Fighting over the issue of illegal immigration is no foreign struggle in the once golden state of California, which hosts estimated millions of these individuals. Obama announcing impending executive action granting legal status to millions of illegal aliens brings only more fuel to the fire. This comes in the midst of ongoing moves by many California’s politicians and activists to push legal rights for illegal aliens against the will of volumes of the U.S. citizens in the state.
Many on both sides of the issue across the state have long been voicing their concerns; however, it may be argued that California has been actively moving towards amnesty aggressively for years.
Earlier this year California granted an illegal alien a license to practice law in the state. The Associated Press reported in January, “The California Supreme Court granted a law license on Thursday to a man living in the United States illegally who graduated from law school and passed the state bar exam.” In September, California Senator Ricardo Lara (D) announced passage of Senate Bill 1159, granting the ability of those without a social security number to obtain a license to practice law.
California is also slated to begin issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens as of January 2015, following in the footsteps of ten other states. 1.4 million of those newly eligible are expected to apply, according to state estimates.
Large numbers of individuals in the state and around the country have already been granted temporary legal status under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Obama’s new plan is expected to increase the numbers of those eligible under DACA.
Senator Lara, chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, commented on the path to citizenship for unaccompanied illegal immigrant juveniles: “…it’s critical that these kids have every opportunity to seek permanent residency, including through the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status,” reported Breitbart. This status was clarified by Brown to allow expediting of the naturalization process.
In August Lara announced The California Dream Loan Program. The bill would allow “undocumented students” at the UC and CSU to apply for student loans. According to Lara, “The initial funding would be set at $9.2 million with $2.3 million coming from the institutions and $6.9 million from state funds.”
Also in August, California Governor Jerry Brown announced legislation allocating $3 million in California taxpayer dollars to pay lawyers advocating for the status of illegal alien juveniles.
“Immigrant rights leaders said they want the president’s executive action plans to be “as inclusive and generous as possible,” read a statement from the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which plans to stage a “Don’t Leave Me Out” event Monday in Los Angeles,” reported the Orange County Register.
Enrique Morones, an outspoken activist with the group Border Angels, postured during July protests over the transportation of illegal immigrants from overcrowded Texas detention facilities to Murrieta, California, that the situation “could be the Rosa Parks moment in the immigration debate.” He has made inflammatory remarks on accusations implying racism multiple times, claiming that if those illegally making their way into the country were Canadian, that “we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
Attorney Victor Torres of the La Raza Lawyers Association said at a press conference on July 2, that the thousands of Central Americans crossing illegally into the U.S. over the southwest border “are all Americans too.”
Torres told the crowd that day, “I’m here to tell you as an attorney, people are not illegal, people cannot be illegal, only acts can be illegal and acts are only illegal if our government says they’re illegal. If tomorrow, the government changes its mind, those acts are not illegal anymore.” He then stated, the simple answer of send them back is “not complying with the rule of law.”
But what about Americans facing the violent actions taken by those illegally present in the U.S.? A portion of foreign citizens are caught while attempting to or after entering the country. Of those, from October 1, 2013 through May 26 of 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the San Diego sector alone arrested 3,321 criminal aliens according to statistics provided to Breitbart News. Between them they boast an astounding 6,329 convictions and of those 495 were convictions for domestic violence, aggravated assault, battery, cruelty towards wife or child, rape or other sexual offense.
November 2, a group of families who have lost loved ones to the actions of illegal aliens in America gathered in a National Remembrance Day event that Breitbart reported on. Just one week later a three-year-old child was killed when an illegal alien alleged drunk driver rammed through a fence and into a group of people standing next to an ice cream truck in California. The mother cried and held her child until paramedics arrived and attended to the little girl. Sadly, on the way to the hospital the child died. The driver ran away, but was later arrested and is now facing charges.
One woman at the event, Sabine Durden, spoke of her son, a 9-1-1 operator, who was killed by an illegal alien. She spoke of how incredibly dedicated she had to be in the prosecution actions against her son’s killer in order to see him finally deported. The single mom of an only child, Durden first spoke with Breitbart at the Murrieta protests in July.
The Murrieta protests highlighted what so many in the country seemed surprised to see, that there were still those in California that didn’t want amnesty. At least hundreds came out and many expressed that they had never been so moved as to come out for such an event, but this was a breaking point for them.
In June, legal immigrant Katherine Rodriguez came out to oppose an illegal immigrant detention facility proposed in Escondido, California. Rodriguez told Breitbart News, “These people now are sick and tired of their government and everybody here with the welfare and food stamps.” She continued, “they figure, well America’s got a big heart, they’re going to take care of you honey. Ya know as long as you go with kids, go with your own age, they won’t throw you back. Well they’ve got us pegged. Isn’t that true? Because this is their ticket to get here.”
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