Wall Street Journal
By Alicia A. Caldwell and Alejandro Lazo
March 12, 2018
President Donald Trump is finally set to make his first visit to California as president this week, as his administration battles the state over its immigration policies and some of his fellow Republicans here look to keep their distance from him.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to travel to the state Tuesday, after becoming the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower not to visit California during his first year in office, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The visit, which is to include a tour of the state’s border with Mexico, comes at an especially tense time between the Trump administration and the left-leaning state, the nation’s most populous.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week announced a lawsuit challenging three new California laws aimed at protecting unauthorized immigrants, prompting an outcry from top California Democrats. Mr. Trump has lashed out at the state in recent weeks for being too soft on immigration. Some California GOP candidates in tough congressional races are steering clear of Mr. Trump while he is in the state.
Dueling rallies by supporters and opponents of Mr. Trump were expected during his trip to the border and nearby San Diego, where the president was set to view prototypes of the wall he has promised with Mexico.
“There’s a lot of support for his visit,” said Jeff Schwilk, founder of the group San Diegans for Secure Borders and an organizer of a rally in support of Mr. Trump. “We’re really excited for him to come and get a look at his walls.”
Meanwhile, several immigrant-advocacy groups and other opponents of Trump’s immigration policies were organizing their own protests around San Diego and the border ahead of the president’s trip.
At least one group is calling on people to “occupy the border” near where Mr. Trump is expected to visit.
Andrea Guerrero, executive director of Alliance San Diego, a progressive advocacy group, said those involved in the anti-Trump protests wanted to share “a safe message” that they don’t support “a wasteful, disrespectful and irresponsible wall.”
It is unclear how close to the border the protesters and supporters will get. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has already said several roads will be closed. A designated protest zone is likely to be more than a mile from the wall prototypes, out of earshot, and possibly eyesight, of the president. Nonetheless, police were preparing for the possibility that groups from both sides would encounter each other.
California Gov. Jerry Brown, in an open letter to Mr. Trump published Monday, sounded themes of California exceptionalism, quoting Republican President George W. Bush, who said the state is “where the future happens first.”
Mr. Brown, a Democrat, asked Mr. Trump to tour the site of the state’s high-speed rail line, noting the project’s many “bridges and viaducts.”
“In California we are focusing on bridges, not walls,” Mr. Brown wrote.
While Mr. Trump’s visit gave top California Democrats a chance to ramp up criticism of the president, it also laid bare the complicated situation for the state’s Republicans.
Mr. Trump lost the state by roughly 4 million votes to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The GOP is struggling to defend four congressional seats in suburban Orange County, a once reliably red swath of the state that Mrs. Clinton flipped and where the president’s approval has waned.
State Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, one of several Republicans running for the seat being vacated by Rep. Darrell Issa, who is retiring, said he would likely be in Sacramento, the state capital, during Mr. Trump’s visit.
“What day is he even coming?” Mr. Chavez said. “It’s just not my thing.“
Spokesmen for two other Republican candidates in the congressional race, former Assemblywoman Diane Harkey and San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, said those candidates didn’t have plans related to the president’s visit.
Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party, said the party wasn’t planning any official activities around Mr. Trump’s travel here.
John Cox, a venture capitalist and Republican gubernatorial candidate, who has praised the Trump administration’s lawsuit targeting the state’s immigration laws, declined to say whether he would be attending any of the pro-Trump rallies taking place during the president’s visit.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment