"Politicians, Media Suddenly Silent on Sanctuary City LA" by Daniel Guss
Title 42 disappearing at midnight tomorrow has a lot to do with it.
@TheGussReport on Twitter - We are 18 months from election day 2024 with a deafening silence from local politicians and media who spent years grandstanding about how California and the county and city of Los Angeles are sanctuary enclaves.
You’re laughing or nodding because you know in your soul that this is true.
Oh, but the bills eventually come due.
In this case, theirs arrive with a perfect storm of crises including ongoing corruption convictions, inflation, homelessness, affordable housing, crime, international turmoil, progressive demands, a D.C. federal budget showdown, Joe Biden weakness, Kamala Harris silliness and Hunter Biden’s laptop and bank statements.
And a little something called Title 42 that ends at the stroke of midnight tomorrow, with even Biden predicting “chaos,” as an ocean of humanity attempts to illegally flood the southern, and perhaps northern, border.
Title 42, part of a 1944 public health law that allows limits on entry into the United States, was employed by then-President Donald Trump to help limit pandemic risk while advancing his efforts to stem illegal immigration and to advance his pursuit of a border wall that his Dem opponents said is racist, violent and won’t work.
Havana-born Alejandro Mayorkas, who was U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California from 1998-2001, has repeatedly assured us that the border is closed despite millions having crossed illegally into the U.S. during the Biden-Harris administration with scores more preparing to surge as soon as Title 42 evaporates tomorrow night.
So I reached out to the four local politicians who are most responsible for the thousands who are expected to arrive here in the coming days, weeks and months. That would be Janice Hahn, Chair of the LA County Board of Supervisors; Karen Bass, Mayor of Los Angeles; Paul Krekorian, President of the Los Angeles City Council and Hugo Soto-Martinez, the recently elected Councilmember who chairs the city’s Civil Rights, Equity, Immigration, Aging and Disability Committee.
No surprise, none of them responded to the following questions.
1. With Title 42 set to end in less than 48 hours, is there any reason why you aren’t welcoming those expected to cross into the U.S. to self-described “sanctuary city/county” Los Angeles?
2. Do you feel that Los Angeles is still a sanctuary city/county? If not, why not? If so, why not promote it?
3. If LA is still a sanctuary city/county, how do you propose paying for the needs of those crossing the border and who will soon arrive here?
4. Regardless of your position on sanctuary city/county LA, can you confirm whether our infrastructure, from the LAUSD to Metro, is prepared for it?
5. Does the phrase “sanctuary city/county” have any remaining value if politicians don’t openly embrace it?
If only the enabling LA Times, which is the Pied Piper of local media, would ask them, too.
With absentee Governor Gavin Newsom’s California hemorrhaging population that cost us a House seat in 2021, and yesterday’s civil judgment against Trump significantly increasing the presidential prospects of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, we may face even bigger self-induced problems just around the bend.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was nominated for three 2022 LA Press Club awards and was a runner-up in 2021 and 2020. He is City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and has been a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)