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VIDEO: U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speech Wednesday morning in Sacramento. CLICK HERE if you are having trouble viewing the video or photos on your mobile device.
SACRAMENTO — Tensions between California and Washington went from hot to blistering Wednesday as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech condemning the state’s sanctuary laws his department is challenging in court — and Gov. Jerry Brown countered that it was “a publicity stunt” filled with lies.
“This is basically going to war against the state of California, the engine of the American economy,” Brown said.
In a move Brown called “unprecedented,” Sessions traveled to California to deliver news of the first major strike by the Trump administration against the state’s “resistance” movement: a federal suit to block three new immigration laws from taking effect. The former senator from Alabama invoked the Civil War and reminded California that “there is no secession” as he blasted new immigration laws aimed at thwarting President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
Political observers say that Sessions’ trip to Sacramento was likely orchestrated to provoke California’s political left at a time of great turmoil in the White House — and provoke it did. The protesters chanting outside the heavily guarded hotel where the attorney general spoke included the leader of the state Senate and other lawmakers.
“We haven’t seen this level of discord between Sacramento and Washington since we were in the Vietnam period, into the 60s and 70s,” said David McCuan, a professor of politics at Sonoma State. “This is about going right into the resistance, into a deep blue state, and sticking a finger in their eye. Because the attorney general could have gone anywhere to make this speech.”
Brown, for example, had been far more restrained in his rhetoric about Trump than some of his fellow Democrats, such as Senate Leader Kevin de León, who is running for U.S. Senate. But on Wednesday, visibly angry, the governor pulled off the gloves.
“We know the Trump administration is full of liars,” he said, speculating that Sessions was merely trying to save his job by keeping his boss — whom Brown called “Donald” — happy. The lawsuit and visit, Brown said, were “pure red meat” for the president’s base.
In his speech to some 200 law enforcement officers, which received polite applause, Sessions noted that frustrations about immigration enforcement helped to propel Trump into the White House. “Our citizens want our government to think about them for a change, to think about their interests for a change. They have dreams too,” he said
He went on to blast sanctuary policies as harmful to police and undermining the interests of the United States: “There is no nullification. There is no secession. Federal law is the supreme law of the land.”
Sessions also excoriated Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who late last month warned residents of an imminent raid by federal immigration agents. ICE director Thomas Homan announced last week that the Department of Justice would launch a “review” of the mayor’s actions.
“So here’s my message for Mayor Schaaf: How dare you. How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical open borders agenda,” Sessions said. He also attacked Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of the leading candidates for governor, for “bragging about the obstruction of law enforcement.”
Schaaf stood her ground. “My response to the attorney general’s statements … How dare you vilify members of our community,” she said Wednesday.
Sessions’ lawsuit targets three bills. Senate Bill 54, the centerpiece of California’s resistance on immigration, aims to prevent state and local police officers from helping to carry out the president’s promised crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Assembly Bill 450 requires an employer to ask for proper court documents before allowing immigration agents access to the workplace or to employee information — or face a fine. And Assembly Bill 103 gives California’s attorney general the authority to review the conditions of immigration detention centers that contract with ICE.
Protesters gathered on the sidewalk Wednesday outside the downtown hotel where Sessions spoke, chanting and holding signs saying “Crush ICE” and “First They Came For Immigrants.” Some marched through the streets.
Authors of the three immigration laws — Senate Leader de León, D-Los Angeles, Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens — joined the peaceful demonstration outside the hotel. They later held a news conference, calling the lawsuit a retaliatory move that lacked legal merit.
“California will not be bowed,” De León said. “We shall see Mr. Sessions in court.”
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the trust between the immigrant community and law enforcement is “critical” for public safety and said the lawsuit was “a misguided waste of federal resources.”
Jon Rodney, spokesman for the California Immigrant Policy Center which has an office in Oakland, called Sessions’ speech and lawsuit an “attempt at political retaliation.”
For over a year, ICE and the Department of Justice have issued warnings to cities that have adopted so-called “sanctuary” policies to protect undocumented immigrants, threatening such repercussions as stepped-up raids and withheld law enforcement grants.
Sessions isn’t saying anything new, said Dan Schnur, a former GOP strategist who is now a lecturer in USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. “The difference is he’ll be saying it in a courtroom as opposed to on cable television.”
The final “sanctuary state” compromise brokered by Brown before its final passage largely exempts the state prison system from the new law. It allows ICE officers to question immigrants in county jails, although it prohibits them from holding permanent office space there. It permits information-sharing and coordination between federal and state law enforcement officers when the immigrant in question has been convicted of one of some 800 crimes within the past 15 years. It also makes an exception for suspects in serious crimes punishable with prison time for which a judge has found probable cause.
The California Police Chiefs’ Association, one of the groups organizing Wednesday’s event, took a neutral position on SB 54 after the last-minute amendments, while the more conservative sheriffs’ association opposed it.
Some state lawmakers have criticized the peace officers’ association for inviting Sessions. But an association official interviewed afterward said it would be “foolish” for the group not to hear what he had to say.
“Attorney General Sessions is the top law enforcement officer in the United States of America,” said Neil Gallucci, the association’s second vice president, “and his opinion is certainly something we need to listen to and understand in California law enforcement.”
