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| Since Jerry Brown became governor in 2011, he and the legislature enacted laws that expanded Medicaid so comprehensively that the percentage of uninsured Californians dropped from 19 percent to 7 percent. |
"And California is about to take Trump on directly – on social insurance, climate change, and immigrant rights. The fight will spill over into the rest of America, fortifying the resistance nationally.
"California has more capacity, and desire, to defeat Trump than any institution in America.
"Good article, below, by Harold Meyerson." And I agree with that opinion. Here are the first few paragraphs:
"Spasms of fear often shake California, a state prey to earthquakes, fires, and floods. One such spasm—a manmade one—is shaking the state today.
"Business is down at groceries featuring Mexican and Central American food, and at other stores catering to an immigrant clientele. The possibility of stakeouts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has led thousands of Angelenos to abbreviate their daily rounds.
"'Since Election Day, children are scared about what might happen to their parents,' says Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles. 'And parents for their children. We fill out at least ten guardianship letters every day for [undocumented] parents who fear for their [U.S. citizen] kids if they—the parents—are deported.'”
"The fear is rooted in the grim reality of the new president’s war on immigrants, and in the power that ICE possesses to wage that war. 'Sanctuary city, or sanctuary state, is a misleading term,' says State Senate President Kevin de León, who more than any other public official has emerged as the leader of California’s resistance. 'It creates the image of an invisible force field you’re safe behind, or reaching home base when you’re a kid playing tag. Actually, that force field doesn’t exist. If you’re undocumented, ICE can pick you up whether you’re in Paducah or liberal Santa Monica.' ICE can and does conduct sweeps in search of undocumented immigrants, and it doesn’t need a warrant to do so.
"All of which has made California’s undocumented—about 2.5 million, by recent estimates, fully one million of them in Los Angeles and Orange Counties—and their family members who are citizens, deeply and understandably fearful."
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| Reflecting the Majority: These Los Angeles demonstrators are in sync with the 85 percent of Californians in a January poll who said they preferred giving legal status to the undocumented rather than deporting them. |
By Harold Meyerson
