UPDATE: ‘How dare you”: Sessions torches Oakland mayor for giving advanced warning on ICE raids during his speech at the California Peace Officers Association's annual Legislative Day (via Daily Caller):
“For example, the mayor of Oakland has actively — has actively been seeking to help illegal aliens aboard the prehension by I.C.E. And those who take the law and illegality. There’s no way to understand those remarks. The lieutenant governor of the state praised her for doing so. Bragging about and encouraging the obstruction of our law enforcement and I am afraid that this is an embarrassment to the proud state of California.”
[…]
“Here’s my message — how dare you. How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers to promote a radical, open borders agenda.”
AG Sessions: "Here's my message to Mayor @LibbySchaaf: 'How dare you? How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement officers?'" https://t.co/6zAQn3cpLR pic.twitter.com/D3DTKNPX3t
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 7, 2018
UPDATE II: Gov. Jerry Brown calls lawsuit a political stunt:
“This is a political stunt,” @JerryBrownGov says of @jeffsessions visit to Sacramento, comparing it to Fox News. pic.twitter.com/OIdzCvNq2R
— Alexei Koseff (@CapitolAlert) March 7, 2018
At a time of unprecedented political turmoil, Jeff Sessions has come to California to further divide and polarize America. Jeff, these political stunts may be the norm in Washington, but they don’t work here. SAD!!!
— Jerry Brown (@JerryBrownGov) March 7, 2018
***
Well, let’s do a little refresher. Last October, California decided to fire the first salvo by declaring itself a sanctuary state. The law went into effect January 1, 2018 (via KCRA):
Brown's signature means that police will be barred from asking people about their immigration status or participating in immigration enforcement activities starting Jan. 1.
Jail officials only will be allowed to transfer inmates to federal immigration authorities if they have been convicted of certain crimes.
California is home to an estimated 2.3 million immigrants without legal authorization.
"These are uncertain times for undocumented Californians and their families, and this bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear every day," Brown said in statement.
Things were kicked up a notch when Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned her residents that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were coming. ICE had conducted over 150 raids across northern California. In San Francisco bay area, which includes Oakland, 232 illegals were arrested. ICE’s acting director, Thomas Homan, torched Schaaf for warning hundreds of “public safety criminals” that law enforcement was on its way. In response to this sanctuary state law, the Trump administration had decided to bring the state into court, suing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Becerra was not shocked by this legal motion and had a bring it on attitude towards it as well (via NYT):
The Trump administration escalated what had been a war of words over California’s immigration agenda, filing a lawsuit late Tuesday that amounted to a pre-emptive strike against the liberal state’s so-called sanctuary laws.
The Justice Department sued California; Gov. Jerry Brown; and the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, over three state laws passed in recent months, saying they made it impossible for federal immigration officials to do their jobs and deport criminals who were born outside the United States. The Justice Department called the laws unconstitutional and asked a judge to block them.
The lawsuit was the department’s boldest attack yet against California, one of the strongest opponents of the Trump administration’s efforts to curb immigration. It also served as a warning to Democratic lawmakers and elected officials nationwide who have enacted sanctuary policies that provide protections for undocumented immigrants.
“The Department of Justice and the Trump administration are going to fight these unjust, unfair and unconstitutional policies that have been imposed on you,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions planned to say on Wednesday at a law enforcement event in Sacramento, according to prepared remarks. “I believe that we are going to win.”
[…]
Mr. Becerra said that he was not surprised by the news of the lawsuit and that the state had already won legal battles against the Trump administration. “We’ve seen this B-rated movie before,” he said. “We’re not doing their bidding on immigration enforcement and deportation.”
See y’all in court, I guess.