America is often nicknamed as being a “nation of immigrants,” but it is also a nation of laws. Moreover, in the American system of laws, federalism dictates that while states have the right to create laws pertaining to their interests, federal laws likewise exists to create a cohesive nation, particularly in regards to inter-state matters such as immigration.

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions of the Justice Department is suing the state of California, its governor, Jerry Brown, as well as Xavier Becerra, the Golden State’s attorney general and. In essence, this legal controversy pits politically polar opposites against one another in the clash of the Trump Administrations versus the liberal policies of Brown and Becerra.

Additionally, the Orange County (OC) Board of Supervisors voted to join the Trump administration to challenge California’s sanctuary law. The board held a meeting on whether to join the government’s lawsuit against the state over the law, which bars police in many cases from turning over suspects to federal immigration agents for deportation. The OC board took a strong and BOLD stand and voted 4-0 to pass a resolution that blasts the state’s sanctuary law. “We must be certain that we are not providing assistance to undocumented immigrants who have chosen not to follow the rules. We need to look at every tool available to ensure public safety in the general public and homeless population,” said Supervisor Lisa Bartlett. The supervisors also said they’re going to legally challenge the state’s law in court. Since declaring my candidacy for CA AD 74, I have been calling for a secure border in order to protect law enforcement,  protect and provide safety in our neighborhoods and our children’s safety in our communities and  safe SCHOOLS.

In total, there are three California state laws that the Justice Department finds problematic: AB 103, an omnibus bill on public safety, AB 450, an immigration bill regarding the regulation of employment, and SB 54, this bill that provides specifications concerning the sharing of data among law enforcement.

These laws, have severely curbed any cooperation between federal authorities and local and state police on immigration matters, these state law breakers has allowed deportable immigrants convicted of crimes to be released right back into our communities where they have re-offended multiple times. SB54 -has put limits on communication and sharing of information between local state authorities and federal agencies, such as the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Overall, this legislation is an unconscionable effort by our state to hobble the federal government from doing its job: protecting our national borders and our communities.

Since AB-103 is an “omnibus” packaged bill, it includes some features related to re-immigration, and others that are not. However, there are some rather significant points that are authorized. It says in AB-103, “This bill would prohibit a city or county or local law enforcement agency from, on or after June 15, 2017, entering into a contract with the federal government or any federal agency to house or detain an adult noncitizen in a locked detention facility for purposes of civil immigration custody.” Similar requirements are legislated for unaccompanied minors.

In essence, California is trying to build a legal wall of division between the state and federal immigration authorities, while resisting a physical wall between the country and Mexico. Practically speaking, local law enforcement is not just discouraged, but in fact “prohibited” from working with ICE agents in regards to undocumented immigrants that have been arrested for “minor crimes.”

While AB-103 targets local law enforcement and the criminal justice system, AB-450 directs legal attention against both public and private employers. The latter law mandates employers to “not provide voluntary consent to an immigration enforcement agent to enter any nonpublic areas of a place of labor,” unless a judicial warrant is presented. California citizens can quite literally be fined anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for breaking this law, which begs the question of whether or not California’s own citizens are judged more severely under state law than illegal immigrants.

Finally, SB-54 also relates to law enforcement in that it repeals presently existing legislation concerning the sharing of data between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. The law originally stated, “when there is reason to believe that a person arrested for a violation of specified controlled substance provisions,” and it reasonably believed that the arrested person is not a United States citizen, then “the arresting agency shall notify the appropriate agency of the United States having charge of deportation matters.” No matter if, an undocumented immigrant has broken federal law by crossing the border illegally and then has broken the Controlled Substances Act, a second federal law.

According to Gallup polling data, over half of Americans (59%) have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of concern about illegal immigration. The “sanctuary laws” passed by California lawmakers have added even more concern to Americans. At the same time, many of these same Americans are comfortable with the current levels of legal immigration. Brown, Becerra, and company are creating negative incentives against yielding a greater level of efficiency in legal immigration and are throwing law-abiding citizens under the bus of the anti-federalist laws of California elites.

