Jerry Brown Blames ‘Low-Life Politicians’ for ‘Sanctuary State’ Backlash

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.

Brown spoke as a revolt continues to spread throughout Southern California against the state’s sanctuary laws in the wake of a Department of Justice lawsuit filed last month against the Golden State’s “sanctuary” laws.

The lawsuit seeks to invalidate three state laws — the Immigrant Worker Protection Act (HB 450), the Inspection and Review of Facilities Housing Federal Detainees law (AB 103); and the California Values Act (SB 54) — under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Roughly a dozen local governments have joined the revolt, and many more are considering joining the lawsuit, with three new cities climbing aboard last week.

But Brown dismissed the grass-roots backlash against the “sanctuary state” laws as the political machinations of the Republican Party.

Fox News reports:

… Brown defended the state law, suggesting Republicans are exploiting it for political reasons.

“The Republican Party has this little, narrow group of … people that think that somehow they’re going to get elected” on the issue, Brown said of the recently enacted state law that helps protect illegal immigrants from deportation.

…

“It’s an inflammatory football that very low-life politicians are trying to exploit,” Brown said of the conservative-led backlash.

Also on Tuesday, President Donald Trump criticized Brown on Twitter for failing to reach an agreement to send National Guard troops to the border:

Brown reportedly told the National Press Club, however, that an agreement was within reach, and that he does care about border security.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.