California, America’s New Soft Underbelly

Musket

It’s fashionable as a conservative to sit back and mock some of the absolute lunacy that comes out of California’s state legislature. As a federalist, I regard most of their idiocy just as one would watching the house belonging to someone they hate burning down. Higher state taxes. Men in the ladies’ room. Higher vehicle taxes. Wars on gas-powered vehicles. Whatever, it’s their state to ruin.

But then January 1, 2018 happened. As broken down nicely by the Daily Wire, among some of the more resisty laws that went into effect today was one that even the residents of Bangor, Maine should stop and take notice of. California has decided to take its sanctuary city status statewide, and then codified it. That’s right, California has made it law that a person’s immigration status will not be asked, and that state officials will not detain someone for ICE agents, unless they have broken a law. It’s assumed that entering the country illegally does not count as “breaking the law,” but whatever.

This is a very serious matter indeed.

​California has just announced to the world, terrorists mostly, that if they can get there, they’ll be protected. It is not un-ironic to note that in the same set of laws, California has deemed concealed carry for teachers no longer an option anywhere in the state. So not only has California opened its borders to those who would do us harm, they’ve also painted the targets.

California’s refusal to comply with federal immigration law cannot, and must not be allowed to stand. Enforcing federal law, including immigration law, is a Constitutionally-demanded activity of the federal government. I know, I know. A states-rights guy advocating for a heavy-handed reaction by the Feds is probably not what you would expect, but the difference here is that California is directly and openly resisting existing federal law, which generally supersedes state laws.

The actions of the state of California on immigration do not exist in a vacuum. Just today was the news of an “ISIS Fanatic” (are there other membership types within ISIS?) who posted a selfie in New York City, encouraging the Brotherhood to carry out knife attacks against Americans in churches.

In France, a gang of African migrants surrounded and beat a female French police officer. In Germany, officials were forced to erect “women-only safe zones” after the nightmare groping attack by migrants in Cologne one year ago. Sweden. The UK. The world is filled with really bad, really un-evolved people, and the only thing protecting us from it are two oceans and our border security protections. California just opened a hole in those protections that is many thousands of miles long.

I do not believe in a heavy-handed federal state, not at all. But I do where the US Constitution expressly authorizes and demands it. This is one of those cases.

California must be made to comply with federal immigration law: first through persuasion (LOL), then by sanction, and then, if necessary, by force. I am not advocating for sending in the tanks to put down a rogue member state. Yet. But border security does not just exist in order to keep out anchor babies or to keep people off the welfare rolls who are not otherwise entitled to them. The border, and its associated protections, is there to keep people who would do us harm out.

Normally California’s actions and laws are laughable at most, such as prohibiting state travel to states like Texas or Oklahoma, or allowing people to decide which gender assignment they want on their driver’s licenses. This is not one of those cases. This is a case where, unless we decide to regard California as a foreign entity whose border with other states must be guarded, requires immediate and decisive action to protect the citizens of America (and even the non-citizens).

This is how Death by Democracy begins.

Long live the Republic.