Earlier this week, United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions paid a visit to Sacramento. His message was clear- The United States is going to sue the State of California for defying Federal immigration laws. Three laws passed last year, specifically AB 103, AB 405, and SB 54, are the basis for the lawsuit against our state. Governor Brown said in response that Attorney General Sessions and the Trump Administration has “declared war” on “a state that’s really working”. What’ working about our state, exactly, Governor Brown? The fact that our ◼ violent crimes rates have risen for the first time in a decade? Or that we consistently fall in the ◼ bottom of national education rankings? Or how about the recent poll that exposes California as the state with the ◼ lowest quality of life? Maybe its our ◼ highest gas taxes in the nation? ◼ Highest poverty rankings? Or, as we will get to later, is it our High Speed Rail quest that’s “really working?”
Not to be outdone, our state’s Attorney General claimed that Californian’s priority was “in the business of public safety. Not in the business of deportations.” In last week’s Capitol Update ◼ (HERE - if you're registered), we addressed our fleeting public safety as well. Is it in the public’s safety interest to not deport violent felons or gang members? The three bills that Attorney General Sessions takes umbrage with make it very difficult for local, state, and federal law enforcement to work together to combat dangerous, felonious, illegal immigrants. The CFRW opposed all three bills last legislative session.
AB 103 (Budget Committee): Included in this criminal justice budget related bill were two specific provisions that prohibit our city and county jails from entering into or expanding contracts with the federal government to detain illegal immigrants awaiting trail for civil immigration proceedings.
AB 405 (Chui, D): This bill requires employers to ask immigration enforcement for a warrant, to alert employees of a federal employee audit, prohibits employers from re-verifying employee citizenship information, and prohibits employers from sharing employee information without a subpoena.
SB 54 (DeLeon, D): The “Sanctuary State” bill. Prohibits local and state law enforcement from sharing information on illegal immigrants with federal law enforcement. Prohibits same agencies from using resources to “investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest” illegal immigrants.
There is certainly more to come as this lawsuit unfolds. Stay up to date with the Capitol Update!
The High Speed Rail project makes headlines because the projected costs have ballooned once more. Today the High Speed Rail Authority said that costs have risen again, to 25-30 percent more than 2016 estimates, and totaling by some reports as much as $98 billion dollars. Not to mention, the project is at least four years behind. The HSRA is also concerned about the construction of some 45-50 miles of tunnels, both because of cost and complicated engineering. Our Republican Legislators have called on Governor Brown to quit. We should “cut our losses and use the billions not yet wasted on HSR to improve our freeways, highways, and roads and perhaps improve existing railways in California”, said Senator Andy Vidak (R, Hanford). These aren’t just tiny cost increases for the doomed project. Each time a new report comes out, these are massive budget increases to keep this project afloat. Assemblyman Vince Fong (R, Bakersfield) has implored Governor Brown to put taxpayers first in a press release sent out today. Assemblyman Fong is the author of several transportation funding bills that would fully fund repairing our crippling roads, attack traffic congestion, and build new roads, all without raising taxes! We’ve supported AB 1866 (Fong, R) since it’s inception, and we hope that it is not swiftly killed by legislative Democrats like it was last session so that Governor Brown could pass SB 1 (the Gas Tax) with false urgency. Please post articles like this one ◼ linkHERE, or the High Speed Rail Authority’s own report ◼ linkHERE on your social media with hashtags like #HighSpeedFail and #CADeservesBetter. Californians DO deserve better!
The California Republican Women will have our spring Board of Directors Meeting at the California Republican Party Convention, in sunny San Diego, Friday, May 4th. The CRP Convention is May 4-6th, and it will include the first-ever Candidate Fair and nominating process. You won't want to miss it! For more information, visit ◼ http://www.cfrw.org and ◼ https://www.cagop.org. More information to follow.
Disclaimer: The Capitol Update is an activity of the CFRW Advocate's Office. The update is for information only. CFRW official positions on legislation are stated immediately preceding the stated legislation or immediately following the stated legislation in this report.
