A triple homicide is committed, allegedly by someone the system had multiple opportunities to remove but chose not to, due to deliberate noncooperation by California. Families are shattered. The community is mourning. We have every right to call this simply outrageous.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t misfortune. It\u2019s policy malpractice with a body count.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And it perfectly embodies the indefensible standoff between California\u2019s feel-good sanctuary<\/a> model and actual federal immigration law.<\/p>\n As of early this year, DHS reported that sanctuary jurisdictions<\/a> in California had released over 4,500 individuals\u00a0with active ICE detainers since Jan. 20, 2025 \u2013\u2013 including people with convictions or charges for homicide, sexual offenses, assault, drug trafficking, and weapons crimes.<\/p>\n And it perfectly embodies the indefensible standoff between California\u2019s feel-good sanctuary model and actual federal immigration law. James Keivom<\/p>\n Joaquin Escoto, accused of slaying an infant and two women in Modesto, fits the profile of a repeat offender the federal government sought to remove.<\/p>\n California\u2019s excuse for defying the feds? \u201cBuilding trust\u201d and \u201cnot turning cops into immigration agents.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The practical result? Shielding repeat offenders like Escoto, who had already been thrown out of the country three times<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The law in California makes enforcement harder by design, when applied to repeat deportees with criminal records.\u00a0<\/p>\n Honoring a simple ICE notification request after a DUI arrest for someone already removed from this country three times is not \u201cmass deportation\u201d or family separation theater.<\/p>\n Joaquin Escoto, accused of slaying an infant and two women in Modesto, fits the profile of a repeat offender the federal government sought to remove. stocktonchronicle<\/p>\n It is basic coordination of public safety between sovereign levels of government on a matter of federal authority.<\/p>\n And California is not being obliged to enforce federal law. On the contrary, the state actively obstructs it and withholds routine public-safety information.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is no moral or practical excuse for shielding someone like Escoto from federal removal after repeated re-entries and criminal activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Shouting \u201cprotect immigrants\u201d loses credibility when it shields individuals who prey on vulnerable people, often in those same immigrant communities.<\/p>\n At rallies, mantras like \u201cF\u2014k ICE\u201d, and \u201cICE out of California\u201d chants from activists, unions, teachers, students, and politicians, reflect an ideological absolutism that treats all enforcement as illegitimate, and views any cooperation with ICE as moral treason.<\/p>\n This mindset has real victims, clearly.<\/p>\n And California is not being obliged to enforce federal law. On the contrary, the state actively obstructs it and withholds routine public-safety information.\u00a0 AP Photo\/Andres Kudacki<\/p>\n The Trump administration calls this what it is: a deliberate protection racket for criminal aliens at the expense of American lives.<\/p>\n California\u2019s response? More laws, to tie ICE\u2019s hands tighter.<\/p>\n Ditto in Los Angeles, where on Saturday, Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman boasted on X of her plan \u201cto make LA the strongest sanctuary city in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Supremacy Clause, immigration is squarely the federal government\u2019s turf. Congress has the power here, and statutes like 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1373 exist precisely to stop states from blocking local cops from talking to ICE.<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> Yet California\u2019s sanctuary laws turn local jails into revolving doors.<\/p>\n The state prohibits the honoring of ICE detainers without a judicial warrant, blocks routine notifications, and forbids the use of any state resources to help remove people the feds want gone.<\/p>\n California has, through a supermajority Democratic Legislature and screw-loose Gov. Gavin Newsom, weaponized sanctuary protection into active sabotage.<\/p>\n And criminals, instead of facing deportation, are set free in California to offend again.<\/p>\n Yet California\u2019s sanctuary laws turn local jails into revolving doors. AP<\/p>\n Federal supremacy on immigration meets state-level nullification.<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s funding pressures and enforcement surges are the predictable backlash. And courts keep slapping down federal actions, so the stalemate continues, with victims piling up.<\/p>\n Defenders still trot out the usual, tired script: \u201cOverall immigrant crime is low,\u201d \u201cthese cases are rare,\u201d \u201cdue process matters.\u201d Tell that to the surviving child of this triple murder.<\/p>\n When sanctuary policy deliberately blocks handoffs to the feds of known repeat offenders, you don\u2019t get to wave it away as \u201cunfortunate coincidence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There is no excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is no serious defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t \u201cprotecting immigrants.\u201d It\u2019s protecting criminals like Escoto from consequences and accountability under federal law.<\/p>\n This is sanctuary extremism \u2013\u2013 not compassionate governance, but performative ideology with lethal consequences.<\/p>\n While California\u2019s political and activist classes pat themselves on the back for sticking it to ICE, hard-working Americans watch families get destroyed and wonder why basic public safety keeps losing to open-border theater.<\/p>\n Richie Greenberg is a political commentator based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t
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