Thread: California’s AG is suing Trump again. He’ll have his parents on his mind when he does

California’s AG is suing Trump again. He’ll have his parents on his mind when he does

By Marcos Bretón
September 11, 2017 4:00 AM

By virtue of his position as attorney general of California, Xavier Becerra is and will be a frequent adversary of President Donald Trump and his policies.

Opinion

This past month, Becerra announced that California was suing the U.S. Department of Justice over Trump administration threats to cut off public safety funds for cities and states that don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Now, he’s signaled he’s prepared to sue the Trump administration again, with plans to announce the suit Monday. This time, it would be over the administration’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has provided legal protections to nearly 800,000 undocumented young people brought to the U.S. without legal permission when they were children.

Becerra, 59, is firmly in the corner of the young people dubbed “Dreamers.” His otherwise amiable face darkens behind his sensible glasses when the subject of DACA is raised. As a long-time congressman from Los Angeles, Becerra watched in frustration as several legislative efforts to help DACA kids failed on Capitol Hill. Now as AG of the state with the largest DACA population, he is eager to challenge Trump on this issue in particular.

For Becerra, a Sacramento native who is scarcely known in his hometown because he made his bones at Stanford, in L.A. political circles and in Washington D.C., protecting “Dreamers” is of fundamental importance. The possibility that young people who have passed numerous background checks, received good grades, secured employment – even served in the U.S. military – could be deported does not sit well with him, a notion he expressed in July when he led a group of 20 attorneys general in sending a letter to Trump, urging him to maintain DACA.

With hair combed neatly to one side, and dressed almost daily in suits that aren’t so much pressed as they are vigorously starched, Becerra is dutifully methodical when performing all the typical functions as California’s attorney general.

He has been going after polluters, drugmakers, scam artists. Becerra filed 15 felony counts against David Daleiden, the Davis-born anti-abortion radical who made national headlines in 2015 by releasing secretly recorded video of Planned Parenthood officials making embarrassing comments about tissue and organ harvesting. And when several states planned to sue the Trump administration over threats to the Affordable Care Act, there was Becerra, front and center, with his counterpart from New York.

Appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown in January to fill the vacancy caused by the election of Kamala Harris to the U.S. Senate, Becerra already is building an impressive reputation for his fast-approaching re-election next year. He’s pro choice, reliably progressive, and yet he does not inspire the antipathy of say, a Kevin De Leon – the leader of the state Senate and another high profile Latino politician from L.A.

Becerra is as measured as De Leon is provocative. While more than a dozen other states already have filed a DACA lawsuit, Becerra, ever deliberate, has taken his time, saying California is disproportionally harmed by the end of the program. (On Friday, Janet Napolitano – the president of the University of California – filed a lawsuit as well.)

Moreover, Becerra has shown he’s not going to going to rock the boat on elemental issues such as law enforcement. He’s resisted calls suggesting he create an independent review unit within his office that would investigate cops in cases in which officers use deadly force. On this issue, Becerra is reliably accommodating to the wishes of the police and their powerful unions.

But when asked about immigration, Becerra’s demeanor changes. While he doesn’t lose his measured mien, it becomes clear how much the issue means to him. He is, after all, the son of immigrants whose world view was shaped by his parents, Manuel and Maria Teresa. Becerra’s mother is from the Mexican state of Jalisco, and though his dad was born in Sacramento, the elder Becerra spent many years in Mexico.

The Becerras thought about raising their kids in Mexico, but chose to stay in Sacramento because it offered their children a better life. Spanish was spoken in their home, and the Becerra kids were taught to strive, follow the rules, work hard, uphold their family name and the reputation of their ethnic group.

Becerra’s life and career have been guided by these principles. Consequently, when he is asked about what he is proudest of in his seven-plus months as California’s attorney general, his answer is telling: “That we are standing up for people like Manuel and Maria Teresa Becerra,” he said.

It’s not that Becerra doesn’t understand that some undocumented immigrants are dangerous and should be deported. He has no qualms about expelling immigrants who break the law. But he bristles at the idea that hard working immigrants should be kicked out simply because they don’t have documentation. Becerra believes Congress has failed to pass meaningful immigration reform, and that it is against the interests of California to upend productive lives because legislators aren’t legislating.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/new...172281727.html

Isn't that just the silliest thing in the world? His parents, one American, one Mexican, decide to live in America, presumably legally, they raise a nice family and their son goes to law school to then become a public official who wastes his time suing the federal government for the right of California to break the law in the name of his parents to promote a race as special and above the law.

You can't make this stuff up. His generation of immigrant offspring have a screw loose. They ain't right.

He has no qualms about expelling immigrants who break the law. But he bristles at the idea that hard working immigrants should be kicked out simply because they don’t have documentation. Becerra believes Congress has failed to pass meaningful immigration reform, and that it is against the interests of California to upend productive lives because legislators aren’t legislating.

What good is an AG that doesn't abide our immigration laws? Leave and file for admittance like every legal immigrant has done. The bravado of this hispanic thing is off the wall. Give me a job while i send most of the $ back to my country, pay for my overbreeding & birthing, healthcare, schooling.

They are laughing at Americans and consider them yesterday's population because they are here to take over by their numbers. And our gov't is down with that otherwise there would be no qualms @ no papers - no stay!

Everify every job and get as many out of here as we can. Deny social services to parents that are hear illegally. Their children are citizens of their country. Clarify the 14th amendment once and for all and stop this fraudulent scheme.