LA County for Trump Sweeps South Bay: No On SB 54

Since mid-March 2018, residents and patriots throughout the state of California have been pushing for their cities and counties to opt out of SB 54 in any way possible.

I have written a number of emails to my home town, the city of Torrance, urging them to take a stand beyond the letter which they had issued to the state legislature last year. For the last two months, I have attended meetings throughout the state.

It was surprising and wonderful to see SB 54 on the agenda for Lawndale City Council meeting on May 21, 2018.

Good news, and a number of people from our SoCal team joined me. Two people I know who live in the city of Lawndale also joined us.

Our team showed up with strong numbers to make our case to the city council to go forward and do everything in their power to oppose SB 54.

Here's the entire video that I recorded at the meeting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mEkzSAW_rM

An element of fear may have settled on the city council, since Lawndale, like many cities in the South Bay, wants to remain relatively quiet, out of the spotlight, and focus on local issues.
Councilman Dan Reid did bring forth the issue, however, and pressed onto the public this weighty matter. The rest of his colleagues were disinterested at the time.

The sheriff on duty for the city reported that SB 54 does not affect their policing in any way. I begged to differ, as did many other people in the audience with us. Why would they police claim that SB 54 has no harm or places no limitation on their capacity to serve the community, when the legislation protects illegal alien criminals and allows them to spill out onto our streets once again?!
Two people from the city of Lawndale, Lee and Jean Wiltfong, want an end to all sanctuary jurisdiction policies. Two other people from the city of Lawndale tried to shame us as racists and out-of-towners. The truth is that every city which refuses to take a stand against SB 54 is tacitly complying with it, and such a policy endangers all of us.

Mayor Pullen-Miles violated the Ralph M. Brown Act when he asked every person speaking at the podium to share their name and their residence. Such a requirement violates the opening meeting laws, in that anyone in the public is free to speak on the agenda item or any other issue which comes before the city council. On a side note, the city attorney interrupted me during general public comment when I was speaking about the Second Amendment and other issues in the news. I corrected her briefly, then returned to my other remarks at the dais. It seemed to me that the city attorney and the city council by their silence were more interested in little talk or commentary from the public as possible.

The night rounded up with little fanfare after our company's comments at the podium against SB 54. We spoke our peace, but the rest of the city council said and did nothing. There are two Republicans on that city council, including Ms. Bernadette Suarez–who was recently appointed to the position. For her to say nothing was a great disappointment to me.

Notwithstanding our disappointment, LA County for Trump rejoiced because new people joined our team and we made a statement to another section of the South Bay that we want the rule of law restored, and we want our law enforcement to work as fully as possible with their federal partners.
Tuesday, May 22—Three City Sweep in the South Bay

I decided that I wanted to target three cities in the South Bay on May 22nd. I was really invested in spreading this conversation as far as possible. Why Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, and then Torrance? Three years ago, I had visited all three city council meetings without hesitation or difficulty and spoke at all three council meetings without a problem.

It was an aggressive agenda, but LA County for Trump got it done. I was so proud, so honored that all of my fellow Trump MAGA-nauts could help us get it done!

May 22, 2018
Hawthorne


Many people don't know about Hawthorne, a city situated five miles south of the LAX airport, but the city has an interesting history. The Beach Boys lived in this city and began their musical career here. Celebrity shock-jock dope-opera star Gorgeous George served the city as a milkman before moving into silly stardom. Even Marilyn Monroe lived in the area before hitting it big.

Like Lawndale, Hawthorne has two Republicans on the city council: Olivia Valentine and Alex Vargas, the current mayor. They don't hide their affiliation, but they spend more time attending to local issues to ensure the best quality of life for the community. Slowly but surely, the city council is navigating out of financial troubles and putting a better face and front on a city long scared by internal dissension and scandal, including the three previous mayors who were forced to step down because of corruption, and the third lost re-election to Alex Vargas because of personal and professional malfeasance.

Our team showed up in Hawthorne ready to make a difference, to make the case for the City of Good Neighbors to opt out of SB 54, just as 40 other jurisdictions had done up and down the state.

The more that we have attended these meetings, the more effective has our message become. People may not agree with what we have to say, but we are not afraid to speak our peace and make the case for what is in the best interests of the city of Hawthorne, but also for every citizen and the entire state.
Elsa Aldeguer wows everyone, she is not afraid to show her love for our President. Her courage make it easier for everyone to speak out for Trump, no matter their background.

