Campaign Action
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said he’s looking into whether the state can take legal action against the Trump administration for tear-gassing children and families from the so-called “caravan” at the southern border this past weekend, saying that "we have been approached by folks who have expressed complaints. We are monitoring what's occurring."
In one haunting image, Honduran mom Maria Meza is seen frantically running from fumes while holding onto two of her young children. “We never thought they were going to fire these bombs where there were children,” she later said, “because there were lots of children. It wasn’t right, they know we are human beings, the same as them.”
“California has limited jurisdiction to insert itself despite the clashes taking place on the state's border because the federal government has sweeping control over border and immigration administration,” the New York Times reported, “but Becerra suggested that if a state resident was being affected, including by shutting off the border, the state could have cause to intervene.”
U.S. citizens, U.S. businesses, and international travelers were affected by the administration’s hours-long closure of the San Ysidro crossing during one of the busiest weekends of the year. “It was a disaster for us, it was just a very important day lost,” said business man Rahil Iqbal, who owns some discount shops in the area. The local Chamber of Commerce reported “a loss of an estimated $5.3 million for the 650 businesses in the area.”