It’s ironic that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is rejecting President Trump’s proposal to usher illegal immigrants to California and other sanctuary jurisdictions, especially since Newsom has built his career on exactly that platform for more than a decade.
While a person often can’t be certain exactly where a politician stands on the issues, Newsom has made it crystal clear over the years where his priorities lie.
In February, it was Newsom who stated in the first few minutes of his very first “State of the State” address as governor that one of his top priorities is protecting illegal immigrants.
One of his first acts as governor was to declare, “California is a state of refuge” as he proposed an additional $25 million for a new rapid immigration response system to aid illegal immigrants.
Newsom also suggested last year in a campaign-trail Twitter spat with President Trump that “California values” meant breaking federal law and taking in more illegal immigrants. If that’s the case, then Newsom should have no problem upholding those “values” and opening the gates for more illegal immigrants.
California itself became the nation’s first sanctuary state last year.
However, Newsom and his cronies started circumventing federal law long before that.
In 2007 as mayor of San Francisco, when the federal government was cracking down on illegal immigration, Newsom issued all San Francisco residents — regardless of their legal status — “City ID cards” to help prevent them being arrested in immigration raids.
As mayor, Newsom also vowed that no city employee on his watch would aid in the arrest of an illegal immigrant, keeping San Francisco a “de facto” sanctuary city.
Given his actions spanning more than a decade as a politician who has protected, promoted and invited more illegal immigrants to his city and state, Newsom ought to put his money where his mouth is.
The likely reason that Democrats such as Newsom are now resistant to the idea is that after all these years, they finally know the costs of bringing an unlimited supply of illegal immigrants to their cities.
Newsom acknowledged in his “State of the State” address in February that he was extremely concerned over a Hepatitis-A outbreak in San Diego — the border town that just so happened to have been the recipient of the election-year caravans of migrants.
He also stated that he was very concerned over an outbreak of Typhus — a disease that hasn’t existed since medieval times — in Los Angeles, another city with a high illegal immigrant population.
California is also contending with a homeless crisis along with an emergency room crisis with long wait times and billions of dollars in healthcare costs related to the burden of providing free healthcare to illegal immigrants — a portion of the $67 billion annually that Americans pay to provide healthcare for illegals according to Forbes.
Officials like Newsom are abundantly aware that crime is also an issue.
Even as mayor in 2008, Newsom shielded from deportation a young illegal immigrant criminal named Edwin Ramos who was a twice-convicted felon. Under the protection of Newsom — described by the Los Angeles Times as the “ambitious mayor” — Ramos went on to murder three people. (After his West Coast Willie Horton situation, Newsom should know firsthand that Trump’s statement has merit in that foreign countries may, in fact, not be sending us their best.)
Today, Trump is doing what Trump does best — calling their bluff on who really wants to provide sanctuary for one million illegal immigrants each year.
As we’re now seeing with Newsom’s hypocritical reaction, it’s one thing for a leader to say he wants to be compassionate and take in the world’s migrants. It’s quite another to actually find the way, the funds, and the local resources to do it as the price of Democrats’ immigration policy is rapidly coming home to roost.
Jen Kerns (@JenKernsUSA) served as spokeswoman for the California Republican Party; spokeswoman for California’s Proposition 8, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court; and as a Fox News writer for the 2016 U.S. presidential debates.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.