Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is welcoming illegal immigrants who have crossed America’s southern border to Los Angeles, saying the city is an appropriate place to reunify children with their families.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported Garcetti aims to house immigrant children who were detained crossing the border and has begun talks with the Department of Health and Human Services about the plan. The mayor reasoned that L.A. was a good place for sheltering the illegal aliens because their parents are probably in the Los Angeles area.
Notably, in a forum hosted downtown by Politico Magazine, he said, “Before you get partisan, before you tell me where you are on immigration — these are children.” Garcetti, apparently channeling former Florida governor and presidential aspirant Jeb Bush, told the crowd, “As a father, who are we as Americans if we don’t step forward first and say, these kids who are isolated, alone… let’s get them someplace safe and secure,” the mayor told the crowd.
The mayor in his outreach to the aliens has upset homeless activists in Los Angeles, claiming that their needs should come before the needs of illegal immigrants. CBS Los Angeles reported that homeless activist Ted Hayes, who has lived in L.A. for three decades, adamantly opposes the idea of taking in the aliens.
“It’s kind of a slap in the face to U.S. citizens,” Hayes said. “It’s embarrassing. It’s hurtful. Because it’s like a father saying that he loves children outside of the family more than he loves his own. We feel for them,” Hayes added. “We feel their pain. But we are feeling pain of our own children first.”
Moreover, the mayor seems oblivious to the myriad reporting of many, most significantly Breitbart News, that high profile welcoming of illegal immigrants encourages more to do the same. Unfortunately, the perils of making the journey from Central America subject the migrants to intense suffering, sexual abuse, living in stash houses, and in some cases death.
In April, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas said that we need to be a nation that welcomes legal immigration, not illegal. “In my view, we need to be a nation that welcomes and celebrates legal immigrants,” Cruz said. “People who follow the rules and come here according to the law. We’re a nation of immigrants, we need to celebrate that. But at the same time, rule of law matters. And if you look at any sovereign nation, securing your border is critically important.”
Significantly, the Times points out that the huge influx of Central American children crossing the border into the United States has sparked a storm of protests in other parts of California. In the Riverside County city of Murrieta, hundreds of demonstrators recently blocked buses trying to move detainees into a housing facility, drawing national headlines.
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