As the anti-law-and-order Democrat legislators and Seattle’s soon-to-be ex-Mayor Jenny “Summer of Love” Durkan have clearly demonstrated, Democrats have little desire to enforce the law and keep our communities safe. Over the last two years, Democrats have passed some of the most extreme anti-public safety legislation in the country, from letting felons out of prison early, lowering penalties for some crimes, legalizing hard drugs, and defunding the police.
In the latest salvo in their approach to putting liberal ideology ahead of community safety, Democrats are now mandating the closure of the only federal immigration detention facility in the state. The building in Tacoma is used by the federal government to detain aliens who are in the country illegally and are waiting for either deportation or court hearings. It’s been open for 20 years, has an excellent safety record, and yet the extreme left has made it the focus of their misguided anarchist attacks against the federal government’s immigration policies.
Democrat State Representative Lillian Ortiz-Self introduced legislation (HB 1090) to prevent Washington from contracting with the facility, which effectively shuts it down. Of course, anyone opposing the closure and supporting legal immigration is branded a racist by the intolerant Left. Rep. Ortiz-Self, who has been looking for ways to weaken Washington’s borders for years, claims the coronavirus as a reason to close the facility, without any evidence of any problems and zero deaths due to COVID (which can’t be said about state run prisons where seven deaths have occurred).
HB 1090 passed and was signed by Democrat Governor Jay Inslee in April without wasting any of his precious line-item vetoes on this bad idea.
As they say, Democrats never let a good crisis go to waste.
The Democrats’ approach to rewarding illegal immigration, which they are forcing down the throats of Washington residents, mocks the people who have followed the legal immigration process and have entered the country according to the law. For those that are following the law, the wait to enter the United States legally can be years. Now the Democrats want to put those that have broken the law, including hardened criminals who have entered the country illegally, ahead of those that are following the rules.
How’s that for equity?
Democrat-sponsored committee testimony warned of unsubstantiated claims of dire consequences if the facility isn’t closed immediately, including human right violations, facility workers using pesticides as cleaning agents, and violation of international law. These are the type of bogus claims coming from the left just trying to circumvent the legal process.
Lost in the noise of the Democrat crying and wailing are the 300 jobs that will be lost when the facility closes.
Make no mistake, no matter how the Democrats try to minimize illegal immigration crime and make you think it’s no worse than a parking ticket, every detainee in the Tacoma facility has broken federal law.
There are no innocent illegal aliens there.
Unsurprisingly, the detention facility owner is suing Washington State for the Democrat’s shutdown. So, just another bad Democrat idea that taxpayers will have to spend money on defending in court.
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