President Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to hail the “Revolution” by local governments in Southern California against the state’s “sanctuary” laws.
Roughly one dozen local governments have voted to defy state laws that limit or prevent participation in immigration law enforcement by federal agencies. On Tuesday evening, San Diego County became the latest to join the revolt. The day before, Los Alamitos — the first local government to defy the state’s sanctuary laws — approved the ordinance it first passed last month.
On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted:
Trump is also in the midst of an ongoing dispute with California Governor Jerry Brown about the deployment of 400 National Guard troops to enhance border security. Brown is resisting efforts to use those troops along the border, even though they would only be playing a supporting role for U.S. Border Patrol, and not enforcing immigration law directly.
On Tuesday, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Brown attempted to dismiss the ongoing revolt against “sanctuary state” laws as the work of “low-life politicians,” rather than as a grass-roots effort.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the State of California in a federal court in Sacramento, seeking to overturn three of the state’s “sanctuary” laws. The Trump administration contends that California’s statutes violate the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. Experts suggest that California will struggle to defend at least two of the three laws.
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.