Free Republic

California Governor Jerry Brown blamed “low-life politicians” for a growing backlash against the “sanctuary state” policies he has enacted in his state during an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

A federal judge in Los Angeles this week struck down the Trump administration’s policy of denying certain Department of Justice law enforcement grants to cities that adopt “sanctuary” policies and refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement. The Los Angeles Times reports: U.S. District Judge Manuel Real issued a permanent, nationwide ban against a Justice Department policy that gave an edge to obliging police departments applying for a community policing grant program. In doing so, Real dealt a legal setback to the Trump administration in its aggressive campaign to crack down on illegal immigration and to force compliance from law enforcement...

The Newport Beach city council voted unanimously earlier this week to challenge California's sanctuary law, joining a dozen other cities that are not interested in complying with the sanctuary policies. It's the third city in the past two days to take such action, joining about a dozen others in recent weeks.

This was one of those great, clarifying moments. The agenda of the left has been laid bare. Forget about “Dreamers,” about “pathways to citizenship,” blah, blah, blah. It’s much — much — more extreme than that. The end game is this: the left wants illegals to be allowed to vote. Period. End of sentence. For proof, look no further than the statements on Tucker Carlson’s show this evening by Cesar Vargas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who somehow has been allowed to become a member of the New York State Bar. Asked by Carlson whether illegal immigrants should be allowed...

Right. And I’m the flippin’ King of Siam. Cesar Vargas, an illegal immigrant, told Tucker Carlson tonight: “I’m an American. Citizenship does not make me an American.” Tucker pointed out that citizenship is precisely what makes someone an American. Carlson also objected to Vargas repeatedly referring to what “we” as Americans have done. Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Conservative stalwart Bill Kristol stepped up his attacks on Tucker Carlson, calling his former employee’s Fox News show “close to racism” and “ethno-nationalism of some kind.” In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood that aired Thursday, Kristol stopped short of calling Carlson’s primetime show racist, but said the show’s content came close. “He had always a little touch of Pat Buchananism, I would say, paleo-conservativism,” Kristol said of Carlson. “But that’s very different from what he’s become now. “I mean, it is close now to racism, white — I mean, I don’t know if it’s racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism...

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol gave an interview to CNBC where criticized the editorial direction of his former network Fox News, particularly with regard to primetime host Tucker Carlson. Speaking with John Harwood, the former Fox contributor said his old network has embraced a “gradual increasing of recklessness” as they try to appeal to pro-Trump audiences. Kristol said Fox saw an opportunity to seize upon opposition to Barack Obama‘s presidency, and he also expanded on what he told Morning Joe about how Fox is leaning towards the hard right and views that used to exist on the political fringe. “Now Fox...

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed 17 bills into law Tuesday, including controversial legislation to impose financial sanctions against local governments that fail to cooperate with federal officials in enforcing immigration laws in Iowa. Senate File 481 will require law enforcement agencies to comply with federal immigration detainer requests for people in their custody under policies to be in effect by next Jan. 1. In addition, the legislation prohibits local governments from discouraging their enforcement officers or others from activities related to enforcing immigration laws. The legislation imposes financial sanctions against local governments that backers say are providing sanctuary to potentially illegal...

In a state consumed by conservation and environmental issues, one highly endangered species has long gone unnoticed and unprotected – the California Conservative. Is it still possible to rescue them from the brink of extinction? Can their numbers be revived? And can they thrive here once again? While the nation continues to view California as a homogeneous voting block of individuals in lock step with an increasingly progressive liberal agenda, for Common Sense Californians up and down the left coast state, there’s a sense that a different tide is rising. The ripple began in Los Alamitos where the city council...

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa is set to become the latest Republican-led state to target so-called sanctuary cities by withholding money from local governments that don’t comply with federal immigration laws, even though the plan could lead to court challenges. A bill outlining an expansive immigration enforcement plan is expected to receive final legislative approval this week. It comes as President Donald Trump ramps up calls for more stringent immigration enforcement. Critics say it would essentially allow racial profiling, but Republican lawmakers frame the measure as a public safety policy. Republican Rep. Steven Holt of Denison, a western Iowa community...

