California Democrats Push Divestment of Companies Building Wall on Southern Border

California Democrats are pushing legislation to require teacher and public employee retirement systems to divest holdings in any companies that are going to take part in building the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The two retirement systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS, would be given a year to locate the names of all companies involved in building the wall and then divest.

According to the  Sacramento Bee, CalPERS and CalSTRS have “portfolios worth hundreds of billions of dollars,” and the Democrats are pushing Assembly Bill 946 to ensure that money from those funds is not going to any company that takes part in border wall construction.

One of AB 946’s sponsors, Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), said, “Californians build bridges not walls. This is a wall of shame, and we don’t want any part of it. Immigrant stories are the history of America, and this is a nightmare.”

An effort to refuse cooperation with President Trump was visible in California even before he was inaugurated. On December 6, 2016, Breitbart news reported that immigration advocacy groups were asking California Attorney General Kamala Harris to “block federal access” to the database containing names of gang members in the state. The goal was to prevent the Trump administration from finding violent criminals who may qualify for deportation for being in the country illegally.

Voice of OC reported the groups worried the lists contained names that ought not be included:

In some cases law enforcement agencies put individuals in the database without adequate evidence, failed to purge CalGang records that had not been updated within five years, and poorly implemented a state law requiring that juveniles and their parents are notified before the minor is placed in the database.

On February 2, Breitbart News reported that the San Francisco Police Department was ending task force work with the FBI to avoid enforcing Trump’s immigration orders. The San Francisco Chronicle reported the SFPD had been working with the FBI task force since 2007.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) attorney Brittney Rezaei said: “Under the new administration, there are a lot of unknowns and in particular, a lot of threats toward communities that have historically been surveilled by organizations like the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. It’s important now that we make sure that any local resources such as those within the San Francisco Police Department are complying with local laws.”

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.