President Donald Trump met with California conservative officials this week to discuss a strategy for fighting against sanctuary cities, Politico reports.
One unnamed Republican described the Washington meeting on Wednesday as "a show of force," though White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah portrayed the meeting as less politically significant.
"We believe that California should help us, and all municipalities and states should help the federal government in enforcing federal law, in helping to deport — when appropriate — criminal, illegal immigrants, and help … stem the tide of illegal immigration in the United States," Shah told Politico.
When asked what the purpose of the meeting was, Shah said that illegal immigration is "actually on the rise now. It's a point of frustration for the president and for the administration. So that will be part of, obviously, what's discussed."
The meeting likely including a discussion of the California Values Act, a bill that established California as a sanctuary state, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed last year.
"The California Values Act won't stop [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] from trolling our streets. It will not provide full sanctuary. But it will put a kink – a large kink – in Trump's perverse and inhumane deportation machine," California Senate President pro tem Kevin De León said at a news conference after the signing, according to NPR.
"California is building a wall – a wall of justice – against President Trump's xenophobic, racist and ignorant immigration policies."
According to GOP strategist Matt Cunningham, who is familiar with Orange County politics, the argument over the bill "kind of touches on a disconnect between the liberal elites who run this state and ordinary people who feel like the elites are more concerned with protecting illegal aliens from deportation than they are with rising crime and homelessness and a crumbling infrastructure."
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