Protesters in Sacramento, via the CA Senate Democrats Twitter
“We’ve seen this B-rated movie before, so I’m not totally surprised,” –State Attorney General, Xavier Becerra
Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to Sacramento for a media moment Wednesday morning, hoping to stoke support for a lawsuit destined for the Supreme Court aimed at overturning over state laws protecting immigrants.
He got a cool reception –polite applause– from what the Trump administration hoped would be a receptive audience, a meeting of the California Peace Officers Association at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel.
Continuing the Trump administration’s assault on the truth, Sessions compared the sanctuary movement in California to secessionist and racist defiance in the South during the civil rights era.
And, of course, the Attorney general tried to paint law enforcement as the victims, saying “The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you.”
The sound of protests outside the hotel filtered into the auditorium. Hundreds of people marched through downtown in the State Capital, stopping momentarily to block traffic at J and Sixth Streets.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
For protesters like Cameron Richtik, 25, of Sacramento, the goal was to send a clear message to Sessions and the Trump administration: immigrants are welcome in California.
“What frustrates me the most is that the narrative is focusing on criminals and it paints all immigrants that way and it’s very damaging and very hurtful,” Richtik said. “The vast majority of immigrants are helpful toward our economy and are good people and deserve to be here, more than most. It scares me that Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration uses their platform to focus on the very small minority of criminals. It completely ignores their values and that makes me sad.”
The Sacramento Bee editorialized on Session’s lawsuit and visit, saying “bring it on”
Legally, pragmatically and morally, California is on the righteous side of this battle. Let Trump and Sessions bring it on.
To Californians, these people aren’t “illegals” or “criminals.” They’re neighbors, co-workers, classmates, friends and, sometimes, family.
It’s not good for public safety when reports of sexual assault and domestic violence plummet, as they have in Los Angeles, because residents fear deportation if they interact with cops or testify in court. It’s bad for California’s economy when laborers are too afraid to show up for work at Bay Area construction sites or Central Valley farms. California learned this the hard way in the 1990s with Proposition 187.
Legally, pragmatically and morally, California is on the righteous side of this battle. Let Trump and Sessions bring it on.
SEIU 1000 tweeted out this picture
The Federal government is determined to pursue its case.
From the Sacramento Bee’s news coverage:
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday evening in the U.S. Eastern District of California, marks a turning point in the ongoing battle between the Trump administration and state and local jurisdictions over how far cities and states can go to block their officers from enforcing federal immigration law.
The suit targets three California laws – Senate Bill 54, Assembly bill 450 and Assembly bill 103 – that the federal government say violate the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution and interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws. It names both California Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra personally as defendants.
“The Trump administration is now going on the offense and is going to use any tools in its tool box to enforce immigration laws,” said a U.S. source who has spoken about the plans with senior administration officials. “They have no expectation in winning in District Court or the 9th Circuit. This is a case that is intended to be ultimately successful in the Supreme Court.”
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who recently warned residents of impending immigration raids, was called out in the Attorney General’s speech.
“Her actions support those who flout our laws and boldly validate the illegality. There’s no other way to interpret her remarks.”
“How dare you. How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of law enforcement just to promote your radical open borders agenda.”
California politicians lined up to denounce the Justice Department actions.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez pointed out the bad optics of the California Peace Officers Association hosting Jeff Sessions.
Honestly, if you are a group who wants to get things done in the California Legislature – inviting Jeff Sessions to your lobby day in Sacramento to speak on Sanctuary Cities is felony stupid.
— Lorena (@LorenaSGonzalez) March 7, 2018
President pro Tempore of the California State Senate, Kevin de Leon, brought up the Trump administration’s miserable track record in court, via Politico:
“If U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suing California because we refuse to help the Trump administration tear apart honest, hard-working families, I say, ‘Bring it on,’” he told POLITICO. “Based on the U.S. Department of Justice’s track record, I like our odds.”
De León, who is campaigning to unseat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, also cited crime statistics comparing California favorably to crime rates in Alabama, Sessions’ home state.
“Jeff Sessions would be better served to focus on his own backyard,” de León said.
Governor Jerry Brown mocked Trumpian language, via Twitter:
At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America. Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don’t work here. SAD!!!
— Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) March 7, 2018
The Mercury News quoted California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who said he believed the State was in full compliance with the federal Constitution and federal law.
