Sanctuary Insanity: California Senate Passes “Anti-Arizona” Bill to Protect Illegal Aliens

It’s no contest. It’s not even close. California is America’s undisputed “Sanctuary State” for illegal aliens.

And now, in their hysteria over the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the central provision of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 – that requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop – California legislators are setting new lows in contempt for the rule of law.

The California Senate on Thursday passed a bill supporters dub the “anti-Arizona” law, which seeks to “shield illegal immigrants from status checks by local police” and which even welcomes in illegals from states such as Arizona.

The Democrat-led state Senate voted 21 to 13 for the California Trust Act, which blocks local police from referring a detainee to immigration officials for deportation unless that person has been convicted of a violent or serious felony.

The bill had already passed the state Assembly in a 47-26 vote before the Senate passage. It will go back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote following the summer recess before heading to Governor Jerry Brown, who would no doubt sign it.

Reuters reports:

“The measure seeks to create a national model to counter what backers say is racial profiling inherent in the part of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court last week. It also seeks to push back against a federal program called Secure Communities, which shares the same principles as Arizona’s law, supporters say.”

“Today’s vote signals to the nation that California cannot afford to be another Arizona,” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement. ”The bill also limits unjust and onerous detentions for deportation in local jails of community members who do not pose a threat to public safety,” he added.

The problem is….well, ok there are several problems with this insane bill. First we have a state with by far the largest population of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with nearly 2.6 million at the start of 2010 – which is now welcoming in even more illegals. California is nearly broke, with much of it caused by that same mass of illegals – pushing hospitals, schools and social services to the breaking point or beyond. For example, 84 hospitals in California have entered bankruptcy or closed due to illegal aliens, as unpaid medical bills from illegals now cost state hospitals a staggering $1.25 BILLION annually (2010).

Secondly, we have legislators relying on radical pro-amnesty activists for actual data! For instance, they cited in the Senate record a “statistic” from Angela Chan, a senior staff attorney with the “Asian Law Caucus” that “seven of the 10 people deported under (Secure Communities) have no criminal convictions.”  But an ICE spokeswoman, however, disputed that statistic, saying the actual numbers are reversed — that nearly 75 percent of people deported through Secure Communities have one or more criminal convictions – an inconvenient fact that Senate Democrats simply ignored in their mad rush to pass this sanctuary bill.

But most critically, the bill is a clear violation of Federal immigration law – which the Supreme Court ruling on S.B. 1070 makes even more stark. As the California State Sheriff’s Association, which opposes the bill, argued, state and local authorities cannot opt out of the Secure Communities program.

In addition, as legal scholar and national radio talk show host Mark Levin has argued, if – as the Court’s opinion striking down parts of S.B. 1070 clearly said - if states can no longer set policies dealing with someone’s immigration status in conflict with Federal immigration law, then the California Trust Act is clearly unlawful, and should lead to lawsuits challenging it, which Levin has encouraged:

“If this case stands for the point that only the federal government has power in the area of immigration, then let me suggest that sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are unconstitutional because they exist to defy federal immigration law,” Levin said. “That’s number one. So folks out there that have standing, sue your cities, sue your states if they have declared themselves to be sanctuary cities or states because they do not have the constitutional authority to declare butkus. So turn this law against them.” – Mark Levin

Sounds good to us! Bring it on California…not only will illegals flock to your state if you make this bill a law, but you will get your arses handed to you in Federal Court before you know it.

How long will the sane people left in the Sanctuary State continue to permit this Sacramento insanity to go on? Or have they left already?

If YOU stand against illegal immigration and want to see the border secured, the rule of law upheld and amnesty for illegals stopped, then put your name where your heart is, and join the 150,000 who have signed our petition…