’s attempts to perform one of its enumerated functions.