Latest Trump tirade is threat to pull immigration officials out of California

President Trump unleashed a tirade Thursday against California and its supposedly lax stance on illegal immigration, ending with a seemingly spontaneous threat to remove federal immigration authorities from the state.

His remarks, made during a meeting about gun control, were in stark contrast to the public position of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who have dramatically increased activity in California in recent months and said repeatedly that federal authorities need to have a stronger presence in cities and states that have sanctuary policies.

Trump said in the meeting, “If I wanted to pull our people from California you would have a crime nest like you’ve never seen in California. ... You’d be inundated, you would see crime like no one’s ever seen crime in this country.”

“If we ever pulled our ICE out and said, ‘Hey, let California alone, let them figure it out for themselves,’ in two months they’d be begging for us to come back. They would be begging,” Trump said. “And you know what? I’m thinking about doing it.”

defend the state and its immigration sanctuary policies, many pointing out that California has relatively low crime rates and that there is little evidence associating illegal immigration with increased violent crime.

“The president’s obsession with our state is growing more outrageous by the day,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in a statement released less than an hour after Trump’s remarks aired on TV. “The president’s attacks are not only mean-spirited, they’re patently false.”

Immigration experts expressed some skepticism that Trump would follow through on the threat. “I’m not sure what to make of his comment. It doesn’t seem to be the product of any sustained study of the matter. It seemed like an off-the-cuff remark,” said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

Source: sfgate