Fact Check: No, California Hasn’t Had an ‘Incredible’ Decade
6:15
CLAIM: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says California had an “incredible” decade because it stood up for “our values” and took on “big issues.”
VERDICT: Mostly false. California’s economy recovered, but it lags behind in other areas.
Newsom tweeted on New Year’s Day: “What an incredible decade. We’ve accomplished so much in CA by standing up for our values and taking on some of the biggest issues — from healthcare to gun violence to climate change.”
Curiously, Newsom did not cite the state’s economic or fiscal progress, but its “values.” That is because much of what Newsom and the Democrats value in California has to do with good intentions, rather than real-world results.
California’s only “achievement” in health care is extending “free” benefits to illegal aliens. Despite gun control, it led the nation in “mass slayings” last year. And its effect on global climate is negligible, as its energy costs climb.
When Breitbart News asked Newsom last month how he would defend his state against conservative criticism, he cited California’s economic recovery, and noted that the state now runs a budget surplus, rather than a deficit.
But these trends, while commendable, are inseparable from the recovery of the nation as a whole. Though the state remains a hothouse for high-tech and media startups, thousands of companies left the state due to its high taxes, heavy regulations, and litigious environment.
Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, once said: “We’ve got a few problems, we have lots of little burdens and regulations and taxes … But smart people figure out how to make it.”
That attitude sums up California’s economic development over the decade: incredible, and growing, wealth at the top, among the tech elite and the well-connected — while the poor grow, and the middle class stagnates, or leaves.
As Leo Tolstoy said, by way of Isaiah Berlin: “The leaves of a tree delight us more than the roots.” And the roots of California’s progress have rotted over the past decade, under both Brown and Newsom, by a variety of measures.
Middle-class exodus: From 2007 to 2016, California lost a net million residents — some 2.5% of its population (which still grows due to births and immigration). The high cost of living — driven by high taxes and the shortage of housing — is a major factor. With homeowners and small business owners — the Republican base — leaving, Democrats and their policies become entrenched, though the state may lose a congressional seat after the Census.
Power shortages: The state that leads the nation, and the world, in technological innovation cannot keep the lights on any longer — not since the Pacific Gas & Electric Company began shutting off the electricity last year during high winds to prevent wildfires and protect itself from liability. After focusing on “green” energy and letting nuclear plants go dark, the state government was unprepared for the basic task of making sure California had enough power.
Homelessness: The most visible change in California over the past decade has been the surge in homelessness — 16.4% in 2018 alone, which “entirely” accounted for the nation’s overall 2.7% rise. Tent cities are becoming a common sight in the big cities, and even in rural towns. The state has done nothing to address the root causes of homelessness; it keeps offering generous welfare benefits and asking the federal government for housing money.
Drought: California suffered one of the worst droughts in its history for much of the decade. The effects were made worse because the state has failed to invest in new water storage infrastructure for decades. Though politicians point to climate change (inaccurately) as the cause of recent wildfires, poor forestry management — state and federal — plus restrictions on logging and poor residential planning have turned natural variation into man-made disasters.
Infrastructure: The state suffers from a massive backlog in infrastructure spending. Democrats recently provided more funding for the state’s roads — through an unpopular, regressive gas tax hike rather than spending cuts on less urgent priorities. But one of Newsom’s first acts as governor was to cancel much of the state’s high-speed rail plan, which had already sunk billions of federal dollars into plans for a rural segment no one had any interest in using.
Education: The past decade saw California schools continue to underperform. Reform movements, championing school choice, public charters, merit pay, and other proven innovations, gained support in minority communities and even won in local school board elections — only to be crushed, repeatedly, by teachers-union-backed candidates at the state level. For California’s children, a decade of underachievement in public schools could have lifelong effects.
Crime: Though crime remains at historically low levels, the past decade saw periods of increased crime in many areas, thanks in part to ill-conceived prison reforms such as Proposition 47, which focused on reducing sentences and downgrading many crimes. Notorious crimes committed by illegal aliens — such as the killing of Kate Steinle in 2015 — became national symbols of the lack of immigration enforcement and a general decline in the rule of law.
As this article was about to be published, Newsom added more claims about California’s success:
Spending some time looking back on 2019. CA made some serious "first-in-the-nation" and big moves...
545 people are talking about this
Noticeably absent: any mention of results, aside from the low unemployment rate, for which President Donald Trump can also claim credit.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
ONLY ABOUT ONE IN EIGHT BORDER JUMPERS ARE ACTUALLY CAUGHT.
