California Democrats should be forced to go on the record to end sanctuary protections for illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes against minors, said one lawmaker who is attempting to do just that.
Republican state Rep. Bill Essayli said he will again introduce a bill to repeal provisions of a state law that prohibits local authorities from participating in federal immigration enforcement of any kind, including banning law enforcement from asking someone about their immigration status and informing immigration authorities about when a suspect is due to be released from local custody.
The law, SB 54, also known as the "California Values Act," is sometimes referred to as a "Sanctuary State" law. Next week, Essayli will put forth AB 2641, which would require law enforcement to comply with federal immigration requests to detain or transfer someone or notify immigration agents of the pending release of someone convicted of sex crimes against a child.
The bill was previously introduced to lawmakers but the powerful Democratic-dominated Assembly Public Safety Committee refused to hold a hearing on it, Essayli said.
"They don't want to justify or explain why they're protecting pedophiles from deportation," he told Fox News Digital.
The committee came under fire last year when it initially blocked a bill that would have made human trafficking of children a serious felony. The body eventually reversed course after outcry from the public and Democratic leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Agnes Gibboney, who immigrated to the United States from communist Hungary and whose son was murdered in the driveway of their California home in 2002, put the blame on elected officials.
"They forgot that they are working for all of us," Gibboney, who is a U.S. citizen and Angel Mom, told Fox News Digital. "They have equal rights to protect the Latino community, as well as the American community, the Asian community, the Black community, everybody, and they're not."
"They're just protecting a certain class of people… and that is a disgrace," she added. "What is the point of protecting a person who rapes a little child?"
Essayli said he was inspired to seek a legislative fix to California's immigration policies by a recent case in which a Colombian citizen convicted of sex crimes in California was arrested in Massachusetts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. He was released from a correctional facility in California, but the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office was "hampered in its ability to assist in the case, due to California state law limiting local law enforcement cooperation with ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)," ICE said.
Targeting illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes against children instead of everyone in the country illegally is also a strategic move, said Essayli.
"I want to put them (Democrats) on defense and have them explain we shouldn't do this," he said. "The problem is if I just do a bill to reverse sanctuary state completely, they're going to roll out the grandmas or some kid who was convicted of something minor, saying ‘He’s going to be deported now. He's never been to that country as an adult.' We're going to hear the sob stories."
"Let's pick the worst of the worst and have the Democrats justify and defend the policy," he added.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the California Democratic Party.
Gibboney is urging lawmakers to vote for a "sane bill" he says is much-needed in California.
"These are how the laws used to be," she said. "And who gave the order down the line to tell police officers that they can't do their job?"
