The resistance among states and sanctuary cities to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s certain arrival is ill-advised and irrational. In California, led by termed-out Governor Gavin Newsom, the pushback against immigration enforcement was predictable but still perplexing. Along with New York, California had the biggest swing towards President-elect Donald J. Trump of any state in 2024, at 12 percentage points. And Vice-President Kamala Harris’ refusal to embrace federal immigration law unraveled her White House bid. Newsom knows the facts behind Harris’ humiliating defeat, yet he persists in trash talking Trump as the villain. Newsom called a December 2nd special legislative session to beef up the state’s legal defenses against the incoming president and flew to Washington to meet with President Biden and other officials to “Trump-proof California,” the governor’s phrase. In another rebuke to California progressives, Los Angeles’ and San Francisco’s District Attorneys George Gascon and London Breed lost their re-election bids, and East Bay voters recalled Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. If Newsom reads the tea leaves, he should see that for progressives like him, the sun is setting.
As misguided as Newsom is, he has had an axe to grind with Trump since 2016, so the governor’s behavior is not surprising. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy, however, is a newcomer to the out-of-control immigration mess. Her reaction demonstrates her inexperience. ICE Boston announced in mid-November the arrests of two illegal immigrants who have been charged with forcibly raping children in Massachusetts, as well as a third individual who was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in Brazil and hid in the U.S. after being caught and released in 2022 at the Southwest border. Unwilling to recognize the threats that unvetted illegal aliens represent to communities, shortly before the ICE office delivered the tragic message about the rape victims, Healy proclaimed on television that she would “absolutely not” cooperate with President Trump or border czar Tom Homan and is prepared to use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect” blue state residents, a reference to illegal aliens. If Healy must break Massachusetts’ bank to, as she calls it, “protect,” her illegally present residents, tough luck for the taxpayers. To date, sheltering illegal aliens has cost Massachusetts $1.1 billion and is rising.
Healy has at least one supporter in her determined campaign to bring aid and comfort to unlawfully present aliens—Boston’s woke, inept Mayor Michelle Wu. Like Healy, Wu vowed to protect Boston’s sanctuary city illegal aliens “in every possible way.” In his response, Homan affirmed that harboring illegal aliens is a federal crime, and deportation of such individuals is a public safety issue. Homan’s message to Wu, who he called “not very bright,” is “Help or get the hell out of the way.”
Joining the unglued triumvirate of state and municipal officials, Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston predicted that not only would the Denver Police Department line up in opposition, 50,000 Denverites would join in. Johnston forecast a “Tiananmen Square moment,” if federal immigration officials attempted to do their job. Later, Johnston walked back that comment but insisted that he was willing to go to jail rather than cave into immigration law enforcement, an absurd assertion.
Newsom, Healy, Wu, and Johnston are blustering and talking tough. But peel away the bravado and the message that California, Massachusetts, and Denver’s pandering politicians, all seeking higher office, have given to voters is that they care more about illegal aliens’ safety and comfort than citizens’ and lawful permanent residents’ security and well-being. Newsom wants to be U.S. president, Healey wants to be a U.S. Senator, Wu and Johnston want to be governors. A platform based on coddling illegal immigrants including their criminal element is a loser. Their best bet is to cooperate with federal immigration officials to remove the illegally present illegal aliens—that’s a winner for voters eager to regain confidence in their leader’s ability to protect them.
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