California vs Trump: how the state opposes the president of the United States

In the 2016 presidential election, 60% of Californians supported Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, contrary to the forecasts of almost all opinion polls, was an unpleasant surprise for the leadership and residents of the state, with whom they still, more than a year after the elections, cannot accept it.

Фото: Depositphotos

About how California is opposed to Trump and the policies of his administration, said the publication The Guardian.

The new state laws that came into force in 2018 are mainly aimed at protecting citizens from Donald Trump.

State leaders passed laws and initiated lawsuits to reverse or circumvent Trump’s decisions on immigration, the environment, and Internet freedom.

Immigration

California lawmakers passed the country's most extensive asylum law, banning police to ask people about immigration status and limiting cooperation with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. (ICE).

The state also sued the Trump administration to challenge its immigration ban on people from Muslim-majority countries entering the United States. Also, at California’s initiative, the court is considering the legality of the president’s decision to terminate the DACA program, which protected “Dreamers”—illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children—from deportation.

A US judge from San Francisco sided with California in the battle for the DACA, deciding that the program should continue.

Such aversion does not stop the Trump administration from conducting immigration raids in “refuge” cities, including Californian megacities. In 2017, ICE had already arrested hundreds of people during targeted raids in refuge cities, and the current director of the agency promised to increase the number of deportations in the state in 2018, stating that California politicians could be prosecuted.

Across California, extensive networks of attorneys and volunteers protecting the rights of illegal immigrants have been formed.

“While 44th President Barack Obama has deported more immigrants than any other president, the need for protection is now even greater as ICE indiscriminately seizes people during raids,” said Maria Sofia Corona-Alamillo, an attorney working with the network. Immigrant Rights Rapid Response in Los Angeles County.

The girl said that last year the network was mobilized after agents appeared in a car repair shop and, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, arrested a whole group of workers, although they had an arrest warrant for only one person.

Jennifer Lee Ko, an attorney from Los Angeles, said she represented the interests of an immigrant from Mexico, who was arrested last year and threatened with deportation. Instead of deportation, the aid network has ensured that a person who has three small children who are US citizens has received a temporary residence permit, and is now on the way to obtaining a green card.

“We are confronting the climate of fear and terror that many of these enforcement actions bring to these communities,” says Hamid Yazdan Panah, Advocate Coordinator for the Northern California First Responder Network.

Some advocates argue that stricter enforcement of sanctuary rules is needed, given that even in liberal jurisdictions like Los Angeles and Oakland, local police have been seen collaborating with ICE.

Javier Hernandez, director of the Domestic Immigration Justice Coalition, said California must provide "universal representation" — ensuring access to lawyers for all immigrants facing deportation.

Oil production

In January, Trump announced a plan to open up American coastal areas for drilling oil and gas wells, including previously protected areas along the Pacific, including the coast of California.

The administration later changed its mind, stating that it would not allow drilling on the coast of Florida, after pressure from the Republican governor of the state.

California Governor Jerry Brown condemned the presidential decision and said that the state was working to prevent new federal drilling operations.

Despite statements of concern, environmentalists argue that Brown has a bad reputation for oil and gas, and non-profit organization Consumer watchdog indicates that its administration has approved more than 200 new offshore wells from 2012 to 2016 year.

Cannabis

Days after California launched what is expected to be the largest recreational cannabis market in the world, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he was reversing an Obama-era policy that allowed states to legalize weed.

California lawmakers said they are preparing to counter a potential crackdown on the marijuana trade with a new law that could create a "sanctuary state" for cannabis in California.

Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer, a state assembly member, said he knew older people, veterans and others who depended on medical cannabis, lobbying legislation that blocks state aid to federal authorities in arresting, investigating or prosecuting marijuana.

Proponents of criminal justice reform also called on California leaders to reduce the number of arrests for drug-related crimes and to help such people find work in the legal market.

Taxes

Trump's tax reform is the most radical over the past 30 years. Most Californians are not comfortable with limiting 10 to thousands of dollars in local taxes that state residents can deduct when they pay federal taxes. According to statistics, the average amount of local tax deduction in California is almost 8500 dollars more than the minimum that the Trump administration has imposed, which means that many residents of the state will suffer because of tax reform.

Lawmakers, however, are hoping to circumvent Trump’s policies through a California taxpayer bill that allows state residents to make charitable donations to a special fund instead of real estate taxes and receive tax deductions in return.

If the bill is successful, other states can follow suit.

Net neutrality

In the state where the most powerful technology companies in the world are located, the recent abolition of net neutrality rules designed to protect the open Internet has sparked significant protests. The law, which became a victory for the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Ajit Pye, changed the rules that ensured that Internet service providers (Internet service providers) work equally with all websites and cannot charge additional fees for providing services to some of them.

While Democrats in Washington, DC, are trying to repeal this decision, California lawmakers are working to restore net neutrality in their state by developing a new bill. The bill will provide Californian regulators and law enforcement agencies with the opportunity to independently establish and enforce compliance with the requirements of network neutrality for state-owned Internet providers.

Translation prepared edition The idealist.

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