LA Mayor Karen Bass is wasting a quarter of a milllon dollars on anti-ICE “keep out” signs that have no legal force. Their only effect is to send a political message about her anti-ICE views in an election.
In other words, the signs are just virtue signaling — literally.
Immigration is a federal issue. Democrats forget that, when they declare cities or states to be “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
But it was the Obama administration that confirmed that the federal government has sole control of border and immigration enforcement. Obama’s Department of Justice, under “wingman” Eric Holder, sued Arizona, which had passed a law allowing police to check the immigration status of people they stopped for other suspected violations.
Arizona lost in the Supreme Court in 2012. And the Court has upheld federal power — adding that the president has almost total control of immigration policy.
That doesn’t mean states and cities have to cooperate. Federal judges have also upheld the power of state and local governments to decline to help immigration enforcement.
Lead federal prosecutor Bill Essayli called the signs “null and void.” He also added that they were “silly.”
Actually, they are deadly serious: They are an effort to use public money to shore up the mayor’s credentials with “progressive” voters ahead of a bitterly contested primary election.
Bass knows that she faces a reckoning. Angelenos are upset about the state of the city. Many hold her responsible for LA’s mismanagement of the wildfires last year. And while homelessness has declined, it is still at unacceptable levels.
She is fending off a challenge from Spencer Pratt on the right, and socialist Nithya Raman on the left.
So she has clung to the ICE issue, vocally opposing immigration enforcement , even confronting ICE officers directly.
But it’s all just politics — like the signs.
The mayor is producing the signs under Executive Directive 17, which she issued in February.
It calls for signs to be posted, which are to read: “This property is owned or controlled by the City of Los Angeles. It may only be used for its intended City purpose and not used for immigration enforcement as a staging area, processing location, or operations base.”
“Nothing in this order shall be construed as restricting or interfering with the execution of lawful judicial warrants or the enforcement of criminal law, nor as limiting the rights of any person or entity under state or federal law.”
In other words: If ICE has authority — which it does — it can ignore the signs.
Mayor Bass knows all that. But she wasted money on the signs anyway — despite LA’s desperate budget situation.
The signs are new; sadly, the parks beyond them are often neglected.
We’ve had enough virtue signaling, and enough wasted money. We need action on the city’s urgent priorities.
Let the federal government do its job, and try improving the quality of life for Angelenos.
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