• Gov. Jerry Brown ordered up to 400 California National Guard troops to deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border to “combat transnational crime” on April 18 after a request from President Donald Trump’s administration to post National Guard at the border. In the opening of the memorandum to send the troops, Brown argued that arrests at the border are at 50-year lows, and wanted to be “crystal clear on the scope of this mission. This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.” President Trump posted on Twitter on April 19, attacking Gov. Brown and the deployment, which Trump said would “do nothing.” “The crime rate in California is high enough, and the federal government will not be paying for Gov. Brown’s charade,” Trump wrote. “We need border security and action, not words!”
• At a Senate Judiciary Committee on April 19, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) voiced her support for protecting Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election from possible termination by President Donald Trump. Harris said that the American justice system “is built on a foundation of trust,” and that attempts to undermine the investigation should blocked by possible action from Congress, including through recent bipartisan legislation designed to protect Mueller and his investigation. “According to reports, the president has on more than one occasion ordered his staff to fire the special counsel before being talked out of it,” Harris said. “The special counsel must be allowed to continue to do his job and go where the facts lead, and his authority must not be undermined in any way, shape, or form.”
• Candidate for Santa Barbara County Sheriff, Lt. Eddie Hsueh, spoke at at the California State Senate about Senate Bill 1200, which would strengthen California’s Gun Violence Restraining Order (GVRO) measure co-authored by former Assemblymember Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) and current Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). Hsueh was asked to testify by Nancy Skinner (D-Oakland), who authored SB 1200, and the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence for his outlook on GVROs, which allow family and law enforcement to get permission from a judge to temporarily remove firearms from a person in crisis. “I testified that the GVRO made sense and that SB 1200 improves the process—especially for law enforcement—by correcting the gap which requires pre-assigned personnel to follow-up on processes,” Hsueh said in a statement. “The law also enhances public safety by providing another tool to reduce gun violence in people at risk of self-harm or harming others.”
• Legislation penned by State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) to block the Trump administration’s proposed expansion of federal offshore oil leases passed the Senate Natural Resources Committee on April 16 on a 6-2 vote. Senate Bill 834 would block the development of pipelines and other infrastructure in state waters by prohibiting the State Lands Commission from approving new leases that would support oil projects in federal waters. “The Trump administration’s reckless proposal to expand offshore drilling is a direct threat to California’s pristine beaches, marine life, and coastal economy,” Jackson said. “SB 834 sends a strong message that California will not let the oil and gas industry undermine our environmental protections.” A similar bill co-authored by Assemblymember Monique Limòn (D-Santa Barbara), Assembly Bill 1775, passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee on April 19. “Californians are proud of their commitment to clean and renewable energy,” Limón said in January after the initial proposal from the Trump administration. “This decision by the president and his administration to expand offshore oil drilling is an affront to our values.”
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 3, 2018.
