Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
What is going on in our once Golden State? Governor Jerry Brown and the state legislature are intent on making California a sanctuary state, adding insult to injury to the state’s existing sanctuary cities. 
Additional legislation is underway to force landlords to conceal information, under penalty of law, on any illegal immigrant tenants renting their properties. Even California’s universities have taken steps to create sanctuary campuses. All of this insanity is in defiance of federal laws, including laws requiring local police to turn over illegal immigrants in custody to federal immigration authorities for possible deportation.  Governor Brown has hired former attorney general Eric Holder to aggressively defend California’s sanctuary status that ignores federal laws designed to protect California’s citizens.
California mayors claim that shielding illegal immigrants creates safer neighborhoods because these illegals are more willing to cooperate with police, knowing their immigration status will not be asked for or divulged.  That argument is difficult, if not impossible to prove.  Because of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s sanctuary city policy, Anthony Bologna, two of his three sons and Kate Steinle all tragically lost their lives while enjoying a day in the city. 
On June 22, 2008, Anthony, Michael, and Matthew Bologna, on their way home from a family barbecue, were mistakenly identified as gang members and shot down in cold blood near their residence in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. The triple murder was committed by Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador and a member of the notorious MS13 gang.  Ramos, who immigrated to the Bay Area as a teenager and had twice served probation for a gang related assault and the attempted robbery of a pregnant woman, was never deported for those crimes thanks to San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.
 On July 15, 2015 Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deportee, fired three shots from a stolen .40 caliber handgun at Pier 14 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero waterfront.  One of the bullets struck 32-year-old Kate Steinle, who was enjoying the day walking along the pier with her father, Jim.   The bullet pierced her aorta and she collapsed, calling for her father to please help her.  Kate Steinle died two hours later at San Francisco General Hospital.  Ironically, the gun Sanchez fired had been stolen in downtown San Francisco from a Bureau of Land Management officer’s personal vehicle.  Because San Francisco refused to honor an ICE detainer request, Kate Steinle lost her life.                        
California, under dominant liberal Democrat leadership, appears to be evolving into a rogue state, much to the chagrin of many of its citizens.  Defiance of federal law has now spawned efforts to secede from the Union.  Sadly, unabated liberalism could move this state on an irreversible path to ruin. 

 Bob Teglia
 Manteca