Assemblyman Essayli Demanding Answers from Democrats For CA Sanctuary Policies

California Democrats should be forced to take a position on sanctuary protections for illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes against minors, said Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Riverside). Essayli will be forcing a vote on his bill Tuesday, AB 2641 to end sanctuary protections for illegals convicted of sex crimes against minors. Currently Essayli’s bill is languishing because Democrats in the Public Safety Committee refuse to hear it.

We need to know why there are Democrat lawmakers in California opposing a bill to protect American citizens from criminal illegal aliens.

Essayli wants California voters to watch this floor session to see where their elected Assembly members stand.

“Why does CA law protect pedophiles from deportation??” he asked on X/Twitter.

The law Essayli is referencing is Senate Bill 54, from 2017. Then-Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) isthe author of SB 54, which specifically prohibits almost all cooperation and communication with federal immigration authorities.

California is home to the largest illegal-alien population in the country.

“California’s ‘sanctuary state’ experiment has failed which has allowed criminal illegal aliens to victimize California citizens without threat of deportation,” Essayli said. “Recently, a Columbian illegal immigrant who raped a minor American citizen was protected from deportation due to California’s ‘sanctuary state’ laws.”

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported, the illegal alien sex offender from California was released from state custody because “San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office was hampered in its ability to assist in the case, due to California state law limiting local law enforcement cooperation with ICE.”

Enforcement and Removal Operations apprehended the Colombian illegal April 2 who was convicted of sex crimes against a California minor. “He victimized a child in California before moving to Massachusetts,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. “We simply cannot allow him to reoffend and abuse a child here. ERO Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing noncitizen sex predators from New England.”

I covered SB 54 extensively in 2017:

Sen. Pres. Pro Tem Kevin de León and California Democrats essentially want to bar state and local resources from being used for immigration enforcement. De León said the cost to California to help U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detail suspected illegal immigrants is $65 million.

Proponents of SB 54 claimed the Trump administration’s Executive order is just more racial profiling, and California’s long-standing history of welcoming immigrants overrides illegal immigration enforcement.

Concerned about releasing criminal illegal aliens back into society, Sen. Jeff Stone, R- Temecula, asked repeatedly for assurances that the bill would not allow this. “When we have dangerous felons, undocumented fellons, in prison, should they NOT be deported and prosecuted under the law?” Stone asked de León. Stone said he was concerned they will be released back into communities and cause heinous crimes, similar to what happened to Kate Steinle, who was murdered by a five-time deported criminal illegal alien.

Stone said the bill was making California a Sanctuary State, if passed in its virgin form. Stone tried to get de León to agree to an amendment regarding criminal illegal aliens, but de León resisted.

And that was the plan, evident in de León’s answer to Sen. Stone:

“It’s not necessary,” de León said. “There is nothing stopping ICE from getting the individual.”

Remember, it was California Democrats in the Assembly Public Safety Committee who voted last July 2023 to kill a bill by Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), to make child sex trafficking a felony once again in the state. In “California Assembly Democrats Block Bill to Fight Sex Trafficking of Minors,” the Globe reported that Grove’s bill, Senate Bill 14 was blocked in the Assembly Public Safety Committee by Democrats, after passing unanimously in the Senate.

Public outrage and articles like ours put enough pressure on Assembly Democrats that they were shamed into calling for a re-vote on SB 14 and passed it. Gov. Newsom signaled ahead of the new vote that he would sign the bill, which he did in September 2023.

Attending the Tuesday hearing will be Angel mom Agnes Gibboney, whose son was killed by an illegal immigrant. Fox Digital reported that Gibboney immigrated to the United States from communist Hungary. Her son was murdered in the driveway of their California home in 2002; She put the blame on elected officials in a 2018 USA Today op-ed:

“I don’t need to imagine Mollie Tibbetts’ parents’ pain — I live with it every day. Until Congress enforces immigration law, so will other parents.

“The apologists for illegal immigrants will no doubt tell us that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are not violent criminals, and they are right. But that’s not the point. They are all violating laws that exist to protect the best interests of the American people, which is reason enough to enforce our immigration laws. The fact that my son, Mollie, Kate Steinle, Sarah Root and many more whose names never made the headlines are dead is all the more reason why our immigration laws must be enforced.”

Essayli’s AB 2641 language explains that under existing law, a law enforcement official has limited discretion to cooperate with immigration authorities, and may only provide information regarding a person’s release date or transfer an individual to immigration authorities without a judicial warrant or probable cause determination if the individual has been convicted of specified crimes, including, but not limited to, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or crimes endangering children, as specified, and only if doing so would not violate any federal, state, or local law, or local policy.

Essayli’s AB 2641 would require law enforcement to comply with federal immigration requests to detain or transfer someone or notify immigration agents of the pending release of someone convicted of sex crimes against a child.

This is the bill Democrats are trying to kill. We need to know why there are lawmakers in California opposing a bill to protect American citizens from criminal illegal aliens.