California's sanctuary state law shows how out of touch liberals are with public safety concerns

Travis Allen:

Citizenship matters. Throughout American history, tens of millions of immigrants have set out for our country seeking to become Americans.

By enacting Senate Bill 54 and declaring California a "sanctuary state," Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and liberal Sacramento politicians are draining citizenship of meaning and making a mockery of that history and those aspirations. They have taken a knee to the demands of identity politics — declaring illegal immigrants a protected class and ordering state and local law enforcement to provide them with special protection.

SB 54 exposes the massive disconnect between the radical priorities of the liberal political elites and the everyday concerns of average Californians. Californians want better schools, safer neighborhoods, less traffic, more affordable housing, and more jobs. The liberal politicians running the state and supporting SB 54 want to appease their radical base.

This is a public safety issue. There are an estimated 1-2 million criminal illegal immigrants in the United States. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, undocumented immigrants are just 3.5 percent of the U.S. population but account for 37.6 percent of federal sentences and 13.6 percent of all criminal offenders nationwide. Illegal immigrants comprise 12 percent of murder sentences, 20 percent of kidnapping sentences, and 16 percent of drug trafficking sentences.

An estimated 650 unauthorized migrant criminal offenders are released into California's communities every month in violation of transfer requests into federal custody. During its last two-and-a-half years, the Obama Administration released 86,000 illegal immigrants who committed over 231,000 crimes.

Does protecting criminal illegal immigrants from deportation help working Californians or make our families and neighborhoods safer? Does it create or diminish economic opportunity? Does it make us more or less free?

Anyone who doubts the deadly consequences of sanctuary policies should talk to the family of Kate Steinle, murdered in 2015 by a criminal illegal immigrant who had been previously deported five times and had been let loose by San Francisco in defiance of a federal detainer request. Steinle would be alive today, if it weren't for San Francisco's sanctuary city ordinance.
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Polls show that even in California, 74 percent of the population opposes sanctuary cities laws.  What I see here is a giant pander by liberal Democrats to certain Hispanic voters who want to protect illegals.  And it is not all Hispanics who feel that way since their population is much larger than the number of people who support this mess.   I think the GOP should have a shot at a winning issue if they go after this one.