During Friday’s press conference announcing the arrest of Gustavo Perez Arriaga for the murder of Officer Ronil Singh, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson angrily noted that California’s SB 54 (a/k/a Sanctuary State law) would have prevented Singh from sharing information about Arriaga with ICE had he been successful in apprehending him during a Christmas DUI stop.

Christianson, who begins speaking about six minutes into the presser, said that Arriaga entered the country illegally through Arizona “some time” ago, had two prior DUI’s, and was a known gang member.

“This criminal, Mr. Arriaga, crossed our border into Arizona illegally some time ago. He is a criminal. He has two prior arrests for DUI. Remember, that’s the reason that Officer Singh stopped him, because we had probable cause to believe that he was under the influence of alcohol…and an officer loses his life over a DUI stop from someone who has been previously arrested.

“Mr. Arriaga also has known gang affiliation…Sureno street gangs. He claims to be a Sureno…there’s plenty of photographic evidence on and in social media, Facebook, and other platforms, that clearly shows him self-promoting himself as a gangster.”

One would think that had such a criminal been arrested by local police, he would be turned over to immigration authorities, right? Wrong.

“So, while we absolutely need to stay focused on officer Singh’s service and sacrifice, we can’t ignore the fact that this could have been preventable. And under SB 54 in California, based on two arrests for DUI and some other active warrants that this criminal has out there, law enforcement would have been prevented, prohibited, from sharing any information with ICE about this criminal gang member.”

While sanctuary state apologists will likely claim there is some sort of allowance in SB 54 for law enforcement to have taken this dirtbag off the streets, there is not. I have read the bill itself numerous times and followed all of the flow charts that local departments are required to sift through every time they arrest a suspected illegal alien. Even for some sexual assault charges they are prohibited from sharing information, and for “just” DUI convictions they aren’t allowed to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Christianson continued:

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is not how you protect a community. This is not how you assure the people who live in our community, regardless of their ethnicity, their culture, their race, any of that, that they live in a safe community, because there are people who want to exploit and victimize others.

“And in this case, Officer Singh sacrificed everything. He paid the ultimate price trying to protect and serve the people of Newman. We need to have a conversation about that.”

The Sheriff is absolutely right. We must have a conversation about this.

Arriaga was apprehended in Kern County, south of Stanislaus, and was reportedly heading back to Mexico to avoid prosecution.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10157322870957590&set=a.10150997579257590&type=3

Two men, 25-year-old Adrian Virgen and 27-year-old Erik Razo Quiroz, were arrested Thursday for helping Arriaga escape after he shot and killed Officer Singh and for lying to authorities. Christianson said Virgen, who is Arriaga’s brother, and Quiroz are also in the country illegally.

They intentionally lied to us. They tried to divert us off the investigation.They misled us. They provided information that was false, all in an attempt to protect their brother.

In contrast, Singh immigrated legally from Fiji, and his dream was to be a law enforcement officer.

Illegal immigrant Gustavo Perez Arriaga was arrested today in California for killing police officer Ronil Singh on Christmas. Ronil did everything right. He represented the beauty of legal immigration while his illegal killer is an example of why we need a wall & border security. pic.twitter.com/1uYkLZIU9G

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) December 28, 2018

How many murders will it take before SB 54’s authors and co-sponsors, Kevin deLeon, Scott Wiener, Miguel Santiago, Nancy Skinner, Jimmy Gomez, Eloise Reyes, Marc Levine, Rob Bonta, Richard Pan, David Chiu, and Jim Beall admit their legislation is killing people? How many murders are an “acceptable loss” in their aim to achieve their political goals?