PD Editorial: Immigration rules that protect families not criminals

The Golden State is getting ready to do battle - again.

That’s because among the spectrum of issues President Donald Trump covered in his animated news conference Thursday was an announcement that he would be issuing a new executive order on immigration this week, a version tailored around the concerns raised by the federal appeals court that blocked the last one.

Trump said the new order would “comprehensively protect our country,” but he offered few specifics. “Extreme vetting will be put in place, and it already is in place in many places,” he said.

In addition, Trump reiterated his order for “a crackdown on sanctuary cities that refuse to comply with federal law and that harbor criminal aliens.” That order, signed by the president in late January, has made clear that cities would risk losing federal money if they didn’t commit their police to enforcing federal immigration laws.

How that would work, if at all, is still unclear. But California is not waiting around to find out.

“In this state we celebrate diversity,” Senate leader Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, told a gathering of newspaper executives in Sacramento Wednesday. “We don’t deport it. We don’t ban it. We don’t wall it off.”

To combat the president’s immigration agenda, de León has introduced SB 54, which would, among other things, prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies - as well as school police and security departments - from using resources to investigate, detain or arrest individuals for immigration enforcement purposes. Some say it’s an attempt to turn the entire state into a sanctuary city. But de León said it is an effort to preserve California’s set of values. “We are going to have to fight and defend like never before to protect it … to shield our people and our policies from federal intrusion and overreach,” he told a California Newspaper Publishers Association conference.

But many members of law enforcement are opposed to the bill, including Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas, who supports the current system in which the county notifies Immigration and Customs Enforcement when an individual that ICE is interested in is scheduled to be released on bail or set free. Freitas contends SB 54 doesn’t allow exceptions for serious and violent felons.

We were disappointed with the decision by Freitas to join in a discussion with controversial Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Feb. 7, a meeting that Freitas knew would set off unnecessary alarm in a community that depends on undocumented workers for its agriculture-based economy and has pledged to support immigrants. It was, to say the least, bad optics. At the same time, his concerns about SB 54, which he said he expressed to Sessions, deserve attention.

As we’ve noted before, illegal immigrants who are convicted of serious or violent crimes should be deported after completing their sentences, and if SB 54 prevents that from occurring, then the wording needs to be altered. Protecting families and peaceful workers is something worth fighting for. Protecting criminals is not.

However, Trump has indicated he expects to deport at least 3 million undocumented immigrants, which is two to three times more than the estimated number of criminals who are here illegally. California lawmakers are right to be wary about the administration’s true intent - and right to be ready to hold the president to the letter of the law.