As wildfires consumed over 5,000 buildings in Los Angeles last week, killing 24 people, Democrats in Sacramento had far more pressing business to attend to: allocating $50 million to attack a presidential administration that hasn’t even taken office yet.
Asked if now was really the best time for a special legislative session dedicated to “Trump-proofing” California, state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat, responded, “I do think it’s important for California to stand up for our values,” later adding, “This funding agreement cements California’s readiness to serve as a bulwark against Trump’s extremist agenda.”
One wonders if President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda, however “extreme” it might be, is really California’s biggest problem right now as the state’s largest city is still burning.
To his credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was not in Sacramento with his fellow Democrats hyperventilating about Trump’s return to the White House. He was in Los Angeles trying to find out why the city’s fire hydrants had no water. But Newsom was the one who called the special session less than a week after Trump’s reelection, claiming that immediate legislative action was needed “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.”
Newsom originally asked for $100 million to help secure “clean vehicle policies that are critical to combating climate change,” preserve “long-standing environmental protections,” and stop implementation of Trump’s immigration policies.
For some reason, California Democrats only gave Newsom half of what he asked for, including $25 million for the state Department of Justice to fight the Trump administration in court — Trump is expected to revoke the Environmental Protection Agency waiver issued to the state enabling its ban on the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035 — plus another $25 million to defend illegal immigrants from arrest, detention, and deportation.
While California Democrats were busy spending taxpayer money on preventing Trump from deporting illegal immigrants, the taxpayers of the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles were busy chasing down and detaining a man who had been riding around on a bicycle setting Christmas trees and garbage cans on fire with a blowtorch. The man, who was zip-tied by residents of Woodland Hills until police arrived, is a suspect in the starting of the Kenneth Fire, which has burned 950 acres and briefly caused evacuations in the area.
The suspected arsonist has since been identified as Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva, an illegal immigrant from Mexico. Upon learning of Sierra-Leyva’s immigration status, Immigration and Customs Enforcement put a detainer request on the suspect, but because California is a sanctuary state, it is expected that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will deny ICE efforts to deport him.
If ICE were to gain custody of Sierra-Leyva and then begin the legal process of deportation, the $25 million California Democrats just allocated to stop Trump from deporting illegal immigrants would be used to fight his deportation.
In other words, just as the taxpayers of Los Angeles were detaining illegal immigrants setting their city on fire, California Democrats were spending their money to help set them free.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“This is tone deaf,” state Sen. Brian Jones, a San Diego Republican, said of the Democrats’ special session. “Focusing on suing the administration that hasn’t even done anything yet in the midst of a catastrophic wildfire in LA. We shouldn’t be Trump-proofing California. We should be focusing on fireproofing California.”
California is in need of far more than fireproofing. What the state really needs is Democrat-proofing.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