THE REST GO ON TO LOOT JOB, WELFARE, SOCIAL SERVICES AND THEN VOTE DEMOCRAT FOR
MORE
4.3M
Migrants Caught at SW Border in Decade — More Than Los Angeles Population
Moises Castillo/AP
Photo, File
30 Dec 2019588
5:00
Border Patrol agents apprehended
more than four million migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border with
Mexico during the past 10 fiscal years. If these migrants were placed into a
single city, it would be larger than Los Angeles by population.
During the past 10 fiscal years,
October 1, 2009, through September 30, 2019, U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned
to the nine sectors that make up the United States’ southwest border with
Mexico apprehended 4,318,200 migrants. The highest year during that decade for
apprehensions occurred during Fiscal Year 2019 when agents apprehended 851,553
— including 76,020 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and 473,682 Family Unit
Aliens (FMUA), according to reports obtained from U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.
Apprehensions by Fiscal Year:
- FY2019 — 851,553
- FY2018 — 396,579
- FY2017 — 303,916
- FY2016 — 408,870
- FY2015 — 331,333
- FY2014 — 479,371
- FY2013 — 414,397
- FY2012 — 356,873
- FY2011 — 327,577
- FY2010 — 447,731
During the past decade, Rio Grande
Valley (RGV) Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended the largest numbers of
migrants. Between fiscal years 2010 and 2019, RGV Sector agents apprehended
1,600,663 migrants who illegally crossed the border into South Texas, the
reports state.
Agents assigned to the Tucson Sector
had the second-highest number of total apprehensions — 946,948. The Big Bend
Sector in West Texas had the lowest number of total apprehensions — 56,149.
The report shows a shifting in
migration traffic during the past decade. In FY2010, the Tucson Sector reported
the highest number of apprehensions — 212,202. This changed in FY2013 when the
largest apprehension numbers shifted to the RGV Sector.
In Fiscal Year 2019, RGV agents
apprehended 339,135 migrants including 34,523 UACs and 211,631 FMUAs.
During the past 10 fiscal years,
Border Patrol agents apprehended a total of 433,216 unaccompanied minors.
Officials reported that more than half of those apprehensions, 235,050 took
place in the RGV Sector.
FMUA apprehension numbers for the
decade were not readily available. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials
provided statistics for Fiscal Years 2013 through 2019. During that period,
Border Patrol agents apprehended 857,328 family units. More than half of these,
463,811, occurred in the RGV Sector.
FMUA apprehensions represent the
largest increase in migrant demographics. The number of apprehensions jumped
from 14,855 in FY2013 to 473,682 in FY2019 — an increase of more than 3,000
percent. Again, more than half of the FMUA apprehensions occurred in the RGV
Sector — 463,811.
With three fiscal years missing from
the FMUA report, FMUA and UAC apprehensions account for 1.3 million of the
total 4.3 million apprehensions. These demographics also represent the highest
cost to U.S. taxpayers in terms of processing, transporting, feeding, and
providing healthcare, Border Patrol officials repeatedly state.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news
contributor for the Breitbart
Texas-Border team. He is an original
member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
Migrants Flooded
the Border in 2019 — Census Bureau Claims the Inflow Dropped
31 Dec 2019196
8:53
The Census Bureau claims that
immigration dropped to just 595,000 people in the 12 months up to mid-2019, but
the estimate is built on conflicting data, said Steven Camarota, a statistician
at the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Net
immigration is a very hard thing to measure because there is so much sampling
variability” amid continued arrivals and departures, he said, adding that
President Donald Trump’s pro-American policies may be prompting illegal
migrants to evade surveys.
The
bureau’s conflicting migrant population estimates are hidden under the bureau’s
claim that the nation’s population rose by just 0.5 percent from
July 2018 to July 2019, up to 328 million. The number is low partly
because the bureau says the resident population of legal and illegal migrants
rose by only 595,000 during the year up to July 2019.
But
the Department of Homeland Security reported that 700,000 migrants crossed the
southeastern border in the nine months before July 2019. The vast majority of
those Central American migrants were allowed to stay pending their eventual
asylum hearings.
That
inflow of 700,000 migrants does not include the inflow of many illegal
immigrants, the inflow of people who overstay
their visas, nor the back-and-forth flow of roughly two
million white-collar and blue-collar temporary workers, nor
the legal
immigrant inflow that has been about one million per year,
even as 3.8 million new Americans were born during the same period.
