CALIFORNIA—On Tuesday, November 19, California Attorney General, Rob Bonta confirmed his plans to “push back,” on President-elect, Donald Trump’s plans to deport individuals who entered the U.S. illegally. Bonta indicated to ABC10 News, Adam Campos, that he would be instructing California law enforcement regarding the level of cooperation that will be given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
On November 12, former and future President, Donald Trump announced his appointment of the former Director of (ICE) Thomas Homan to a key position in Homeland Security, as what Trump referred to as, “Border Czar.”
Some of the Democrat leaders across the U.S., including AG Bonta, California Governor, Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor, Karen Bass are attempting to achieve sanctuary status to prevent the removal of criminals residing in their cities and states.
States, like New York, that desire to be sanctuaries for immigrants impose what is called Green Light Laws that prevent ICE officials from accessing DMV data. The following quote from Acting ICE Director, Matthew T. Albence came directly from the ICE webpage.
“By restricting access to all DMV information, the Green Light Law stands as a dangerous roadblock to ongoing federal investigations into a broad range of criminal activity. Information sharing is the lifeblood of law enforcement. The inability to access this information puts our sworn federal agents and officers, and the communities we serve, unnecessarily at risk.”
Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) explained that Homan is focused on over 300,000 unaccounted-for children, “That the Department of Homeland Security lost during the Biden Administration.”
In an interview with Newsmax, Director Homan emphasized his focus on what he intends to accomplish, not saying anyone had to help him, “But just get the hell out of my way.”
“We’re going to do it. Which means if I [need] to send twice as many resources to that sanctuary city, twice as many agents, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve been saying for the last several days that they need to study the law.
They cannot help but don’t impede us and don’t cross certain lines. There’s a statute under Title 8, United States Code 1324, that talks about knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. They need to read that statute and become familiar with it because if they cross that line, there will be consequences.”
For the last 3.5 years, Trump has promised to secure the southern border with Mexico. He has befriended many of the families who have lost their loved ones at the hands of immigrants who entered the United States illegally. Trump and Homan on separate occasions have given the example of Laken Riley who was killed by an illegal immigrant with a criminal history. Jose Ibarra has been sentenced to life in prison for killing Riley.
Ibarra was in custody in New York. He was let go. That’s how the green light law works. That’s what having a sanctuary status would entail. If his criminal history was readily available, Ibarra would have been deported rather than allowed to take an innocent life.
Today, Governor Newsom announced that he was going to visit the cities that voted to elect President Trump. He is an advocate of California gaining sanctuary status. According to 2022 Pew Research immigrants predominantly live in four states; California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Recent reports indicate that some of the latest immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are from jails in Venezuela or have extensive criminal histories in other countries.
What Trump and Homan have publicly proposed to do, is deport the criminals first, and save the children.
