LA Times Op-Ed Claims Sanctuary State Fight Will Backfire: ‘It’s All A Show’

The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed Wednesday claiming the fight against sanctuary cities will ultimately backfire and blow up on conservatives.

“Los Alamitos made national news last week after its City Council announced it wants to opt out of SB 54, the California Values Act. This so-called sanctuary state law,” wrote Gustavo Arellano of “Ask A Mexican” “Council members, however, say they need to fight the statehouse on this issue to protect residents from illegal-immigrant criminals. But it’s all a show. Crime is continuously low here.”

Arellano said he understands why cities are upset over illegal immigration but found it necessary to defend the sanctuary state bill and sided with lawbreakers over American citizens.

“I actually understand the ire of these conservative municipalities. Undocumented folks are only 6% of California’s population, yet the state Legislature seems to focus more on their needs than other groups’ needs nowadays,” he writes. “And, at first read, a law that ostensibly shields criminals from deportation sounds like an insult to every peaceful resident. But the Assembly members and state senators who voted for the California Values Act were remarkably clear-eyed.”

“First off, the bill’s primary purpose is to protect Californians, plain and simple. I know it’s hard for cities and counties trying to un-sanctuary themselves to grasp this. So take it from Californians who live among the undocumented or are related to them: They are us,” he continued. “They came here because they want the California Dream as much as citizens do — and they work for it thrice as hard. SB 54 gives them a degree of comfort that any small encounter with police won’t rip them away from their loved ones.”

He then accused the Trump administration of wanting to make illegal immigrants miserable and cited the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 census.

“And given that the Trump administration wants to make life for the undocumented as miserable as possible–witness the 2020 Census plan to ask respondents about citizenship status–we should help them as much as possible,” Arellano wrote. “Municipalities that declare they are opting out, on the other hand, are just playing pretend-Oath Keepers.”

Arellaon predicted Republicans will be defeated in the upcoming November midterms and called conservatives childish.

“Meanwhile, Mayor Troy Edgar just set up a GoFundMe page to pay the city’s potential legal costs. And conservatives nationwide cheer childishness like this? No wonder they’re going to get destroyed in the 2018 midterms,” he wrote.

“The California Values Act isn’t meant to protect the “bad guys,” the piece concluded. “Felons get no free pass. Instead, it shields people like my dad. He got a DUI in the 1980s, when he was undocumented, because he was a raging borracho … he would’ve probably died of alcoholism down in Mexico. Instead, a judge sent him to Alcoholics Anonymous. This year marks 35 years of sobriety for Papi, and he’s helped Latino immigrants leave the booze and become better individuals for decades.”

People like Don Rosenberg, who son Drew was murdered by an illegal immigrant disagree with Arellano and say the LA Times is partially responsible for the mayhem. Rosenberg said they always run stories favorable to illegals and urged them to get out and do some real reporting, during an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Many of the major papers are also in cities with large populations of illegal aliens. That’s not an excuse for bad journalism,” Rosenberg said. “They will quote everyone under the sun if the narrative is right. They will run op-eds advocating for illegal aliens and quote everyone who says what they want to say but they don’t run a big picture story because they know the truth but don’t want to share it with their readers.”

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