The bill that was the top priority for illegal alien advocates in California, the TRUST Act, was vetoed yesterday by Gov. Jerry Brown. This is clearly a setback for anti-enforcement activists nationwide, who had made this bill the centerpiece in their campaign against ICE's Secure Communities program, and who had hoped to inspire similar measures in other states.
The TRUST Act was the most serious challenge yet to ICE and its few remaining immigration enforcement programs, which cannot succeed without cooperation from local sheriffs and police. Proponents of the TRUST Act called in all their heaviest hitters, including Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and illegal alien DREAM activist Jose Vargas, who said it was "the most important piece of legislation for immigrant communities this year". Amazingly, even the California DREAMers (the young illegal aliens who qualify for the president's amnesty) told Brown that this legislation, which benefits only the tens of thousands of criminal aliens who would be released back to the streets each year, was more important to them than another bill before him that would enable them to get driver's licenses, which they need to get to the jobs they can now legally have thanks to the DACA program.
In the end, Brown sided with the California sheriffs, who mobilized impressively against this bill, arguing that it would force them to release too many dangerous aliens. The sheriff of Los Angeles County, which has one-third of the state's criminal aliens and generates 12 percent of criminal deportations nationwide, threatened to ignore the TRUST Act if it became law. Brown might also have been swayed by the appeals of Jamiel Shaw, Sr., who reminded the governor in a video that his son was murdered in 2008 by an illegal alien gang member who was on the streets because of local sanctuary policies.
Brown did, however, save the young illegal alien activists from themselves by approving the driver's license measure.