By California State Assemblyman, Bill Essayli:

On Tuesday, documented pedophile protector Pilar Schiavo published an editorial attacking me for holding Assembly Democrats accountable for their heinous public safety policies that protect illegal immigrants convicted of sex crimes against minors. Her piece was filled with all the vitriolic rhetoric and misinformation typical of the Democrat supermajority in our State Legislature.

Let’s start with the facts. Under sanctuary state policies enacted by Sacramento Democrats, it is the official policy of the State of California to protect convicted illegal immigrants from deportation, regardless of their crimes. The law, SB 54 or “The California Values Act,” makes it illegal for any law enforcement officer in the state to transfer a convicted criminal in their custody to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to a hold request, known as a detainer.

This policy is what led to a Colombian illegal immigrant — convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl — being released onto our streets. He was finally apprehended in Boston by immigration authorities and deported last month.

This inspired me to introduce my bill AB 2641, which would have reversed our sanctuary state policy for any illegal immigrant convicted of committing sex crimes against minors.

Even though I proposed AB 2641 more than two weeks before the deadline for bills to be heard in committee, it was denied a hearing by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

The Democrat Difference that Assemblywoman Schiavo can always count on is that her bills will never be denied that “privilege.”

In my case, I was left with no choice but to bring my bill up for a vote directly on the Assembly Floor.

According to Assemblywoman Schiavo, I was pulling from the playbook of far-right “MAGA extremists” last week when I forced a vote on AB 2641. If wanting to protect our kids from illegal immigrant pedophiles is Sacramento’s definition of a far-right MAGA extremist, I’m happy to accept that label.

Assemblywoman Schiavo’s claim that she would “never support dangerous pedophiles over our children” is unequivocally untrue.

She did exactly that when she joined every single Assembly Democrat who opposed or abstained on my motion.

No excuses about “legislative process” will change that reality. The vote is documented and will forever be a blight on her legislative career, which I expect to be a short one.

When I authored AB 2641 following that horrifying news that California law protected a convicted pedophile from deportation, I invited every Assemblymember and Senator to co-author the bill and stand with me in protecting our children.

Not a single Democrat even bothered to respond.

Now, let’s talk about the sanctimonious legislative process that Assemblywoman Schiavo claims she is so concerned with upholding.

As my colleague is well aware, almost every Assembly Rule and Joint Rule governing the State Legislature may be suspended temporarily by a 2/3 vote (54 “aye” votes in this case). With Democrats holding 62 out of 80 seats in the Assembly, that means rules are a mere suggestion, a framework that only Republicans are truly bound by — a reality made clear when my microphone was cut during my motion to suspend the rules and vote on AB 2641.

Of course, blind partisanship eliminates any chance that Assemblywoman Schiavo would recognize her own hypocrisy. Democrats suspend the rules and bend the legislative process with impunity and she is a reliable “aye” vote every time.

Take for example SB 828, which the Assembly voted on just last week. This bill was hastily amended to delay the implementation of a $25 healthcare minimum wage mandate signed into law last year, pushing the policy’s effective date until the day after the state’s fiscal year ends (a disingenuous accounting gimmick to offset part of California’s $44.9 billion budget deficit until next year).

Assemblywoman Schiavo had no qualms with the rules being suspended three separate times for SB 828, bypassing much of the applicable legislative procedure and passing it through the Assembly in less than four days (a process typically taking months). Similarly, she voted to suspend the rules to pass multiple bills late last year. One of those bills, AB 1078, expanded the California Department of Education’s power to override local control and force schools to provide woke instructional materials approved by state bureaucrats.

Despite her prior votes to suspend the rules, she now draws the line at suspending the rules to protect children from predators in our country illegally. She is part of a rotten culture in Sacramento that will do anything they can to hide their moral bankruptcy from the public’s eye. That’s why Assemblywoman Schiavo took issue with my actions last week when she was forced to go on record as a defender of illegal immigrant pedophiles.

Respectfully, Pilar Schiavo and the Assembly Democrats can spare me their crocodile tears as they fane offense at my attempt to suspend the rules and pass a commonsense bill aimed at protecting innocent children. When given the chance to do the right thing, every single Democrat failed the People of California and chose to play politics with our children’s safety.

When given the opportunity to protect children over pedophiles, they picked the latter. For this I have but one word in response: Disgusting.

I hope every voter remembers that choice in November.

Originally published on KHTS Radio’s HomeTownStation.com on May 31, 2024.