Trump
sharply reduced the flow of border migrants in the second half of 2019 and may
have reduced the number of new overstays and new illegals. But Congress and
business have blocked his 2018 efforts to shrink legal immigration.
Business
groups and investors want
the federal government to stimulate their economic growth and stock values
by adding more
immigrant workers and more consumers. Faster
population growth means higher forecasts for economic consumption, sales,
housing prices, and profits, thus boosting the value of stock prices on Wall
Street.
So
business groups are touting the bureau’s new low-ball estimate to demand even
more migration. For example, the New
York Times portrayed the
bureau’s new claim of slow immigrant growth as bad for investors and the
economy:
William
H. Frey, a noted demographer and senior
fellow at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview Monday
that the percentage increase was the lowest in a century. The growth rate
during the most recent decade, about 6.7 percent, is expected to be the lowest
since the government started taking population counts around 1790, he said.
“This
is a huge downturn in the nation’s growth,” Mr. Frey said. “This is even lower
than the Great Depression.”
Census
watchers say that one of the biggest reasons for the stagnancy of the
population is the decrease in the number of new immigrants. a trend that has
continued through President Trump’s first three years in office.
…
“The
immigration is really the [economic] safety valve for us going forward,” Mr.
Frey said of population growth. “I think that immigration is an important part
of what we have to think about going forward.”
In
contrast, wage-earning Americans gain from a reduced migrant inflow. Any
declines in worker population pressure employers to compete for new employees
by offering higher wages and by training sidelined Americans. The slower
population growth also allows young Americans to migrate to good jobs in other
regions, and to buy homes in good locations at lower costs. Slower population
growth also forces employers to buy labor-saving machines to allow employees to
earn more by getting more work done each day.
Those
changes also mean that slower population growth — via lower births or reduced
immigration — also tends to transfer wealth from older investors back to young
wage-earners. “Throughout American history, even during the Great Depression,
business always says they don’t have enough workers,” said Camarota, adding:
That’s
true today as well – [because] they always want to keep wages down [and] they
have an [economic] interest in an ever-more densely populated America. Whether
that is in the interest of the American people already here that is a different
question.
Almost 50% of U.S. employees got higher wages in 2019, up
from almost 40% in 2018.
That's useful progress - but wage growth will likely rise
faster if Congress stopped inflating the labor supply for the benefit of
business. http://bit.ly/2SyaLg7
Pay Raises and Training Expand in Donald Trump's Tight
Labor Market
However,
the Associated Press pushed the same pro-migration,
pro-growth theme. “Immigration is a wildcard in that
it is something we can do something about,” Frey said. “Immigrants tend to be
younger and have children, and they can make a population younger.”
“Immigration
is no fix for an aging society,” said Camarota. “The immigrants grow old,
and they don’t have that many children.” Currently, “everybody has
got low fertility … and the fertility of young immigrants has declined more
than the fertility of natives,” he said.
Some
of the population data is easy to count accurately. For example, government
agencies and hospitals reported just 3,791,712 births and 2,835,038 deaths
in 2019, so boosting the native-born population by only 956,674.
But
estimates for immigration are far more difficult, said Camarota.
For
example, the two Census Bureau population-tracking estimates lag far
behind the news.
In
November, the bureau released its 2018 American Community Survey that excluded
data from the second half of 2018 and all of 2019. So the 2018 report missed
the inflow of roughly 800,000 migrants across the border in 2019 as it reported
that 1.45 million new legal and illegal immigrants settled in the United
States during 2017.
The
estimated 1.45 million immigrant inflow in 2017 is down from 1.75 million
migrants in 2016 and the 1.62 million migrants in 2015, but it was
also more than any year between 2002 to 2013.
Alongside
the ACS, the bureau also releases the Current Population Survey (CPS). It
“showed a significantly larger total number of [legal and illegal] immigrants
in 2018 (45.8 million) vs. the total shown in the ACS (44.7 million),” said
a November
analysis by Camarota.
“A
recent news story in the New
York Times announced that growth in the immigrant population “Slows to a
Trickle,” said an October report by
CIS, which explained:
An
op-ed in the Times a
few weeks later went even further, mistakenly
interpreting the earlier report as meaning that “immigration fell 70%”
in the last year. The writers interpret this as the result of President Trump’s
immigration policy changes.
But
it is not clear that any slowdown in immigration has actually taken place.
First,
growth in the immigrant population does not measure new arrivals; immigrants
come and go, so the net change in the total is not the same as the annual
number of new arrivals.
