Below is my column in the California Post and New York Post on the recent claims made by Democratic candidates in the debate for California’s governorship. As expected, the race-baiting rhetoric flowed from each of the Democratic candidates, including a claim that requiring English proficiency is “racial profiling.”
Here is the column:
If you go to NASCAR to watch the cars crash, the Democratic gubernatorial race in California has been a thrilling pile-up.
The recent debate saw all the Democratic candidates play the race card over a curious issue. When asked if they supported the move to rescind at least 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, every single Democrat declared the policy racist. The candidates also pledged to support truckers who cannot speak or read English.
When Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican candidate, said that being able to read English (and particularly English signs) should be mandatory, Porter lectured the sheriff on racism, saying that his support for English proficiency by truckers disqualified him from being governor of California.
Not to be outdone, Democratic candidate Tom Steyer declared that requiring truck drivers to be able to read English is “racial profiling.”
Steyer, a billionaire, has been funding his own campaign with almost $120 million and has tried to capture the far-left supporters of Swalwell. In so doing, he has increasingly looked like Howard Hughes with better-trimmed nails.
Steyer grabbed Swalwell’s platform of pledging to arrest ICE officers and take punitive measures against them. He cannot fulfill that pledge, and the Ninth Circuit recently shot down the flagrantly unconstitutional California law seeking to dictate the conduct or appearances of federal officers. The law was supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom and all of the Democratic candidates.
Steyer’s claim that English proficiency rules are “racial profiling” is more Looney Tunes than law.
Racial profiling occurs when a person’s racial appearance alone is grounds for reasonable suspicion for a stop or search. English proficiency requirements are race-neutral conditions to ensure basic safety in the operation of large trucks. We have seen several fatal cases involving undocumented persons who could not read or speak English proficiently.
Even the use of apparent race or ethnicity is allowed when part of a totality of circumstances or observations by law enforcement. Last year, the Supreme Court stayed a racial profiling case from California on that ground, in favor of law enforcement, in a 6-3 decision in Noem v. Vasquez-Perdomo.
If requiring English proficiency is racial profiling, a wide array of jobs in the United States are the products of racism, including airplane pilots, air traffic controllers, U.S. military, astronauts, mechanics, and baseball umpires. Even the European Space Agency has required English proficiency.
By Steyer’s standard, he may also be the product of a racial profiling system. In order to appear on the ballot, Steyer certified that he is a U.S. citizen. To be a U.S. citizen, you must be proficient in English. Thus, a candidate must certify that he is both a citizen and English-proficient. He can then go on a stage and call such requirements racial profiling without any basis in the law.
Ironically, Steyer made much of his money managing Farallon Capital Management, which profited from owning private prisons and, in the case of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), actually runs one of the largest ICE facilities. Now called CoreCivic, the company requires not only U.S. citizenship but also English proficiency.
As with the pledges to arrest ICE officers and dictate how they conduct their operations, the racial profiling claim is knowingly misleading and unfounded. It is designed to pander to the far left by suggesting that requiring basic English skills of large-truck operators is somehow unlawful or unconstitutional.
The only thing that Steyer proved, again, is that there are sadly few requirements to run for governor of California beyond a large fortune and little shame.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
To be a U.S. citizen, you must be proficient in English.
No, you don’t! What kind of moronic bulldust is this? Prof T, you know very well that a person born in the USA is a US citizen no matter what languages he does or doesn’t speak. There are tens of thousands of US citizens who speak little or no English, and that was the case throughout the USA’s history. It would be very difficult to run for office without being proficient in English, but there’s no law preventing it. In principle a citizen with no English could even be elected president, and Washington would have to cope.
ONLY if that person is “subject to the jurisdiction thereof…,” meaning the U.S., when, as we all know, that person, especially an illegal alien, is subject to the jurisdiction of his country of origin, as is the case with Mexico, which considers Mexicans in the U.S. illegally to be subject to the full jurisdiction of Mexico, understanding that every person is under the “territorial jurisdiction,” if not the personal jurisdiction, of the country they are in at any particular time.
More absolute garbage. EVERY PERSON who is in the USA, and does not have diplomatic immunity, is subject to the USA’s jurisdiction. If a person can be arrested, he is under US jurisdiction. If he can be sued he is under US jurisdiction. If he has to pay taxes, he is under US jurisdiction. If he can be compelled to testify he is under US jurisdiction. And any child born in the USA without such immunity is automatically a citizen.
