California state lawmakers recently voted down legislation that would have repealed the state’s sanctuary law that shields illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities.
The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted down Assembly Bill 1708 on April 19 in a 2–3 vote, with Assemblymembers Tom Lackey and Kelly Seyarto, both Republicans, voting in support.
“Sadly, I was not surprised,” Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, also a Republican, told NTD Television.
“The bill would simply say that if someone is in the country illegally and they’ve committed a crime and the immigration authorities identified this person who they think should be a high priority for deportation procedures, then there should be a line of communication they can have with law enforcement,” he said. “It was quite unfortunate given that we just had this incredibly tragic incident.”
Kiley was referring to the Feb. 28 shooting at a Sacramento, California, church, where 39-year-old David Mora killed his three daughters and a chaperone before taking his own life.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) later confirmed that Mora entered California from his native Mexico in December 2018, but overstayed his visa and was subsequently in the United States illegally.
“I’ve been fighting against the sanctuary state law for quite a while since it was introduced. I had hoped this recent incident would wake up some of the people at our capitol and cause them to think differently, but unfortunately, that’s not what happened,” he wrote.
“We’ve seen this happen time and time again. It was utterly predictable. In fact, it was predicted by the State Sheriffs Association when they opposed the sanctuary state law,” Kiley said.
During the April 19 committee meeting, AB 1708 was met with opposition.
“This would require state governments to work with ICE, an agency with a long record of systemic abuse to fill immigration detention centers and carry out mass deportation,” said Faith Lee from Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a civil rights organization.
California became a sanctuary state in 2017, when lawmakers passed Senate Bill 54. The law prevents local law enforcement from contacting ICE about the release of illegal immigrants from jail.
It also prevents local jails from holding illegal alien inmates for up to 48 hours longer when ICE makes a request for the transfer—except for inmates who have committed certain violent crimes, such as murder, robbery, rape, or kidnapping.
SB 54 bans state and local law enforcement officers from asking the immigration status of anyone during a routine stop, and they’re prohibited from arresting illegal aliens based on civil immigration warrants.
Kiley said SB 54 was misleadingly touted as favoring immigrants in general.
“The only people that the sanctuary state protects are people who are in the country illegally and who have committed crimes. That’s the only group that receives any benefit from sanctuary state laws. It’s not about being in favor or against immigration or anything like that. It’s simply the matter of the rule of law,” he said. “We’re talking not only about people who have been in the country illegally, but also violated the criminal laws while they’ve been here. This is about making sure those people aren’t able to commit more crimes in the future.”
Kiley said he believes that violent crime in California will continue to increase if local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies remain unable to communicate and collaborate regarding illegal immigrants.
“The best solution is to overturn the sanctuary state law, to secure the border, to retain Title 42, to end sanctuary policies across the country, and to restore this idea of the rule of law,” he said. “We should have, of course, continued pathways for legal immigrants. Legal immigration is very important to our country. Our legal immigrants are an important part of the fabric of this country. But we can’t just continue to have an open border.”