Here's the video I recorded of our speaking out in Hawthorne:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJvqxVvLE0

The city council was receptive and kind. Alex Vargas ran the meeting very well, and he even engaged in some playful banter with some of our team.

At the end of our speeches, we went outside for a photo–and one of the audience members who had not come with us joined our photo! A Hawthorne resident and Trump Supporter was glad that we had attended the meeting!

LA County for Trump goes to deeply Democratic areas in part because we want to encourage more people to be free to support President Trump in these cities. The gentleman on the far left above, wearing the plaid shirt and brown pants, talked with members of our team for fifteen minutes after I drove to our next destination!

Hermosa Beach


This city has become one of the most liberal, wannabe San Francisco regions in the South Bay, second only to Manhattan Beach, since that city just to the north of Hermosa Beach has spent more time tackling plastic straws than illegal immigration and pension liabilities.

At any rate, LA County for Trump actually received a warm reception at the city council chambers, even though every member of the council is a staunch left-wing progressive. The city council has become so left-leaning, that Jeff Duclos has become the most conservative or the most reasonable member of the council, and even he opposed the oil-drilling initiative while trying to claim a non-partisan stance on the matter.

Before I even entered the chambers, a father and his son greeted me warmly: "Yes! Make America Great Again!" It was good to know that we had support going in. Lots of people attended the meeting on another set of issues, but they applauded our comments against SB 54, too.

Other people joined us all the way from Orange County, too, along with Darlene Savord. John Willis came from Ontario, but does work in Hermosa Beach, so he has some connections to the area.
All of us gave strong, informed comments to the Hermosa Beach City Council:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIGT6q1CgDA
I saw some familiar faces at the Hermosa Beach City Council meeting, including Liz Torres, who worked at the grocery store where I had worked a few years back. She is a great operations manager, by the way. Tracy Hopkins was also there, focusing on the Big Green Agenda which has taken over the city and is pushing Hermosa Beach closer to insolvency.

The residents in this small community are waking up to the misuse of resources. One resident berated a city councilmember–who she had supported–because he was injecting national politics to shame the residents. "You're asking more questions than the Meuller investigation" was the effect of the comments. The residents are well-informed and more active than most cities, especially with the growing encroachment of state power while more of the city gets turned over the county. Some residents fear that the city's pension liabilities are so great that the elected leaders are just pushing the city further into the hands of the county until the city disincorporates itself.

Despite these somber realities, the citizens are waking up and making a difference and more people are opposing SB 54 throughout the South Bay every day.

Torrance


Ever since Los Alamitos passed their Constitution Compliance ordinance, I have been contacting my city council to opt out of SB 54. The council issued a letter to the state legislature opposing the bill, but once the law passed, the councilmembers have remained silent. They should be joining with their sister cities and counties to oppose SB 54 and join the lawsuit with the DOJ or Huntington Beach. I want them to pass their own Constitution Compliance ordinance, too, but nothing doing so far.
For the next two months, I tried to find the best time to go to Torrance AND bring my fellow LA County for Trump supporters with me. Furthermore, I wanted to invite Torrance residents to speak out on the matter.

A few of them joined me on Tuesday:

We had to wait until 11:45pm to speak during public comment, since the second opportunity to speak to the city council takes place when all the other items on that city council meeting's agenda have been taken care of.

It's a real problem, but part of the reason why I invited the rest of our team to tackle the other cities first before going to Torrance.

It was great to have Conor join us, too, since he's an immigrant from Ireland and knows the time and resources required to become a citizen:

The bulk of the meeting focused on the city's grudging transition to voting districts, but then our turn to speak finally arrived:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vutVQvaQ-Q
and then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIl15rVPy14
LA County for Trump accomplished a great deal on May 22nd. We were well-informed, prepared, and focused on our mission to educate the different city councils and move them to place opposition to SB 54 on the agenda.

Here I shared my final thanks with the whole team:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBSqtcjE_-8

Final Reflection


LA County for Trump is a tight family, a growing community of activists.

I was honored that all of them were willing to join me in the fight against SB 54 in more cities in the county, all while tallying up more victories in other parts of the state.

We visited four cities in two days, and we were well-received in all of them. Even if the different councils haven't taken the next steps yet, they know what we want, and they know that more people are on board to get this movement against sanctuary cities and sanctuary state off the ground.