• Sens. Kamala Harris (D-California), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Patty Murray (D-Washington), and Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) led a group of Democratic senators who condemned the Trump administration’s proposal to “systematically separate immigrant children from their parents upon arrival in the United States,” in a letter sent to President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Feb. 12. “We believe that a systematic and blanket policy to separate a child from a parent would likely violate the constitutional rights of the parents, violate the spirit of the Flores Agreement, inflict a significant trauma on small children, create additional unnecessary due process obstacles to accessing a meaningful day in court, is contrary to arguments the Department of Justice has made before federal courts in the past, and is grotesquely inhumane,” the letter stated.
• Acting as the Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) released a minority view analysis on behalf of the committee’s Democrats that reviewed the criminal referral for Christopher Steele sent out by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) on Feb. 9. The view laid out several points, including that the “criminal referral is not based on any allegation that Steele lied or misrepresented facts about Carter Page or what is included in the Steele dossier,” that the “criminal referral selectively focuses on some facts while omitting others,” and that the referral “fails to make a case that [Steele] lied to the FBI.” “The criminal referral of Christopher Steele has nothing to do with accountability,” Feinstein said in a statement. “Clearly its goals included undermining the FBI and Special Counsel [Robert] Mueller’s investigation, attacking Christopher Steele, and deflecting attention from collusion and obstruction of justice investigations.”
• Acting as a member of the House Budgetary Committee, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Feb. 9, urging the administration to reconsider proposed cuts to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) budget. Carbajal wrote that the cuts will affect the Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution, which “currently has 74 vacancies, and a 12 percent BOP-proposed reduction would lead to 62 positions to be eliminated,” and is an “already understaffed facility.” “This proposal would not only cut many good-paying jobs on the Central Coast, but also irresponsibly put our corrections officers at risk in an already understaffed facility,” Carbajal said in a statement. “It represents a dangerous shift away from supporting our federal law enforcement and public safety officers in favor of investing in the notoriously problematic and inhumane for-profit prison system.”
• On Feb. 5, state Assemblymember Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) was named the co-chair of the California State Assembly Committee on Natural Disaster Response, Recovery, and Rebuilding by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). “As the impacts of extreme and irregular weather become more present in our lives, a greater understanding is needed about the compounding effect that drought, fire, and rain will have throughout California. My community has gone through this series of immense tragedies, one after another, first with the largest wildfire recorded in California history, followed by the tragedy of the Montecito mudslides,” Limón said in a statement. “Recovery will not be easy, but through this committee in the state Assembly, we will address forward-thinking policies and focus on sustainable solutions that will help us all rise to this challenge.”
• The California Coalition on Water Rates Reform holds the California Summit on Water Rates Reform on Feb. 16 at 1:15 p.m. at the Lancaster City Council chambers, 44933 Fern Ave., Lancaster. The summit will include information on a Golden State Water Co. rate raise that will affect Santa Maria Valley residents. More information is available at avwaterwarriors@gmail.com.
This article appears in Feb 15-22, 2018.