“LA is Broke. Karen Bass May Soon Bankrupt It, Embarrass It (Further) and Help Elect JD Vance” by Daniel Guss
The #Kakistocracy continues as Sanctuary City theatrics are about to ensue.
In the wake of Donald Trump beating Kamala Harris two weeks ago to become the 47th president of the United States, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, like her fellow sanctuary city mayors, suddenly postures for a formal law that prevents city assets and personnel from being used for federal immigration enforcement. In fact, she even wants to formally ban communicating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
I write posturing because she, her peers and their predecessors could have addressed this issue long ago.
This is how the rushed proposed legislation reads on today’s LA City Council agenda, Item #52.
Now watch how the kneejerk stupidity of LA City Council is likely to unfold.
They are going to stoke fears and say that the law will protect abuelitas, or adored grandmothers, street vendors and working class Angelenos from being rounded up and thrown out of the United States, let alone without due process.
That’s an understandable fear.
But what I am watching for is whether such a law will include a carve-out for anyone who is unlawfully in the U.S. intending to do harm, such as drug traffickers, human traffickers, gang members, foreign agents, felon-level convicts and terrorists where there is an urgent need to identify, locate, capture and process for deportation. Jails and prisons are teeming with them.
One would think that local officials wouldn’t want them back on the streets…
So why isn’t there a carve-out for this low-hanging fruit?
Because politicians love to grandstand. They know that the local media will unwittingly celebrate them without questioning them, although fewer will do the cheering now that the entire left wing LA Times editorial board has been pink-slipped.
But there are several unintended consequences of legislating this way.
One is that the grandstanding will draw more people to Los Angeles from non-sanctuary cities as well as recent border crossers.
Another is that doing this will make Los Angeles a prime target for ICE, which has indicated that it will flood the zone with its agents and cast a much wider net for deportation, including those who are simply here unlawfully.
And third, it’s going to get costly.
Scroll back up to the agenda item and notice that there’s a section titled “Fiscal Impact Statement,” which reads:
"Fiscal Impact Statement: None submitted by the City Attorney. Neither the City Administrative Officer nor the Chief Legislative Analyst has completed a financial analysis of this report.”
Why do you think these political hacks haven’t addressed the fiscal consequences of this agenda item?
Have they nothing to say?
Oh, they have plenty to say, but won’t.
Just look at other parts of today’s agenda to see just a sliver of the money that Bass and City Council want from the federal government.
Item #13 is about grant applications for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Item #14 is about grant funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Item #21 is about a grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
And that’s just for starters.
In 2021, the federal government provided California state and local governments more than $143 billion, much of which trickles down to its biggest city and county, Los Angeles.
Even with all of that federal government money, Bass’s Los Angeles is so broke, it’s borrowing massive sums of money just to pay its liability lawsuit settlements.
Do you know what else these officials and the local news media aren’t telling you?
They’re not telling you about H.R. 5717, the No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act, which passed in the House of Representatives and was sent in September to the Senate, which is redder due to Trump’s landslide.
There’s your dang ol’ Fiscal Impact Statement!
If H.R. 5717 gets out of committee and passes in the Senate, it goes to Trump.
So good luck, Karen Bass, if and when the GOP-controlled federal government makes an example of Los Angeles by (a) flooding the zone with ICE agents, (b) deporting the criminally minded low-hanging fruit that you’re going out of your way to keep in our communities and anyone else caught-up in the wide net it will cast and (c) withholding federal funds that you desperately need just to keep your corrupt, crumbling government afloat.
And Vice President-elect J.D. Vance would use Los Angeles (and Chicago, New York and elsewhere) as a prime example of why he should succeed Trump as president in ‘28.
How do you think the Supreme Court is going to look by then? 7-2? 8-1?
How do you think it will look in ‘32?
What if the feds start looking closer at her deal with USC and other not-yet-disclosed corruption matters? What about less-legitimate lawfare?
Or perhaps something else is afoot.
Is the posturing just posturing? Will the LAPD and other local law enforcement quietly cooperate with ICE, with or without Bass’s knowledge and approval?
After all, she comes from Congress.
That’s how things are done there.
It’s how things are done here, too.
That’s where I think this might be headed. A lot of boisterous posturing coupled with quiet cooperation. Everyone advances. Everyone stays in office. Everyone moves up a notch. The money continues to flow.
Except the public is never told the truth.
Get the popcorn. I’mma keep my eyes on this caper for all y’all.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)