Politico: California will not help Trump’s deportation plans, Alex Padilla says
By Greta Reich
California Sen. Alex Padilla aims to keep California’s resources out of President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans, adhering to the constitutional requirement that the federal government control the border, he said Sunday.
“There’s an important distinction here. No state’s government, not Texas, not California, not any state in the nation has a constitutional authority to impose federal immigration law. That is the responsibility of the federal government,” Padilla, a Democrat, told guest host Major Garrett on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Trump has promised to declare a national emergency and use the military for mass deportations, with backlash to the threat from many Democrats and even some Republicans.
“Let the federal government do the federal government’s job, but have state and local officials do the state and local officials’ job. There doesn’t have to be a conflict unless that’s what Trump wants,” Padilla said.
California Senate Bill 54, a 2017 law which prohibits state and local law enforcement from using resources to assist in federal immigration enforcement, might bring that conflict. Incoming Trump administration border czar Tom Homan recently warned that local law enforcement who do not cooperate with I.C.E. agents in the process of deportation will be federally prosecuted.
“Some states like Texas want to push the envelope and try to find a way to assist, but there’s no obligation to do so,” Padilla said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has insisted that if the U.S. fails to protect the border properly, Texas has the right to do so on its own. For instance, the state has installed razor wire across its border with Mexico.
Padilla emphasized that California will not “utilize state and local resources to do the federal government’s job for them.”
Padilla is not the only California politician to speak up against Trump’s border policies. California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas has promised “to ensure that people feel protected and they feel welcomed.” Gov. Gavin Newsom made it clear that California will be leading the resistance to Trump in a myriad of ways, including on immigration.
“California is the most populous state in the nation, the most diverse state in the nation, home to more immigrants than any state in the nation,” Padilla said. “The last thing you want to do is have immigrants who are victims of crime afraid to come forward to report the crime. The last thing you want is immigrants who may be witnesses to crime be afraid to come forward and share any information they have in the investigation and prosecution of crimes.”
In addition to immigration, Padilla expressed concern over Trump’s relationship to California at large.
“If the federal government will continue to support California in its leadership and so many policy areas, there’s a lot of good work to be done there. But Donald Trump has made it no secret he has it in for California,” the senator said, referencing money from FEMA that Trump “tried to keep from not the government of California but from California families simply because it’s a state that did not vote for him in the presidential election.”
He continued: “We’re trying to inoculate ourselves from those types of threats.”
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