(The Center Square) – Sanctuary state and city laws in California are used to avoid enforcing detainers to keep illegal immigrant felons in local custody until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers can take custody for deportation, according to reporting from Fox News’ Bill Melugin.
“Everyone can see dangerous felons using Los Angeles and California sanctuary laws to avoid deportation,” said Los Angeles County Republican Party Chairman Timothy O’Reilly to The Center Square. “California Democrats won’t do anything about it, and it’s the people of Los Angeles who end up paying the price.
Examples of individuals detained by ICE during Melugin’s ride-along include an individual deported four times and convicted of trafficking opioids to Los Angeles and allegedly selling them to minors, and another individual for meth trafficking and domestic violence. Their third target, an individual with prior convictions of trafficking meth, who was arrested armed (illegal for felons), was released by local law enforcement after ICE’s detainer was ignored.
“The fact that California law protects criminals from being handed over to immigration officials is outrageous,” said Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, who recently introduced a bill ending state funding of healthcare for illegal immigrants (up to $4 billion this year), in a statement. “The state could easily allow ICE to pick them up from the detention facilities before they’re released, but our elected officials care more about illegal aliens than their own citizens.”
Earlier this month, California lawmakers proposed funding deportation defense for illegal immigrants convicted of violent or serious felonies — under existing law, state funds already allocated for providing deportation defense to illegal immigrants explicitly exclude such individuals. After national outrage, the bill was not even heard in committee.
California is still moving ahead with a proposal to provide zero down, no payment, no interest home ‘loans’ for illegal immigrants. At the beginning of this year, all illegal immigrants in California became eligible for taxpayer-funded Medi-Cal benefits, including gender reassignment, at an annual cost of at least $3.4 billion per year for the expected 700,000 new sign-ups.
Migrant inflows, which recently concentrated in Texas, have since sharply dropped in the state and moved to California and Arizona following the Texas government’s adoption of more stringent border security. Should more migrants move to California, these benefits will cost the state more — the state currently faces a $73 billion budget deficit.