In Elk v Wilkins the supreme court determined that it’s the person’s immunity at birth that matters, not anything later. Elk was born with immunity but renounced it as an adult and argued that that made him a citizen; but the court said he had to become naturalized, but that any children he had after he gave up his immunity would be citizens.
And we just had a case a few years ago of a woman born here to a diplomat whose country fired him before she was born, but the state department didn’t get around to removing his immunity until after; the court said she was not a citizen because she was born with immunity. Immunity is granted by the state department, not by the diplomat’s own country.
In any event, though, even if you were right it would be irrelevant, since we’re not talking about illegal aliens here. We’re talking about Tom Steyer, who was born here legally, to two US citizens, neither of whom had any kind of immunity. That automatically makes him a citizen even if he didn’t speak a word of English. Ever since the USA was founded there were hundreds of thousands of US citizens who spoke no English, and there still are.
“In Elk v Wilkins the supreme court determined that it’s the person’s immunity at birth that matters, not anything later.”
That is incorrect. Not even close. In fact, Wilkins goes against the majority of what you wrote. Wilkins was about an Indian born on a reservation within the US. On a reservation the FBI has jurisdiction to make arrests. The individual would then be brought before a federal judge. Therefore “jurisdiction” of US law.
Yet the Court held the Indian was not a citizen. Therefore, being subject to US law is NOT an element of birthright citizenship under Wilkins.
Anon, now you’re just lying. The entire point of Elk v Wilkins is that John Elk was born a citizen of a sovereign Indian nation, and therefore IMMUNE FROM US LAW. The FBI of course did not exist then, but NO US government agent had any authority to arrest a member of an Indian nation. Such members could NOT be brought before any US judge.
The Indian nations were not territorial; they consisted of their members, not of any specific territory, so they extended wherever their members went. And if an Indian committed a crime against another Indian, even right in front of a policeman, that policeman could do nothing about it.
John Elk renounced his membership of his nation, and settled in Omaha, NE and subjected himself to US law. He argued that that made him a citizen, and the court decided that what matters is only whether he was subject to US law when he was born. His children born after he left his nation would be citizens, but he would have to naturalize because when he was born he had immunity.
Before 1924, many native peoples weren’t citizens of the United States because they weren’t subject to our jurisdiction. They weren’t subject to our jurisdiction, not because they could never be arrested (they could be) but because they didn’t owe allegiance to this country. They were a part of their own political entity. The same logic applies to those who come here illegally.
More lies. That they weren’t subject to our jurisdiction MEANS that they couldn’t be arrested. That’s what jurisdiction MEANS. It’s the only thing it has ever meant. And “allegiance” means a duty to obey the law. That’s all it means. If someone is in the USA and is not a diplomat, then he automatically owes allegiance to the USA until he leaves, whether he is here legally or not.
It was a little ambiguous. He was stating the requirement that you must be proficient in English to become a naturalized citizen.
No, he wasn’t. Steyer was born a citizen and has never needed to be naturalized. Prof Turley just made a really stupid mistake. Prof T claimed that when Steyer certified that he was a US citizen he therefore certified that he was proficient in English, and that is just not true. Nothing can make it true. Nothing can defend this mistake; Prof T must simply acknowledge it and move on.
Steyer is a typical Democrat loon billionaire. I believe he made his fortune in fossil fuels (oil) and is now running on their platform of crazy inclusive of the same BS pseudo science of climatology. He’s as big a putz as Newsom, California deserves better.
Imposing religious and political loyalty tests in speech is antithetical to every fundamental principle in the Bill of Rights.
Leaders dedicated to rooting out heresies should be laughed off the stage.
You describe exactly what D brand lieberal cultists do. Anything not of their cults desire is heretical and they aim to burn it or kill it to get “what they want”. Intolerance and ignorance is in the DNA of the left we see exposed today.
Breaking news Shots fired at the WHCA dinner. The president and all other protectees are safe. Details keep coming out. President Trump will host a news conference from the WH shortly Prayers
Shots fired at the WH Correspondents dinner.
The vicious and continuous language spewed by prominent Democrats and media [Trump is Hitler, etc] is almost certain to trip off lunatics in the population and it is difficult not to believe that they [Democrats and media] are trying to get Trump killed.
As Professor Turley has urged, this rage must end if we are to have a civil and sane society worth living in. Democrats and media need to stop. Now.
And this:
More than half of Democrats think it is justifiable to kill the President.
https://x.com/BryanDeanWright/status/2048208380330693095
The Democrats are no longer an American political party. They belong somewhere in Africa or the Middle East.
The shooter, Cole, appears black and was named Teacher of the Year. I wonder what the kids entrusted to his care were learning? Or is it ‘lering’?
