Santa Ana City Council Votes to Condemn Trump's Travel Ban

Hat tip John Galt


In a predictable move, the Santa Ana (California) City Council voted 4-2 last night to condemn President Trump's travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim nations. Santa Ana is a predominately Hispanic city that is plagued by gang violence. The entire civic center where government offices are located is inhabited by homeless people living in tents and reminding one of San Francisco. The city council had recently declared the city to be a sanctuary city.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/councilman-743450-resolution-villegas.html

I attended part of the session. I signed up to speak (3 minutes) during the public comments portion. I intended to urge the council members to vote down the resolution. I intended to state that it was not targeted at Muslims per se and was not anti-immigrant. I also intended to say that President Carter had ordered a similar travel restriction on Iranians during the hostage crisis, and that per 8 USC Ch. 12, 1882, the president had the legal authority to institute such a ban.

http://johngaltfla.com/wordpress/2017/01/28/one-more-time-for-the-stupid-liberals-here-is-the-us-code-justifying-trumps-executive-order/

"Here is the pertinent law, Title 8, Chapter 12, US Code 1182, courtesy of Cornell University Law’s website:

(f) Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. Whenever the Attorney General finds that a commercial airline has failed to comply with regulations of the Attorney General relating to requirements of airlines for the detection of fraudulent documents used by passengers traveling to the United States (including the training of personnel in such detection), the Attorney General may suspend the entry of some or all aliens transported to the United States by such airline."

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Earlier in the day, CAIR had put out an action alert to the local Muslim community urging them to attend the meeting. When I arrived the hall was almost full, but was almost entirely Hispanic. There were no demonstrations going on outside. Once the session began, I sat for about 1 and a half hours waiting for the public comments to begin. It was the usual nonsense, proclamations, certificates being given to various people and then discussions of various measures. Like most city council meetings, it was torturous. Then, just as I figured they were going to get to the public comments, they started talking about some funding issue with summer camps. At that point, a procession of  seventy listed speakers began stepping to the microphone. Seventy-70. After the first 2 or three, I threw in the towel and went home. As I left people were waiting in line to fill the seats left by those leaving. I saw about 15 older Muslim folks in the rear of the line. No protests, no posters.

From my own familiarity with Santa Ana, I know there are many good folks living there. The city has a lot of problems, however. Looking at the homeless encampments around the civic center, I couldn't help thinking that the city council must have more important things to do than pass meaningless resolutions opposing a perfectly legal travel ban designed to protect all of us.