More
important, though, is that the two Census Bureau surveys that measure the
foreign-born have recently diverged in unexpected ways. The Times news story correctly
reports the results of one of those data sources, the American Community Survey
(ACS), showing a growth of 200,000 immigrants. But the other data source, the
Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC, or
just CPS for short), shows an increase of 1.6 million in the immigrant
population between 2017 and 2018 – quite the opposite of “slowing to a
trickle”.
These
annual differences produce larger differences over several years, said the CIS
report:
In
terms of growth, the ACS shows a 4.8 million increase from 2010 to 2018 in the
immigrant population, while the [2018] CPS shows a 6.9 million increase over
the same period. The just-released 2019 CPS shows an increase of 7.3 million
since 2010 …
From
2015 to 2019, growth in the immigrant population averaged one million in the
CPS, while in the ACS it averaged 600,000 from 2015 to 2018 (Figure 1 and Table
1).
NYT's Tom Edsall says Trump's immigration-reform voters
are 'snakes and vermin.'
Edsall usually tries to understand ordinary Americans'
concerns. But he & his elite peers live in a bubble & just don't see
immigration's huge economic damage to Americans.http://bit.ly/2YQO7Aq
NYT Columnist: American 'Snakes and Vermin' Support
Trump's Immigration Policy
The
swearing-in of new citizens also lags,he Census Bureau reports. The
naturalization data show that a record number of immigrants became citizens —
and possible voters — in 2019:
11 year high! @realDonaldTrump and his administration are pro-LEGAL immigration, while being tough on
ILLEGAL immigration. https://twitter.com/USCIS/status/1211693430562275328 …
CALIFORNIA: now a colony of Mexico
By Jessica Vaughan
Earlier this week ICE released its 2019 report on enforcement activity. While overall removals increased due to a record number of illegal arrivals at the southwest border, removals from the interior declined by 10 percent. Meanwhile, ICE's caseload grew by 24 percent, with more than 630,000 cases added to its docket, which has grown to a record high of more than three million cases.
THOMAS
HOMAN, the former acting head of
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
warned Democrats running in 2020 about
“enticing” illegal immigrants with lax policies.
"They
say they care about these people, they
care
about children dying and women being
raped...
they need to look in the mirror
because
if you keep offering enticements...
'sanctuary
cities'... free health care... in-state
tuition...
people are going to put themselves in
harm's
way to come to this country," Homan
Six-Time
Deported Illegal
Alien Accused of Killing
Colorado Grandmother
29 Dec 20192,239
1:57
A six-time deported
illegal alien has been arrested for allegedly killing a 51-year-old Colorado
grandmother after being released from local law enforcement custody.
Juan Sanchez, a Mexican
illegal alien who has already been deported from the United States six times
over the last decade, was arrested last week and charged with vehicular
homicide and fleeing the scene of an accident after he allegedly hit and killed
Annette Conquering Bear, a grandmother, while she was walking home from
Walgreens, 9 News reported.
Sanchez, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) officials revealed, was deported from the U.S. twice in 2002,
three times in 2008, and in 2012. Sometime after his last deportation, he
illegally re-entered the U.S. for the seventh time.
“Sanchez is an ICE enforcement priority,”
ICE officials said in a statement.
Four days before Conquering Bear’s killing,
Sanchez was in local law enforcement custody on suspicion of drunk driving but
was released after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said
they did not have enough time in advance to lodge a detainer against him so he
could be turned over to their custody.
During that arrest, Sanchez was allegedly
driving drunk with a blood-alcohol level of 0.183, which is twice the legal
limit. Police said Sanchez admitted to having had “two beers” before getting in
his car and driving with an “international driver’s license.”
Sanchez was taken into custody at the time
and was then quickly released after he became uncooperative and allegedly
telling officers, “I’ll fight my way out of jail.”
The illegal alien is now being held on a $500,000
bond.
Sanctuary City Released Human Rights Violator
And then NYC hit the snooze button on this wake-up call
In my last post, I discussed a Liberian
amnesty provision that was snuck into section 7611
of the National Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2020. I specifically
referenced the case of Liberian human rights violator Charles
Cooper, who
was removed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Liberia in
June 2018. I left out the part about how the New York Police Department (NYPD)
failed to honor an ICE detainer for him, and released him without even
notifying the agency. The incident does not reflect well on those who set the
rules for New York's finest.
Cooper entered the United
States in January 2006 on a nonimmigrant visa, and remained beyond his
authorized return date. He was no ordinary visa overstay. According to ICE, Cooper
"served as a bodyguard to former Liberian President Charles Taylor and was
a member of a paramilitary police unit called the Secret Security Service
(SSS)."
