The Republicans in the California Assembly are raising the alarm about a truly horrible bill on the docket that is being rushed through the Public Safety Committee. AB 2031 would allow taxpayer-funded legal aid organizations to pay for the representation of criminal illegal aliens. Sadly, this is on brand for California.

BAD BILL ALERT: CA Dems are pushing a bill for illegal immigrants convicted of violent felonies to receive taxpayer-funded legal aid & avoid deportation! AB 2031 is completely UNACCEPTABLE. Why do they want to prioritize immigrant rapists & murderers over everyone else?? #caleg pic.twitter.com/m8qOA2xZSP

— Assemblywoman Kate Sanchez (@AsmKateSanchez) March 10, 2024

Five paragraphs in, buried under the anemic-sounding introductory language about "adjustments" to the definition of legal grants slated for unaccompanied illegal minors (who do indeed need representation) is this:

Existing law prohibits use of the grant funds to provide legal services to an individual who has been convicted of, or who is currently appealing a conviction for, a violent or serious felony.

This bill would remove that prohibition on the use of funds for those individuals.

And buried at the bottom of this bill is this scary language:

Under the bill, personally identifiable information, collected by the department as related to the above-described services, would not be a public record and would be prohibited from disclosure by the department, except where necessary to comply with a court-issued order, warrant, or subpoena.

Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

Essentially, this would allow Immigration and Naturalization to bar law enforcement and other invested parties from knowing the past violent acts of illegal aliens and acting according to that knowledge. This is yet another open invitation from the state for more individuals to flood our borders, then freely commit violent and murderous acts, like the horrific death of Laken Riley in Athens, Georgia.

One would think California legislators would be looking not only to proceed with caution on its already open-throated advocacy of illegals but to look at action that would at least halt the ability and access of violent and criminal felons to cross in from San Diego. But apparently, they have learned nothing from the 2016 murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal alien in San Francisco, which ultimately helped propel Donald Trump into the White House. Even more recently, the 2022 murders of three children by their illegal alien father. 

David Fidel Mora-Rojas was an illegal alien who was known as far back as 2018 to have overstayed his visa. Mora-Rojas was being sheltered in a Sacramento church thanks to the California Values Act, which protects criminal illegals from being reported and turned over to law enforcement. Mora-Rojas had been arrested in February 2022 for driving under the influence, assaulting a peace officer, and then later assaulting medical staff. In March of 2022, now in possession of an AR-15, he shot up that church with his wife, his three children, and a chaperone in it. All three children and the chaperone died, and Mora-Rojas then turned the gun on himself. 

These are just two instances among many of how California already coddles illegal criminals and fails to protect its legal citizens. Now, the California legislature wants to codify this negligence into law and make taxpayers pay for criminal aliens' legal defense.

Call your CA Assemblymember. These are the exact policies that led to the murder of a nursing student in Georgia, Laken Riley. https://t.co/zoz8gsKIMN

— Bill Essayli (@billessayli) March 10, 2024

The author of this bill, Democrat Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, is all about social justice and finding racism under every rock. Jones-Sawyer is the chair of the Reparatory Justice Committee and the Public Safety Committee, so he is infamous for blocking bills that dictate felony enhancements, like those for individuals who possess and distribute fentanyl, but promoting bills that give benefits and concessions to criminals based on race or immigration status. Jones-Sawyer's most recent blocking action was the 2023 child trafficking bill, which made it a felony in the state. Because of pressure from -- of all people -- Governor Gavin Newsom, the bill was moved out of committee, ultimately passed and was signed into law. No thanks to Jones-Sawyer and his faithful Democrat minions.

AB 2031 comes before the Public Safety Committee on Tuesday and every Californian needs to sound the alarm and lobby their Senate and Assembly representative to stop it in its tracks. The deaths of Kate Steinle and Laken Riley could have been prevented; to now give these types of illegal criminals taxpayer money for their defense of such acts is simply beyond the pale.