Immigration War: California Feels the Wrath of the Trump Administration

For more than a year, the Trump Justice Department has been ducking and diving, trying to defend the president from an onslaught of legal challenges from the State of California as it pertains to the administration’s immigration policies. Whether California groups and the state attorney general are suing Trump about the border wall or about his travel ban or about the legality of sanctuary cities, not a month has passed without some form of judicial challenge, some of which have been more successful than others.

On Tuesday, things changed.

Irate, perhaps, over the Oakland mayor’s decision to forewarn illegal immigrants of an impending ICE raid in the Bay Area, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit of its own this week, accusing California of obstruction of federal immigration enforcement. The lawsuit has three recent sanctuary laws in its sights, all of which were passed after President Trump took office last January.

“The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday. “We are fighting to make your jobs safer and to help you reduce crime in America. And I believe we are going to win.”

California Democrats were defiant, however, promising their constituents that they would fight for illegal immigrants if it took every last tax dollar the state has to spend.

“At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America,” wrote Gov. Jerry Brown on Twitter. “Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don’t work here. SAD!!!”

Brown added that last bit just in case you needed any additional evidence that California’s legal stance on immigration is based on its politicians’ undying thirst for a feud with Trump.

Attorney General Xavier Becerra went further, insisting hilariously that California was within its legal rights to ignore (and, indeed, actively impede) the enforcement of federal immigration law.

“We’re following the Constitution and federal law,” Becerra told reporters. “We’re doing nothing to intrude in the work of the federal government to do immigration enforcement. We recognize and respect that the federal government has authority over immigration enforcement.”

Of course, that’s simply not true. It wasn’t true before last weekend and it CERTAINLY isn’t true now, when you have Libby Schaff sending out a warning to illegals that ICE is getting ready for a roundup. In her zeal to go even further than the rest of the Democrat mayors in “standing up” to Trump, Schaaf may have actually pushed California beyond even the most liberal interpretation of the law. And thus, may be responsible for restoring sanity and justice to a state that is sorely lacking in both.

Let’s hope.