Republican California State Assemblyman Bill Essayli condemned his Democratic colleagues after they voted against advancing a bill requiring California law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal authorities when dealing with illegal immigrants convicted of sexually exploiting children.
California has adopted so-called “sanctuary” policies, which limit the cooperation of state and local law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities. Essayli introduced legislation, AB 2641, to cut into these “sanctuary” policies by requiring local law enforcement officials to detain and transfer to federal authorities any immigration suspects who have “been convicted of a crime of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of minors, or crimes committed against minors, as specified, or crimes committed against a minor that require registration under the Sex Offender Registration Act.”
Essayli attempted to force a floor vote on his bill on Tuesday, with a motion to suspend the rules and go to the floor vote, but the effort failed in the Democratic supermajority California State Assembly.
Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jim Wood, a Democrat, cut off Essayli’s microphone as he began to describe the bill while motioning to bring it to a floor vote on Tuesday.
“Stop. Stop. Stop. You went beyond making a motion. You started to go into debate,” Wood said. “You can make the motion, but you cannot talk about—the motion will be nondebatable.”
Wood then proceeded to put the motion to a vote, without any further debate, telling assembly members only that Essayli was asking for an “aye” vote and the assembly’s Democratic majority leader was asking for a “no” vote.
Essayli’s motion, which required the support of two-thirds of the assembly members who wished to vote, failed by a vote of 14-36. The 36 members who voted against the measure were all Democrats.
“I’m completely outraged that when we had an opportunity today to roll back sanctuary state policies that protect illegal immigrants who are convicted of committing sex crimes against minors – we’re talking about pedophiles – [and] that every Democrat in that building refused to support it,” Essayli said in a statement following the failed vote on Tuesday.
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Instead of supporting his bill, Essayli said Democrats “doubled down” and reaffirmed that California state law is to protect illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes against minors from being deported.
Essayli invited Agnes Gibboney to attend and watch the vote on Tuesday. Gibboney’s son, Ronald da Silva, was shot and killed in a 2002 drive-by shooting when he was 29. Suspect Luis Gonzalez, who was in the country illegally, was arrested and convicted for the killing. Gibboney has advocated, in recent years, for reversing California’s “sanctuary” policies.
“My only son was murdered by a previously deported criminal illegal alien thanks to our policies in this government and 22 years since my son has been murdered not a thing has improved in protecting our borders, in protecting citizens of this country, and as a legal immigrant I am outraged,” Gibboney said while joining Essayli in his press statement after the vote.
“These politicians here, every single Dem, don’t give a damn about you or your family and it’s totally outrageous,” Essayli added. “You just see how cavalier and casual they just—they voted this down, and it’s meaningless to them. They don’t care. They’re totally disconnected.”