We have laws in this country for a reason, and it has to preserve order in our democracy. We are a free people, and we have the right to question any law we disagree with openly, ourselves and through our representatives. What we do not get to do is ignore laws already on the books; they are legislating defiance of laws already passed. A situation such as this goes beyond even immigration: this is a blow to the very institution of law and order in America.

The most important and sacred duty of any federal, state and local office – and one of the few things which the state and federal government actually should be doing – is to protect Americans from danger. To do that, elected officials needs to be able to set policies that have been provided by our federal government for travel into the state from foreign lands, so that people wishing to come here to perpetrate acts of terror can be blocked.

We live in an intricately interconnected world, and in the end, all the military prowess money can buy will be useless in ensuring our safety if any random person who so desires can walk, tunnel, climb or fly into our state from a country who sponsors illegal activity such as drug, sex trafficking,  and murder of our citizens.

I confess to a certain level of shock and bewilderment concerning the way in which the issue of illegal immigration is playing out in this country. I understand there are people on both sides of that argument, and that some of them disagree with immigration law as it currently stands. That is their right, and I do not have a problem with them thinking differently than I do. However, I have a very big problem with the behavior of some government officials, tasked with upholding the legislated rules of our society, yet seeming to show flagrant indifference or even contempt for those rules.

I am speaking mostly of my home state of California, though unfortunately it is far from the only place in the nation where such things are being done. We have cities like Chicago, for example, where a new municipal ID was created pretty much for the benefit of illegal immigrants – and will soon be accepted when registering to vote. Did you catch that? Chicago is deliberately making it easier for non-citizens, who legally should not even be in the US, to vote in our elections.

The Golden State isn’t any better. Here we have legislation like the ridiculous California Assembly Bill 60, which goes out of its way to ensure that illegal immigrants are able to obtain a driver’s license in our state. Our Oakland Ca. Mayor is also in the habit of warning illegal immigrants when federal immigration authorities are coming. As with OUR Attorney General Sessions, let me repeat and stand by our President.

“Mayor Schaaf, How dare you needlessly endanger the lives of our law enforcement and patriotic Americans just to promote your radical open borders agenda. Disgraceful! ”

Honestly, this is bad enough by itself. But it’s made even worse when you consider California Assembly Bill 1461, decreeing that those who receive or renew a driver’s license will have their information forwarded to the Secretary of State’s office and added to the voter rolls. Registering to vote is then simply a matter of sending a letter through snail-mail; you know, just so it isn’t too inconvenient for illegal’s – who are breaking our laws every second they are here – to gain a vote as weighty and legitimate as that of any law-abiding American citizen. It is worth noting that this is pretty much the polar antipode of taxation without representation, swinging all the way to the opposite extreme of tyranny: People who do not pay taxes are helping to elect the ones who set the rates on people who do.

This kind of legislated criminality, in which people we trust to write and uphold the law are actively disregarding and undermining it, is why it is so imperative that we support a leader like Donald Trump. He is our last line of defense when all of our other elected leaders fail us, as they have and as they are.

Is he a perfect conservative? Of course not; no human is perfect, in any way. However, this is not about a need for perfection. It is something much more fundamental: A need for basic respect for the rule of law, from the people whose job it is to ensure that the rule of law is respected. Whether you agree with him on every little point or not, or indeed, whether the only thing you agree with him on is that the law should mean something, Donald Trump is the only person standing between us and the tyranny of a government that ignores legislation they do not like.

Is the Constitution important? Is a government that is constrained by the law important? Does it matter whether something is “illegal” or not? The fact that I genuinely have to ask these questions should tell you something about dire our situation currently is in this country. We have elected officials who are quite simply and quite flagrantly, working with the criminals to violate federal law. This should not be controversial, and it should not be partisan issue. You have a God-given right to disagree with what the law says, but you express that disagreement by pushing to have the law changed to something you feel is right. You do not get to ignore what it already says.

Repeatedly, it seems that government’s solution is to throw money at a problem. They raise taxes, issue bonds, and implement new, bigger budgets, all at public expense, then use those funds to simply disappear, misappropriate those tax dollars into the pockets of politicians, contractors, and Lord alone knows who else. Meanwhile, this haphazard approach typically solves nothing, so traffic congestion, roads, and infrastructure remains as it was, costing us millions in slowed economic activity and lost business.

