Americans in “normal, everyday cities are rebelling” against California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and the state’s sanctuary policies, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
Los Alamitos, located in California’s Orange County, held a second vote Monday to opt out of compliance with SB-54, the state’s sanctuary policies, which hamstring state and local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement officials. San Diego County officials voted 3-1 Tuesday to back the Trump administration’s lawsuit against California and retaliate against the state’s sanctuary policies.
“People in normal, everyday cities are rebelling,” Gingrich told host Laura Ingraham. “Sheriffs are saying they’re not going to obey the state [sanctuary] law. Entire counties are opting out. And I think it’s a good debate because, let’s just take MS-13 [for example], which is an El Salvadoran gang spread all across America, extraordinarily violent.”
“If the Democrats want to be the party that protects MS-13 to stay in America and kill people, I think that’s a great fall campaign issue,” Gingrich said, pointing ahead to the November 2018 midterm elections.
But Brown holds fast to his state’s sanctuary policies, despite the wave of opposition among cities and counties fighting to protect their citizens from unchecked illegal immigration.
“How long can Jerry Brown allow this to go on? He’s tearing his state apart, and he’s endangering its citizens,” Ingraham said. “Some of your own county officials are saying your policies don’t seem to care about victims, past or future.”
Brown rejected such criticisms, however, when asked Tuesday during a visit in Washington, D.C., about what he thought of the cities’ and counties’ votes to align themselves with the Trump administration and buck the state’s sanctuary policies that officially went into effect in 2018.
“The Republican Party has this little, narrow group of … people that think that somehow they’re going to get elected” by championing their opposition to sanctuary policies, Brown said at The National Press Club shortly after the vote in San Diego.
“It’s an inflammatory football that very lowlife politicians are trying to exploit,” Brown continued.
But Ingraham and Gingrich argued that Brown and liberal Californians are seeking to exploit the illegal immigration debate for their own political gain in the hopes of expanding the Democratic Party’s base.
Related: San Diego Leaders Poised to Fight California’s Sanctuary Policies
Ingraham pointed to an interview she held in March with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), in which Sherman dismissed the illegal immigrant crime statistics Ingraham highlighted.
Sherman said, “If you want less crime, move to the Cayman Islands. They’ve got so few people there, you can go a whole week without a violent crime.”
“So that’s their argument? If you want to be safe from illegals, move to the Cayman Islands?” Ingraham said Tuesday. “My friends, this is madness. As I often say, if enforcing our immigration laws spares one American from death or rape or theft or abuse, it’s worth it — even in California.”
PoliZette writer Kathryn Blackhurst can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
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