California’s penchant for suing the Trump administration has reportedly cost the state’s taxpayers $21 million over the past three years, according to a Sacramento news station.
The state’s activist Attorney General Xavier Becerra has initiated lawsuits to fight the federal government on a variety of ideological issues ranging from the president’s travel ban to promoting sanctuary cities, amassing the bill since Trump took office in 2017, FOX 40 reported Friday.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks at the second annual Women’s March in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Jan. 20, 2018. REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon
Becerra even sued the government to dispute there being a border crisis. He recently challenged the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act. The attorney general has also waged war on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, threatening to prosecute any business that cooperates with the federal agency. (RELATED: California Floats Threat To Sue Trump Over Protecting Border With Force)
Republican strategist Tim Rosales suggested there’s more to Becerra’s motivation than just an ideological divide and that the state attorney general is building a political profile for himself.
“This is politics,” he told FOX 40. “It’s politics by Becerra. He wants to make a national name for himself. He wants to get himself on the evening news and this is how you do it if you’re the attorney general of California.”
Attorney General of California Xavier Becerra speaks to the media at the U.S.-Mexico border at the Pacific Ocean after announcing a lawsuit against the Trump Administration over its plans to begin construction of border wall in San Diego and Imperial Counties, in San Diego, California, U.S., Sept. 20, 2017.
“He’s gaining support in dozens of other states that look at California and they say, ‘Hey, look what California is doing,’” Rosales said. “And California is kind of leading the way in terms of the progressive left and the far left, and that’s where we’re at right now.” (RELATED: California’s Lawsuits Against The Trump Administration Are Adding Up, $9 Million In The Last Fiscal Year)
Becerra’s office claims the lawsuits represent about 1% of his department’s budget and are only motivated by concern for how the federal government’s policies affect the state.
Becerra said in a statement to FOX 40, “The fact is, I don’t wake up in the morning planning to pick a fight with the administration. We file lawsuits to stop the Trump administration from breaking the law and taking actions which would hurt Californians.”
California has already sued the Trump administration 50 times and has been successful about half of the time, San Jose’s The Mercury News reported. During eight years of the Obama administration, Texas, which often found itself at odds with federal government policy, sued 48 times.