Not that any of this stops our communities from expanding. No, that goes right on apace, increasing demand on an already overburdened transportation infrastructure, while our efforts to alleviate the problem run into the familiar wall of government wastefulness and ineffective incompetence.

You cannot solve every problem by simply throwing more and more money at it. It is practically an appeal to emotion, since it, really only feels like doing this should work, while critical examination does not take long to reveal the folly of the strategy. That is why we have one of Countries highest taxes and it is why Californians now have been saddled with a new tax  SB 1, the $5.2 billion-per-year transportation package.

We are talking about the new gas tax, of course, the one that has already sent prices on regular gas up by 12 cents and on diesel by 20 cents. Additional fees start in January, when those numbers will almost certainly climb higher. That translates to a more expensive commute to work, higher costs to ship goods around the state, and less money in the regular folks like you and me pockets to stimulate the State’s economy through discretionary spending. With little fanfare, less debate, and practically no warning, we have been shackled a medicine ball to our economy’s ankle. The CAGOP allowed the rubber-stamping of Brown’s tax increases and slush fund by remaining the party of INVISIBLE – “Not Limited” government.

The CAGOP brand is damaged, ineffective, and their constituents hate it. Some constituents naively believed them looking for change again but they have been largely ignored again. The CAGOP ran for office on the platform of putting the brakes on the Democratic majority and their unstoppable impulse to tax, spend and regulate us to death. But yet again, the have let us down – instead they are running around the U.S. capitols taking selfie pictures – yes, I am talking about my opponent Mr. Matthew Harper. No legislation, no busting up the Gas Tax and Reform and completely absent on the repeal of the Sanctuary State initiative.

And why is their no fight for our tax plight? What is the purpose behind this latest unconscionable grab at our wallets? Surely, there must be a brilliant plan in place to use this new found money to fix some desperately threatening problem in CALIFORNIA. Is it our money-grabbing politicians looking for more of our hard-earned taxed dollars, AGAIN?

Not really. Supporters of the new tax legislation say it will raise over $5 billion per year to be allocated toward infrastructure work, repairing and expanding California’s road system. A noble cause indeed, but when we already live in the one state with the nation’s highest average gas prices – due to existing taxes – it hardly seems as if even more is necessary.

It also does not help that we have a report from at least one Senator who describes how the money is being spent so far, to include lifeguard recruitment, credit card fees, and parklands. That is not needed infrastructure work; it is what the government always does with tax money: sucks it right out of our pockets and spends it on whatever it darn well pleases, because calculating politicians will once again divert the funds!

This road funding measure, labeled the largest gas tax increase in California’s history. With two-thirds vote, Democrats can raise taxes without the Republican votes. The first potential Democrat casualty of the vote could be a Senator Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, he is being targeted for recall because of his narrow margin of victory in the 2016 election, increasing the chances that Republicans win the seat and break the Democratic super-majority. Fullerton Mayor Bruce Whitaker has become the first candidate to announce his entry into the race to replace the Senator in the 29th Senate District.

There is some further encouragement to be had from this lamentable situation, in that the heroic group Reform California is already on the move against this new bill. They have proposed an amendment for consideration on next November’s ballot which would not only repeal this ridiculous new gas tax, but would require a public vote before any future increases to gas taxes could go through. Their amendment also places restrictions on how money so raised can be spent.

Reform California is currently gathering signatures to indicate support for their proposed amendment, and they will need to reach a certain level in order to get on the ballot with it. They are to be applauded for their work, and everyone who cares about stopping the out of control taxation that rules in this state should consider signing.

Unsurprisingly, our Governor with no future, Jerry Brown, was all aboard with this tax hike. He will be leaving office soon, but he still had time in April of this year to approach the Senate Appropriations Committee when the bill was being considered, and argue for its passage. Lawmakers should make haste in getting this legislation through, he said, because after he has gone, California’s next Governor would surely be hesitant to sign any tax increase into law.

From your lips to God’s ears, Governor. From your lips to God’s ears.