(DailyVantage.com) – A California state bill that would have provided free legal services to illegal immigrants charged with violent felonies was pulled from consideration just before it was set to be deliberated following the backlash it received.
The filing of the bill prompted massive pushback from Republicans in the California state legislature, such as Assembly Leader James Gallagher, who called the measure “insanity,” especially given California’s $70 million deficit. Another Republican state lawmaker, Assemblyman Bill Essayli, scored the Democrats who proposed and supported the bill, which he called a danger to Californians. Essayli cited cases like that of Laken Riley and America Thayer, whose murderers were shown to have been in the country illegally.
Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was killed during a jog by an illegal alien from Venezuela, while Thayer was beheaded by her boyfriend, an illegal immigrant from Cuba, in broad daylight and in the presence of multiple witnesses.
“The state of California… [is] fighting to protect” criminals, Essayli wrote, rather than acting in the best interest of the state’s citizens and legal residents by “assisting federal law enforcement in removing these criminals.”
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk also weighed in on the issue on Twitter / X, posing the question, “When is enough enough?” with a repost from the @EndWokeness account that called the proposed measure “California’s most insane bill yet”.
The scrapped measure was called the “Representation, Equity and Protections for All Immigrants Act” (REP Act) and was proposed by Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, who defended the measure as a means to enhance the state’s movement towards promoting “racial justice.”
The bill would have removed limits on grant money on providing immigration-related legal services to immigrants – including those who are in the country illegally – who are facing or have been convicted of violent felonies. The state’s “One California” program already provides $45 million in grants every year to non-profit organizations to provide immigration-related legal services, with the REP Act aimed at further expanding the resources illegal aliens would have access to.
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