A new proposal in California—where national popular vote loser Donald Trump lost the state’s popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than 4 million—would “pull all public investments from companies involved in the construction” of his border wall (that Mexico isn’t paying for):
Assembly Bill 946 would give CalPERS and CalSTRS, the state’s massive public employee and teacher retirement systems, one year to identify and liquidate any holdings in companies working on the wall, a central campaign promise of Trump’s for which his administration is now accepting bids.
“Californians build bridges not walls,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat and one of the bill’s authors, said in a statement. “This is a wall of shame, and we don’t want any part of it. Immigrant stories are the history of America, and this is a nightmare.”
With portfolios worth hundreds of billions of dollars, CalPERS and CalSTRS are frequent targets for groups seeking to make a powerful political statement by pressuring the funds into cutting ties with a particular industry.
Trump has already declared California “out of control” for its pro-immigrant policies, and has threatened to withhold federal funding from the world’s sixth-largest economy. But for California’s progressive leaders, it’s personal. Nearly 3 million undocumented immigrants call California home, and many of the the state’s leaders are children of immigrants themselves. They want Trump to know they are refusing to back down:
"If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us," Xavier Becerra, the state's incoming attorney general, taunted the president-elect in December.
"One thing that should be made very clear is that one election won't change the values of the state of California," Kevin de León, the Senate president pro tempore, told Mother Jones. "What we would say to the incoming Trump administration is that we hope you find value in what we do in California—by growing the economy, creating real jobs that can be verified, reducing our carbon footprint, respecting immigrants for who they are, and recognizing that diversity, a rich mosaic of different hues, is actually a strength, not a weakness."
"To the millions of undocumented residents pursuing and contributing to the California Dream, the state of California will be your wall of justice,” de León said.