California was prepared for this action by the federal government, said the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, during a hastily called conference call Tuesday evening.
“We’ve seen this B-rated movie before, so I’m not totally surprised,” Becerra told reporters. “The arguments that the administration is making … demonstrate there’s nothing really new there that we aren’t already familiar with.”
Becerra argued that California was simply exercising its rights as a state under the U.S. Constitution. “We’re doing nothing to intrude in the work of the federal government to do immigration enforcement,” he said. “We recognize and respect that it’s the federal government that has jurisdiction over immigration enforcement, and we hope that federal government would recognize that under the constitution and the 10th Amendment that the state of California and the 50 states have the power to decide how to do public safety.”
Jeff Sessions just called me an embarrassment. A man whose legacy is targeting immigrants, re-waging the failed War on Drugs, sucking-up to private prison profiteers, and apologizing for white supremacists… I take that as a HUGE compliment.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 7, 2018
Immigration and legal advocates denounced the Attorney General’s visit:
Here’s the ICE Out of California Coalition, a statewide alliance made up more than twenty social justice advocacy groups:
There is too much at stake to mince words: the Trump administration’s agenda is hate-filled, racist, and xenophobic.
There is too much at stake to mince words: the Trump administration’s agenda is hate-filled, racist, and xenophobic. And this lawsuit is an attack on our nation’s values of equality and compassion. Our state laws that limit local involvement in painful deportations, uphold worker rights for all, and challenge the indignity of detention are vital steps to recognizing our common humanity.
Now is the time for all Californians to stand up to federal abuses of power and blatant attempts at political retaliation, like this lawsuit and the racial profiling and taunting of immigrants which ICE carried out last week.
It’s well established under the Constitution that the federal government cannot seize our local resources to carry out their dirty work. “Sanctuary” and other policies that protect immigrants are on the right side history.
Jeff Sessions, on the other hand, is on the wrong side of history. He has launched numerous attacks on the civil liberties of all communities of color and recently invoked the “Anglo-American heritage” of Sheriffs’ offices.
This kind of hate has no place in California, and we call for full transparency regarding the California law enforcement lobby’s ties to Sessions. Are anti-immigrant forces seeking to influence policy in our state?
Jennie Pasquarella, director of immigrants’ rights for the ACLU of California, also weighed in:
“This lawsuit is just the Trump administration’s latest act of desperation to force California to cooperate with its dragnet round-ups and expulsions of immigrant residents.
“With this lawsuit the Trump administration is really saying that its racist immigration agenda, aimed at eliminating legal and unauthorized immigrants from our country, depends on California’s cooperation.
“But California wants no part in furthering Trump’s unconstitutional and un-American agenda.”
***
For Attorney General Sessions, under constant fire from an increasingly hostile President Trump, the visit to Sacramento was a fresh headline — taking the fight to California just blocks from the governor’s office.
Democrats, from Gov. Brown to Becerra to De León and beyond, used the visit as an opportunity to remind constituents they’ve taken the fight to Trump at every turn.
Finally, Harold Myerson at The American Prospect noted the echoes of the fugitive slave act in the current struggle over immigration:
Just as the slave catchers argued, speciously, that freed Negroes imperiled the antebellum North, today’s anti-immigrant forces, beginning with Trump, argue that immigrants pose a threat to public safety, though crime has fallen precipitously during the past quarter-century.
The only “crime” that most undocumented immigrants have committed—and the only one that places them in federal legal jeopardy—is that of being undocumented. Likewise, the only “crime” that most escaped slaves had committed—and the only one that placed them in federal legal jeopardy—was escaping.
And in yet another rhyme, cities and states are fighting back. Police are enjoined from cooperating with ICE. Citizens groups have formed rapid response teams to support apprehended immigrants and, when they have reason to believe raids are imminent, send out a warning—as Schaaf did last week. But there’s still more that our citizen bystanders can do, including peaceful, obstructive civil disobedient sit-ins at ICE offices.
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Remember when conservatives wrapped themselves in state’s rights so they could praise George Wallace’s segregation of schools, and more recently when they guaranteed tax breaks for small businesses and gave most of the breaks to giant financiers and international corporations? Now they prefer to attack immigrant families and unsheltered dreamers in the name of Americanism, and save Warren Buffet and Qualcomm from small businesses.
Sessions compares the sanctuary movement to himself of 20 years ago? That’s rich, and clinically delusional…