Under our federalist system of government, it’s not so much that California can do whatever it wants to do, flouting national laws — it’s that we can do what we need to do, according to the desires and laws of our own state and its people.
To take an easy example, while federal law may prohibit the use, possession and sale of marijuana, California can and has created laws legalizing cannabis within our state, and, while complications come with that dichotomy, weed legalization here has occurred with relatively few problems.
Happily, the feds can only do so much to control the way we choose to live our lives, and the laws we choose to live under.
Unhappily, some federal officials and soon-to-be federal officials continue to threaten Californians with their dictates, and we must stand fast — as must officials in the other 49 states who represent their citizens’ ways of life — against the tyrannies that some in Washington, D.C. imagine they can impose upon us.
Which is by no means to say, by the way, that we want to see state officials in Sacramento spending too much of their energies and our money on being some kind of full-time “resistance” against the incoming White House helmed by President-elect Donald Trump. That’s not the point. The point is that on a few matters, we need to stand strong against federal interference.
And such is certainly the case when Trump adviser Stephen Miller — nominally a Californian himself — sends letters, as he did last month, to California elected officials warning of “serious consequences” over state and municipal sanctuary policies that protect undocumented residents.
He’s threatening to arrest and imprison them, and that is absurd, dangerous, unwarranted.
Miller warned in his letters that elected leaders and employees of “sanctuary” jurisdictions could be “criminally liable” if they impede federal immigration enforcement.
Miller’s nonprofit legal foundation said “that it had identified 249 elected officials in sanctuary jurisdictions who it said could face ‘legal consequences’ over immigration policies. The California Attorney General’s office and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were sent similar letters,” CalMatters reports. “The letter also suggests sanctuary city officials could be civilly liable under federal anti-racketeering laws. American First Legal Foundation sent its letter to the chair of San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors, Nora Vargas, who stepped down from her position on Friday citing security concerns just weeks after being elected to a second term.”
Vargas replied on social media: “This nation’s foundation was built on the strength and contributions of immigrants. Now it’s time to turn our focus to honoring the humanity of those who help make this country the beacon of hope it continues to be.”
“This is a scare tactic, plain and simple,” read a statement from the Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, in response to the America First letter. “SB 54 was upheld by the courts during the first Trump administration, and it prevents the use of state and local resources for federal immigration enforcement with certain narrow exceptions.”
Federal agencies can do as they will in carrying out any future efforts to deport undocumented California residents. But our own state laws mean that California officials can and should do as they will in protecting our state’s principles of federalism against MAGA excesses.