California is ready to take on the Justice Department.
That’s according to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who was responding to a lawsuit against the state brought by Attorney General Jeff Sessions over immigration laws.
“I find it very disingenuous that you have people that for generations talk about state rights and all of a sudden their talking about federal supremacy,” he said in a Cheddar interview Wednesday.
The Justice Department and immigration agencies this week sued California over its “sanctuary” laws, which prohibit local and state authorities, as well as private employers, from cooperating with federal immigration officers.
Sessions, who filed the suit Wednesday, said California’s policy threatens national safety.
Gascón, though, said the state doesn’t prevent immigration officials from going into California and doing their jobs. It’s simply not actively cooperating. He argued that immigrants are important to California’s social fabric and provide a “major economic engine.”
“I think that this is an administration that is failing on so many fronts, and what they’re trying to do is create another diversion,” he told Cheddar. “All of this is really a political stunt that is driven by very racist attitude and has nothing to do with public safety.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-sanctuary-city-legal-battle).
A bill to give Kentucky residents access to medical marijuana could go up for a full state House vote as soon as this week.
The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, February 18, 2020.
State Senator Tom Umberg introduced legislation to regulate DNA data collected by popular testing services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced last month that tariffs as high as 100 percent could be added to products such as Irish and Scotch whiskeys, Cognac, and Parmesan cheese as soon as mid-February.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
For the first time, China disclosed information about the effect of the virus on medical workers — 1,716 medical workers have contracted the novel coronavirus and six have died.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, February 14, 2020.
The former NYC mayor tried something different in the Democratic primary race so far, pushing memes on Instagram that left some potential voters and experts scratching their heads.
Activist and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor Brendan Duff joined hip-hop star will.i.am to promote a new documentary about the tragic day and to stand up for young voters.