ICE continued:
"Cooper, while a member of the SSS and the National Patriotic Front of
Liberia [NPLF], was directly involved in the persecution of civilians in
Liberia." In addition to identifying Cooper as "a human rights
violator," the agency asserted that he was "a member of an
organization known for setting fires to whole villages."
The aforementioned Charles Taylor is a special case.
He was a Liberian civil servant in the 1980s, and was accused of embezzlement.
He made his way to the United States, but escaped from prison in Massachusetts
where he was being held for extradition, and travelled back to West Africa. He
thereafter formed the NPFL, and in 1989 launched attacks against the Liberian
government from the Ivory Coast, igniting Liberia's first civil war.
Global
Security explains
that between December 1989 and the middle of 1993, the NPFL "is estimated
to have been responsible for thousands of deliberate killings of civilians. As
NPFL forces advanced towards Monrovia in 1990, they targeted people of the
Krahn and Mandingo ethnic groups, both of which the NPFL considered supporters
of [then-Liberian President Samuel] Doe's government."
Various factions became
involved in the conflict, including the NPFL; forces that were loyal to Doe;
the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and their Nigerian-led
peacekeeping force, ECOMOG; and the breakaway Independent National Patriotic
Front of Liberia (INPFL), which was led by Prince Johnson. INPFL captured, mutilated,
and killed Doe on September 10, 1990.
The first bloody civil war
ended with Taylor's election as president in 1997. According to Britannica, however:
As
president, Taylor restructured the army, filling it with members of his former
militia. Conflict ensued between Taylor and the opposition, and Monrovia became
the scene of widespread gun battles and looting. Governments around the world
accused Taylor of supporting rebels in Sierra Leone, and in 2000 the United
Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberia. The country was
subsequently gripped again by civil war, and Taylor, accused of gross human
rights violations, was indicted by a UN-sponsored war-crimes tribunal (the
Special Court for Sierra Leone) in 2003.
Following
widespread international condemnation, Taylor agreed to go into exile in Nigeria.
In March 2006, however, the Liberian government requested Taylor's extradition,
and Nigeria announced that it would comply with the order. Taylor subsequently
attempted to flee Nigeria but was quickly captured. Charged with crimes against
humanity and war crimes committed during Sierra Leone's civil war, he was later
sent to The Hague, where he was to be tried before the Special Court for Sierra
Leone.
Taylor was found guilty in
April 2012 on 11 counts "of bearing responsibility for the war crimes and
crimes against humanity committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone's civil
war", and subsequently sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Back to Cooper. As noted, he entered as
a nonimmigrant with permission to remain until August 2006. When he failed to
depart, he was placed into removal proceedings. He was ordered removed by an
immigration judge and appealed the decision, which was dismissed by the Board
of Immigration Appeals in February 2016.
According to ICE:
On
Aug. 11, 2017, Cooper was arrested by the New York Police Department, and
charged with DWI. On that same date, [ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations
(ERO)] deportation officers lodged an immigration detainer with the NYPD's
Richmond Central Booking. Cooper was released from NYPD custody, without the
detainer being honored and without notification to ICE.
Fortunately, in May 2018,
ICE deportation officers arrested Cooper in Staten Island, New York, leading to
his removal.
As my former
colleague Preston
Huennekens reported:
"In March 2013, New York City began ignoring [ICE] detainer notices."
According to ICE, the agency had "not
been notified about the release of aliens in custody at New York City
facilities since 2014, except for those that fall within the 170 crimes
considered egregious by the Mayor's Office." Apparently, human rights
violators do not make the cut.
Huennekens noted that in just
one three-month period (January to mid-April 2018), the NYPD and the New York
Department of Corrections together ignored 440 detainers; "40 of those
individuals released from custody subsequently committed more crimes and were
arrested again." About this, ICE stated: "In
just three months, more than three dozen criminal aliens were released from
local custody. Simply put, the politics and rhetoric in this city are putting
its own communities at an unnecessary risk."
To restate the obvious:
Sanctuary policies, including those that prevent ICE from finding out about the
release of dangerous aliens and that require police to ignore ICE detainers,
make no sense. They only serve as sanctuary for criminals, or in Cooper's case,
human rights violators.
Cooper should have served
as a wake-up call to those in power who, for purely political reasons, require
the NYPD to turn a blind eye to ICE's requests for help. But instead, as
Huennekens' reporting demonstrates, Gotham's officials simply hit the snooze
button.
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