Governors in deep blue states are scrambling to craft a narrative that aligns with election winner Donald Trump's deportation message, with mixed results.
So far, California's governor has been anti-Trump, while Massachusetts' top officials have eased the state's sanctuary status and even Illinois' leftist governor has suddenly endorsed the idea of deporting “criminals.” He is trying to become the leader of the opposition party.
All of these Democrats are promoting what former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich called “acts of insurrection” against the legitimately elected President of the United States.
Last month, Gingrich blown up Denver's extremist mayor threatens to use the city's police department as his personal Confederate army to physically confront Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. “The mayor of Denver doesn't seem to understand that the U.S. military solved the problem of states, counties, and cities rebelling against the federal government at the Appomattox conference in 1865, when General Lee surrendered,” Gingrich said. he pointed out.
Nevertheless, Democrats are looking for ways to counter President Trump, and a strong argument has yet to emerge.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with images of the White House dancing in his head, radical left-wing California Governor Gavin Newsom is positioning himself as the biggest force of resistance to Trump's deportation plan. .
This week, just before Christmas, Newsom helped illegal aliens evade federal authorities in a blatant attempt to prevent Donald Trump from fulfilling his campaign promise to launch the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. He announced that he would begin exploring ways to do so.
Newsom's radical administration has promoted a memo titled the Immigrant Assistance Network Initiative, which states that it will “develop at-risk individuals, their families, and communities through legal services, schools, labor unions, local governments, and more.” He proposed a “regional base for linking with regional systems.” ,” fox news Reported.
Not only is Newsom seeking to create an entire bureaucracy aimed at circumventing federal law, he is also funding every measure Democrats can devise to protect illegal offenders from ICE, and is pushing states to “prove Trump.” ” has pledged $25 million in taxpayer funds to the effort. A special legislative session was also convened to promote this policy.
The whole plan is clearly Newsom's way of being seen as the face of Trump's opposition in preparation for a run for the White House in 2028.
Meanwhile, in the nation's heartland, Illinois' left-wing governor J.B. Pritzker suddenly found himself bent on deporting “criminal” illegal aliens. In the weeks before Trump's landslide election victory, Pritzker seemed to see the writing on the wall and tried to walk a more dangerous line. claim “Violent criminals” should be deported, but all other illegal criminals should be protected.
On the other hand, he asserted that he opposed “forced raids” to round up illegal immigrants, and tried to sincerely appeal to his opponents.
“We also just want to make sure that people's rights are not being violated by the coordinated … raids.” [with] local law enforcement,” he said. said The week after President Trump was elected. “We think that is inappropriate and that is not acceptable in the state of Illinois.”
New York Governor Cathy Hochul also tried to gloss over her past overt support for illegal aliens by adopting harsher-sounding language.
At a press conference last month, Hochul said he would support deporting undocumented immigrants accused or convicted of crimes, as the country pivots to support President-elect Donald Trump's plan to deport undocumented immigrants. He insisted that he was in favor of it and completely changed his attitude.
“If someone breaks the law, I'll be the first to call ICE and say, 'Get them out of here,'” the sanctuary governor yelled.
But despite Mr. Hochul's tougher rhetoric, his Democratic-majority Congress, like Newsom's, has introduced legislation that would make it more difficult to deport undocumented immigrants from New York.
In contrast, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, a Democrat, sounded as if she had suddenly become a hardliner on immigration. In not one but two interviews, Mr. Healey appeared to backtrack on the state's status as a “sanctuary” for illegal aliens, flatly stating that the Bay State “is not a sanctuary state.”
Healy made this surprising claim in an interview. boston globe and boston herald In it, Mr. Healey not only said his state is not a sanctuary state, but also said he would work with federal authorities to deport undocumented people and cut spending on protecting them.
This is despite the fact that Massachusetts has a “right to shelter” law for homeless and sheltered people.
However, regarding this “right thing”, she said: glove“My view is that this law was never intended to apply to the situation we've been dealing with in recent years, which is people coming from other states.”
“We are not a sanctuary state,” she continued, “we simply do not have the means to house people.”
Healey is plowing $856 million in tax dollars into shelters for illegal aliens, still cut from the projected $932 million. And Healy says spending on immigration will be cut further.
Mr Healy also said: herald He said he believes state and local governments should work with federal authorities to remove “criminal” immigrants from the state.
Despite this turnaround, Healey has not indicated that states or their cities will rescind rules that prevent police officers from cooperating with ICE, making them illegal if they do not support police agencies working with ICE. It's not clear exactly how she expects criminals to be deported. The federal government should do that.
More agreement on responses to President Trump's policies is likely after the 47th president actually prepares to begin deportation proceedings. But now Democratic governors are releasing test balloons on the issue.
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