Bill Wells, the Republican mayor of El Cajon, California, said leftist immigration policies have made the state unsafe, discussing the consequences of Democrat open border policies during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
Wells spoke about these realities in light of a lawsuit regarding their police department. Essentially, the lawsuit states that their police officers are always “violating some law” every day – whether federal law or state law, as they both conflict.
“Federal law is very clear that anybody who aids or abets somebody illegally here in this country is committing a felony, and vice versa. If they do follow federal law, then they, in turn, are violating California law, which, when they violate California they can be fired, they can lose their pension, they can be prosecuted,” Wells said.
“So we put our cops in a position every day where they’re violating law, and they’re facing pretty significant consequences, and we’re just saying, Hey, Judge, this can’t be right. You can’t basically set your cops up like this. Who is right? Is the federal government right, or is the California state law right?” he asked, surmising that, based on the supremacy cause of the United States Constitution, federal law supersedes state law.
The state law in question is SB 54, which essentially states that it is illegal for “any municipality to coordinate in any way, even have discussion with any kind of federal agency in regard to immigration.”
“[It] means that if we arrest somebody for say, DUI, and we know that that person is not legally here, we’re not allowed to call ICE and say, Come pick these guys up. We’re also not allowed to call ICE say, for example, we arrest somebody and we suspect, because of their tattoos or whatever, that they’re an MS-13 gang member. We’re not allowed to verify that with the Feds through their database or any database that the federal government might have access to,” Wells said.
In other words, communication between the state authorities and any federal agencies about immigrants is against state law.
When asked why the left justifies SB 54, Wells said, “Obviously, they want to stop any kind of deportations. They want to stop Donald Trump in any of his aspirations.”
He said the left is also claiming that illegal immigrants would be too scared to call the police and report domestic violence and other crimes against them, if not for the state law.
“That’s a theory,” he said. “It’s never really been proven.”
Because of this law – and other sanctuary policies – California, he suggested, has become a dangerous place.
“During the Biden administration, we would have about 2,000 to 3,000 illegal aliens dropped off across the border every day for over several years. Those people, most of them, I believe, settled in California because our welfare benefits, our health benefits, our school benefits, every kind of benefit you can imagine is greater here, and so we’ve had a lot of people settle here,” Wells said, explaining it has put “an amazing strain upon our school system, our hospital system, our welfare system.”
Not to mention the crime factor.
“There’s more dangerous issues about crime. I recently had – a Marine and his family were driving. They got hit by a drunk driver. The little girl was killed. The marine lost his legs, and this was an MS-13 gang member that had been arrested multiple times and released,” Wells said, adding that there have been a lot of rapes and murders.
Wells also said that people are being targeted by gang members, and he noted that 1,000 people a year die of fentanyl poisoning.
“And that’s all coming across the border as well. So yes, crime has gone up significantly, and it’s not safe to be in California,” the mayor explained.
“People will say, Oh, it’s not that big a deal. I mean, Americans commit more crimes than illegal aliens commit. But you know, if you can just peel off one layer of predatory society, I’d think that any elected official would want to do that,” he added.
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