(The Center Square) – After the Biden administration announced it would be moving forward with additional border wall construction, top California elected officials announced their opposition to further border security measures.
“He shouldn’t be waiving 26 laws to quickly build new walls,” wrote Senator Alex Padilla, D – CA, on X. “Instead, we should responsibly manage our borders by addressing root causes of migration, ensuring meaningful access to asylum, & reducing immigration court backlogs.”
According to the Migration Policy Institute, California has approximately 2.7 million residents illegally in the state as of 2019, the most recent year for which such population estimates are available.
Like many other Democratic-run states, California is officially a sanctuary state, which means that it limits cooperation with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement in deportations. California law enforcement officers are also prohibited from asking about an individual’s immigration status.
While California governor Gavin Newsom has celebrated his action last month to increase the number of California National Guard members deployed on an anti-drug operation on the border by 50% — from 40 to 60 soldiers — Newsom has opposed the construction of a border wall.
In a 2019 interview with CNN, Newsom said a “wall is a monument to stupidity,” that is nothing more than a “sideshow.”
Newsom’s office did not respond to questions on his current position on the Biden administration’s border wall efforts by the time of publication.
In fiscal year 2022, United States Border Patrol encountered a record 2.4 million illegal border crossers and observed at least another six hundred thousand enter the country without encountering law enforcement.
