Trump ups the ante in California border war

President Donald Trump is threatening to pull Immigration and Customs Enforcement from California.

The threat is the latest salvo in a battle over illegal immigration among Trump, Governor Jerry Brown (D) and democrats who passed a bill earlier this year declaring California a sanctuary state.

{mosads}At first blush, it appeared that Trump’s threat was perhaps bluster – a return to the campaign trail rhetoric of 2016 that his supporters enjoyed, especially regarding the border.

However, as so often is the case it now appears that Trump knew firsthand what the rest of the world is just learning today — that the leader of one of California’s largest cities, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D), tipped off an entire city to an upcoming ICE raid thus undermining the federal government’s job and potentially putting the lives of law enforcement officers at risk during such a raid.

As the old saying goes, “Nobody likes a snitch.”

Especially Donald Trump.

Now the Golden State may have to pay the price for the mayor’s interference, as well as the defiance of other mayors of sanctuary cities.

While Trump’s threat of executive action goes against his administration’s recent efforts to step up ICE actions in California and increase pressure on sanctuary cities, it is clear that the man who created “The Art of the Deal” may have just found a new bargaining chip in the border battle.

An executive action which would pull ICE out of California would be devastating for the state, which already struggles to maintain law and order among a burgeoning population of illegal immigrants.

For starters, more undocumented immigrants live in the concentrated area of Southern California than anywhere else in the U.S.

Home to the San Ysidro port of entry, the busiest land border crossing not only in the U.S. but in the Western Hemisphere, California continues to struggle to keep drug smugglers, human traffickers and criminal gang members from entering the country illegally along the southern border.

According to the Pew Research Center, a stunning 71 percent of the illegal immigrant population in California is Mexican-born which underscores Trump’s understanding of, if not myopic focus on, the challenges of the porous southern border.

Heather MacDonald, the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has written extensively on the matter and has testified before Congress. Among her findings are that a stunning 95 percent of most wanted criminals in Los Angeles are undocumented immigrants.

In addition, more than one Government Accountability Office report shows that recidivism among illegal immigrants is high — 70 percent of illegal immigrants had between two and 10 arrests, and 26 percent of illegal immigrants had experienced 11 or more arrests.

Drug or immigration offenses accounted for 45 percent of the offenses, and approximately 12 percent involved violent offenses including robbery, assault, sex-related crimes and murder.

Those figures were from the GAO in 2005 — the figures are likely even higher now with the rate of population growth in California.

Already, a 2017 report from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security shows that 92 percent of foreign nationals in federal prisons are undocumented immigrants.

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens — who oversees law enforcement in the third largest county in California and the sixth largest county in the U.S. — said removing ICE from California would spell disaster for both her rank and file as well as the public she serves.

“Removing ICE from California would be devastating for our law enforcement efforts,” said Sheriff Hutchens. “We work very closely with ICE on coordinated programs to combat drug trafficking and human trafficking to keep our communities safe. To lose that cooperation on the federal level would be disastrous.”

However, she doesn’t necessarily blame Trump.

Hutchens was one of many sheriffs in California who opposed Senate Bill 54, the so-called sanctuary state bill, and subsequently urged Governor Brown to amend the bill in order to allow law enforcement to actually speak with ICE — something that Hutchens said they would not have been permitted to do under the original version of the democrats’ bill.

She said that if Trump removes ICE from California, they’ll be back to square one.

The situation is tricky for Trump, however, as the majority of Californians now support the state having a separate solution apart from the rest of the U.S.

The Public Policy Institute of California reports that 82 percent support some sort of legal path to citizenship. Just last year 65 percent of Californians supported the state having its own policies, separate from the federal government, on immigration.

However, Trump has never been one to care what the polls suggest.

Whether Trump will now make good on his threat remains to be seen. It is difficult to envision precisely how the president would ask ICE to pull out of the most populous state in the nation, but as with most Trump agenda items — where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Trump is undoubtedly planning his next move on the big chess board as it relates to illegal immigration.

With the final selection of the new border wall nearing and with more petulant California officials poking this administration in the eye, Trump is right to utilize what may be his strongest bargaining chip yet: allowing California to descend into further chaos.

Whether he’ll achieve a checkmate against Governor Brown and the democrats remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: it’s your move, mister president.

Jen Kerns has served as a GOP strategist and writer for the U.S. presidential debates for FOX News. She previously served as communications director and spokeswoman for the California Republican Party, the Colorado Recalls over gun control, and the Prop. 8 battle over marriage which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.