Stirring up racial division must stop. Stirring up violence against political figures must stop.
Something needs to be done about teachers unions and so-called colleges of education
Same with things like the Columbia School of Journalism.
They pump out societal sewage.
The shooter, Cole, appears black and was named Teacher of the Year.
He was named “teacher of the year” by the tutoring company that employed him. Not by any independent organization. He was not a classroom teacher.
Milhouse, Thanks for the update. I was using initial information last night which was sketchy as first reports are. If security shot at this lunatic they need more time at the rsnge; none of them hit him. Something is wrong that there are obvious security holes at events like this.
Still too much DEI wreckage in federal employ , and lest we forget the dem political play of defunding DHS to include the secret service. It’s all yoke on their faces yet again.
And the perp is not white , so the media will ignore this yet again.
https://x.com/mattvanswol/status/2048203857168077258
“They don’t kill you because you are a Nazi
They call you a Nazi so they can kill you.”
Democrats need to stop.
Young, you desperately need to review WWII.
What has WW2 got to do with it? In WW2 there were actual nazis. In the GOP there are none.
AI Overview
The “Big Lie” (German: große Lüge) is a propaganda technique in which an absolutely false, colossal untruth is repeated constantly, with the intention of making the public believe it is self-evidently true. The concept assumes that people are more likely to fall for a massive lie than a small one, as they cannot imagine someone having the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.
Signs calling for death out front.
https://x.com/BlakeSNeff/status/2048227406943760521
Likely yet another disaffected Republican who voted for Trump’s promise to lower the cost of living and has now discovered that Trump doesn’t care about anyone but the billionaires; leaving the loyal Trump cult to suffer.
ANON IS A DNC PLANT
Yeah, Obviously. Bottom of the barrel. They need to pay more if they want quality. I remember commitoanhonestdiscussion who was actually pretty smart and well supported although a leftist. She could collect facts and frame good arguments that were challenging. But this lot are sort of self flushing. I usually ignore them unless they accidentally raise a subject I already wanted to address.
ANON is a potted plant.
Fixed it for you.
Dude was a certified left nutter with a “teaching job”. Terrible try at deflection, yet again.
This discord will smolder until a successful Democrat putsch forges a dictatorship of the party’s most vile leaders. Then the beheadings start.
Steyer needs his ignorant proles. Uneducated voters can’t spot the abject confusion of the Dems policies.
What an astonishing waste of life and some have no life left. What a horrific bunch.
Did you know the Bible is banned in most lslamic countries including Saudi Arabia or severely restricted. China, North Korea and many more as this ridiculous nonsense continues. We’re now meeting with the 3rd world Pakistan?
Republicans, there are no winners, only losers. Get your act together or the women will be shrouded, wives will be burned with dead husband’s funeral present or beating hearts will be cut out somewhere in Azteca…
My gawd…
And yet the D brand cult is all down with Islam…… obammy bowed down like a dog to it lest we forget.
It’s a tale told by idiots signifying nothing.
^^^ full of sound and fury
Mr. Steyer is an idiot.
He’s full of something.
Gives a new meaning to, it’s finished.
Very prevalent problem.
Can people succeed against the odds ? Absolutely – on rare occasions it happens.
But unless you are an extremely unusual person
if you want to do reasonably well:
Learn to read,
learn to write
Learn math
Learn the language of the country you live in.
Graduate from High School.
Avoid crime.
Avoid drugs or other addictions.
Get a job – even a shit job. Each job leads to a better one if you do it well.
Do not marry until you can afford a family.
Do not have kids before you are married.
Follow these century old rules and you will end up in the middle class or above in the US guaranteed.
Do you have to do these things ?
Absolutely not.
Must you do these things to succeed ? No.
But you radically improve your odds if you do.
The left can try to change the culture and our values – but the above will ALWAYS be true.
The surefire means to a good life are immutable. They are baked into the way the world actually works.
John
I always heard it as you have to build the foundation before you can build the house! Don’t marry anyone that doesn’t care about the goals of your future as much as you do.
Analyze the winners of the lottery.
PERFECT!!
PT, the category is Shakespeare. Macbeth Act5, scene 5, Macbeth’s soliloquy.
California where schools teach rapping in Spanish as their language program.
No you don’t have to be proficient in English unless you want to work and have a decent job. If you are on government benefits there is no use for proficient English, the government has interpreters for everything. Keep the crazies in California and encourage them to move to California also. The rest of the country will benefit.
Ricky Ricardo is not wrong