THE PRESIDENT IS VERY CONFUSED: MOST AMERICANS ARE IMMIGRANTS!

…A perfect picture of most Americans

 

The District Judge was correct, only the Congress can decide where the government money is spent.

 

When are we Americans that are NOT descendants of indigenous American Indians going to understand that virtually every other American is historically an “immigrant”.  My father’s great grandparents came from Germany, my mothers were originally from Great Britain, my wife’s heritage is from Poland and England.

 

Needless to say, this nation is already “Great” because of the its diversity and because of the tenacity of those that came to America for making a better life for themselves and their families.

 

But what does the founder of the, “Make America Great Again” hat have to say about all that?

 

Well, a San Francisco Judge has temporarily blocked President Trump’s efforts to starve US cities of federal funds when they refuse to cooperate with anti-immigration enforcement.  The judge’s block was a direct rejection of Trump’s threats to cut the cities financing for making so-called “Sanctuary Cities” fall in line.

 

The judge, William H. Orrick of the US District Court, wrote that the president had overstepped his powers with his executive order on immigration by tying billions of dollars in federal funding to immigration enforcement.  Judge Orrick rightly said that only Congress could place such conditions on government spending.

 

The ruling, which applies nationwide, was another judicial setback for the Trump administration, which has now seen three immigration orders stopped by federal courts in his first 100 days. And as with the rulings stopping his two temporary bans on travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, the president’s own words were being used against him.

 

Even though Justice Department lawyers argued in the case that the government did not intend to withhold significant amounts of money, the judge has noted that the president and the Attorney General Jeff Sessions had each suggested the financial punishment could be made far greater.  “If there was any doubt about the scope of the order, the president and the attorney general have erased it with their public comments,” Judge Orrick wrote.

 

The initial order is only a temporary injunction until the judge issues a broader ruling on the executive order’s constitutionality, but he strongly signaled that San Francisco County and Santa Clara County, the plaintiffs in the case, were likely to win a permanent victory. It was also an early verdict on the question of whether the White House can force cities and counties into helping federal immigration agents detain and deport illegal immigrants.

 

Mr. Trump has criticized the judges who have ruled against him, and the White House released a statement saying, “Once again, a single district judge, this time in San Francisco, has ignored federal immigration law to set a new immigration policy for the entire country.”  Apparently, the president and the AG are too ignorant for keeping their mouths shut, which continues to get them, and their causes in trouble.

 

The Sanctuary Cities deal with these issue differently, and as examples, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston, they limit their cooperate with federal immigration authorities, often refusing to turn over unauthorized immigrants from local jails except under certain conditions.  They also keep their local police from asking immigrants about their immigration status.

 

The president has continually brought up the one case when in 2015, an illegal immigrant that had violated the law and should have been deported, (in fact he was an immigrant with a record of multiple deportations), but he was improperly released and allowed to stay in San Francisco.  He later obtained a gun and shot and killed an innocent bystander, Ms. Kathryn Steinle.  It was this one case that hascaused the president to take such a drastic approach against all Sanctuary Cities. 

 

There are thousands of immigrants that are involved with Sanctuary Cities across the country, and there are seldom any issues such as the one that caused this single death in San Francisco.

 

In practical terms, the San Francisco’s filing said that forcing the city to cooperate with federal immigration agents would threaten public safety.  This is done by breaking the trust between local authorities and the immigrants, who the city argued then become less likely to report crimes or serve as witnesses.

 

Had the executive order stood, San Francisco County estimated that it would have lost more than $1 billion in federal funding as a result of the executive order.  And even worse for Santa Clara County, they said they would lose about $1.7 billion.  That’s more than a third of their annual revenue at risk.

 

“This is why we have courts — to halt the overreach of a president and an attorney general who either don’t understand the Constitution or chose to ignore it,” Dennis Herrera, the San Francisco City Attorney, said in a statement. “Because San Francisco took this president to court, we’ve been able to protect billions of dollars that fund lifesaving programs across this country.”

 

While the judge’s order temporarily stops the White House from placing new restrictions on federal funding without going through Congress, it does not keep the administration from enforcing existing rules on certain federal grants. In letters to several local governments last week, the Justice Department warned that several of current grants could be in jeopardy.

 

As usual, the president tried to sell his story by telling less than truthful statements about all Sanctuary cities.  According to President Trump, these cities “breed crime; there’s a lot of problems,” Mr. Trump told this to who else, but Fox News. “If we have to, we’ll defund. We give tremendous amounts of money to California — California in many ways is out of control, as you know.”

 

Because California voted overwhelmingly against Donald Trump for president, of course for Trump, California, “is way out of control”.  But apparently, so are: New York, Oregon, Washington state, Virginia, New Jersey, Colorado and Massachusetts, states who soundly rejected Mr. Trump in the election..

 

But as President Barack Obama was sometimes held back by conservative states and Republican-appointed judges, this president has been stopped by liberal jurisdictions.

 

San Francisco was the first city to sue the administration over these executive order, arguing that the order’s provision for cutting off funding to sanctuary jurisdictions was unconstitutional. Since then, at least five other local governments have sued, including Seattle; Richmond, Calif., and two cities in Massachusetts.  Others cities have vowed to do so if the administration moves to follow through on the executive order.

 

But, facing the prospect of losing millions in crucial funding and of a showdown with the White House, unfortunately, multiple jurisdictions have already backed away from announcing sanctuary-style policies due to President Trump executive order.  (Perhaps, that was the reason for the president’s approach to this issue?...........nah, he’s not that smart.)

 

The Trump administration has also temporarily suspended the publication of weekly reports that detailed cities and counties that refused to honor federal immigration detainers. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which began making the lists public last month is reviewing its reporting methodology after several law enforcement agencies complained that they were improperly included in the published report.

 

“The ACLU is pleased the administration has halted these deeply flawed and misleading reports,” staff attorney Cody Wofsy said in a statement. “It should reconsider its entire campaign of bullying localities for their lawful and responsible choices.”  (Ya think!)

 

Some cities have passed laws that restrict the collection of citizenship status by local law enforcement, citing concerns that immigrants who have committed relatively minor infractions, such as traffic violations, could be harassed or deported.

 

The Trump administration has listed scores of jurisdictions, including those in Virginia, Maryland, California and Texas, that have not cooperated with his approach to immigration.

 

One only hopes that those and other states will continue to not cooperate with the president’s unconstitutional approaches to his presidency.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017