Another California city has taken a stand against the state’s sanctuary city laws after a vote Monday night prompted Huntington Beach to file its own lawsuit over the issue. Huntington Beach City Council voted 6-1 to file a lawsuit against the state of California over a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that took effect January 1. The law prohibits state and local police agencies from notifying federal authorities when illegal immigrants facing deportation are released. Mayor Mike Posey and Councilman Erik Peterson called the law “constitutional overreach,” The Orange County Register reported. Posey said his could become the first...

An organization that favors lower levels of immigration is challenging one of the most-repeated justifications for “sanctuary” policies — that cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers deters crime reporting to local authorities. “There is a complete absence of good data on any of this,” said Matthew O’Brien, author of a Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) report, in which he examined the available evidence and found little to back up the claim. O’Brien, director of research at FAIR, said the argument offered by sanctuary jurisdictions boils down to a basic premise — that illegal immigrants fear ICE and,...

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Twenty years ago this month, 59 percent of California voters passed a ballot measure designed to set up a state-run immigration system and deny most public benefits — including K-12 education — to illegal immigrants. Proposition 187 was widely viewed as one of the harshest anti-immigrant measures in the country. But when President Barack Obama last week signed executive orders to protect about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, there were only muted protests in the Golden State. And polls show that more Californians back Obama on this than oppose him. “It’s a very different atmosphere from what we had...

Obama and Hillary Clinton have been planning a disarmament of the United States for 16 years. It is now in full force moving fast with the help of our young people. The two planned to use two White House terms to destroy the United States, maim the Constitution, cancel the Second Amendment, and open borders to flood the nation with illegal immigrants – calculated to vote Democrat. It is alleged that “Deep State” rogue operatives murdered Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in an attempt to lock in a Far Left ideology on the Supreme court by giving President Obama one...

The Welcome Project is launching the Somerville Response Network, a text message service providing advanced and immediate notice of federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids in Somerville. “The Rapid Response Network is more than just an action plan,” says Development Coordinator for the Welcome Project Kenia Alfaro. “There is a lot of fear in our immigrant communities. Though we can’t puta halt to the actions of the federal government, we can be prepared to help families in our city affected by ICE arrests or deportation move forward in the face of uncertainty.” The system is simple: if you observe...

Facing a public backlash, officials in Southern California's Orange County rescinded their plan Tuesday for emergency homeless shelters in three cities. The homeless shelters in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel were to house up to 400 people, the Orange County Register reported. Laguna Niguel ranks seventh among the nation’s wealthiest cities, according to a 2016 Register report. "They're just dumping these poor people in our neighborhoods and communities where there are like six schools and, you know, little children walking to school," Irvine resident Radhika Athlaye told ABC7. "Just a general area where it's not right for either the...

A California sheriff’s office announced Monday that it will provide public information on when inmates are released from jail -- a move coming amid a growing backlash against the liberal state’s “sanctuary” laws that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The Orange County Register reported that the county’s sheriff’s department will publish a “Who’s in Jail” online database, including the date and time of inmates’ release, to help cooperate with other law enforcement agencies including Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) Undersheriff Don Barnes cited California’s sanctuary legislation, which limits the instances when state and local police agencies can inform federal...

The Trump administration announced Monday night it will be reinstating a citizenship question to the decennial census in 2020, prompting threats of lawsuits by prominent Democrats. Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra separately announced they will file respective lawsuits to stop the citizenship question from being asked during the census. Holder’s statement called the move by the Trump administration a “direct attack on our representative democracy.” Becerra called the decision, “illegal.” The Commerce Department, which oversees the census, issued a statement announcing the decision: Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that a question...

When President Trump recently visited California, he came away with the sense that it “is totally out of control.” If he arrived at that conclusion from just a single visit, imagine how many who live in the state feel. To be fair, California itself isn’t out of control. There are many among the 40 million who honorably and honestly go about their daily business. Outside of Antifa riots and some infantile behavior on college campuses, there are no mobs in the streets; crime is up but not unrestrained; there are multiple efforts brewing to break up the state, but none...