Silicon Valley Business Journal
By J. Jennings Moss
March 08, 2018
This week, Washington’s war with California got real.
“Federal law is the supreme law of the land,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a speech in Sacramento on Wednesday morning, hours after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit late Tuesday challenging California’s status as a so-called sanctuary state. “California, we have a problem. A series of actions and events have occurred here that directly and adversely impact the work of our federal officers.”
Sessions delivered his message to the annual meeting of the California Peace Officers Association, a group that strongly opposed legislation Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law last year and went into effect this January that sought to direct state and local law enforcement agencies as well as businesses not to cooperate with federal officials in some immigration cases.
The series of three state laws were a defiant — some would say reckless — move by California lawmakers to try to protect 2.3 million immigrants living illegally in the state. The Democratic majority in the Legislature, along with the Democratic governor, passed the laws as a precautionary measure following the inauguration last January of President Donald Trump, a Republican who ran on a visceral anti-immigrant agenda.
Trump officials, led by Sessions, have said for a long time now that California was going too far. And this week’s federal response shows the feds’ patience has come to an end.
“California has enacted a number of laws designed to intentionally obstruct the work of our sworn immigration enforcement officers — to intentionally use every power it has to undermine duly established immigration law in America,” Sessions said.
The U.S. attorney general blasted Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for making the controversial move of tipping off residents about potential raids from federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Schaaf, Sessions said, “boldly validates illegality.”
Silicon Valley officials like San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who have supported Schaaf, not surprisingly blasted Sessions and the federal lawsuit: “Wasting time and energy on politically-driven lawsuits will do nothing to make our communities safer,” said Liccardo, a former federal prosecutor.
It’s true the political factor can’t be underestimated here on either side. By nearly 62 percent, California voters backed Trump’s opponent in 2016. And Trump, a man who never forgets a slight, relishes taking the fight to true blue California. But it would be wrong to pin a pure political motivation on this fight.
But there are very real policy issues here, and just playing the politics card doesn’t help matters. It’s especially important for business owners, since they’re the specific focus of one of the California laws Sessions opposes. In that law, Assembly Bill 450, the state can impose civil fines of up to $10,000 if businesses share immigration information about workers with ICE agents.
Employers are being caught in the middle here. Adhere to federal immigration orders, and run the risk of drawing a state fine. Or abide by state rules and incur potential legal action by the Justice Department.
At this point, given the wide divide between California and Washington, the judiciary is the appropriate branch to take up the dispute. What businesses need more than anything else at this point, regardless of their own opinions about immigration, is clarity.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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