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DEEGAN ON LA—-In some minds, what could be better than white, especially when immigrating to America? However, the immigrant demographics of those attempting to enter the US (legally or not) at the southern border now include hopeful Central Americans, Asians, Asian Pacific Islanders, and Africans.
While dreaming is free, dreaming can also be dangerous when the nominated deputy chief of staff for the incoming president is doing the “white dreaming” and he’s doing it, as his boss likes to say, “bigly”. They both seem to dream of an arctic white America, full of White Western Europeans, like the nativist founders and early builders of America.
Local native Stephen Miller, a product of the westside and Santa Monica High School, caught attention as the announced author of the dystopian “American Carnage” inaugural address declared from the steps of the Capitol eight years ago.
He became a White House staffer known as an anti-immigrant extremist “that is credited with shaping the racist and draconian immigration policies of President Trump , which include the zero-tolerance policy, also known as family separation, the Muslim ban and ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program”.
In a few days he will return to a West Wing perch and has already served notice of his next objective which is to attack “sanctuary cities” (like LA) and deport illegal aliens. He recently warned Mayor Bass, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell and California Attorney General Rob Bonta not to block immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
His stark language warning said that “such lawlessness subjects you and your subordinates to significant risk of criminal and civil liability.
Accordingly, we are sending this letter to put you on notice of this risk and insist that you comply with our nation’s laws…the fact of the matter is that you and the other officials who support or enforce sanctuary laws, policies, and regulations have a very personal stake in the matter — you each could face criminal prosecution and civil liability for your illegal acts”.
The threatening letter was signed by Miller as president of America First Legal, his non-profit bully pulpit. In political terms this is called “jawboning”; rhetoric that is non-binding and used to attempt persuasion. It’s an op-ed piece, not a piece of federal legislation.
Bonta called the threats “ a scare tactic, plain and simple.” Bass called it “wrong on public safety and wrong on the law.”
Bonta clarified that “California lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 54 in 2017 to ensure that no state and local resources are used to assist with federal immigration enforcement…we want to be clear: SB 54 was upheld by the courts during the first Trump administration, and it prevents the use of state and local resources for federal immigration enforcement with certain narrow exceptions…SB 54 does nothing, however, to block federal agencies from conducting immigration enforcement themselves. California will continue to comply with all applicable state and federal laws, and we expect all local law enforcement agencies to do the same”.
(Tim Deegan is a civic activist whose Deegan on LA weekly column about city planning, new urbanism, the environment, and the homeless appear in CityWatch. Tim can be reached at [email protected].)
