California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday authorized the deployment of 400 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border at the request of the Trump administration.

But it came with one caveat – that the guards would not be used for federal immigration enforcement.

“But let’s be crystal clear on the scope of this mission,” Brown wrote. “This will not be a mission to build a new wall. It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life. And the California National Guard will not be enforcing federal immigration laws.”

The National Guard deployment is part of President Trump’s plan to protect the integrity of the southern border until a physical wall is constructed – but it’s a structure that is still years away from becoming a reality.

“Your funding for new staffing will allow the Guard to do what it does best: support operations targeting transnational criminal gangs, human traffickers and illegal firearm and drug smugglers along the border, the coast and throughout the state,” Brown continued. “Combating these criminal threats are priorities for all Americans – Republicans and Democrats.”

Under the plan, the guardsmen are not permitted to interact with migrants or engage with any illegal border crossers that are detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. Instead, they will serve in a more administrative role – including tasks like clearing roads.

Troops have already been deployed in Arizona and Texas.

Not surprisingly, Brown struck a tone of defiance in his statement, as California has positioned itself at the center of the resistance against President Trump’s immigration agenda in Washington.

“Here are the facts: there is no massive wave of migrants pouring into California,” Brown added. “Overall immigrant apprehensions on the border last year were as low as they’ve been in nearly 50 years (and 85 percent of the apprehensions occurred outside of California).”

According to the U.S. Border Patrol, there were 303,916 apprehensions along the Southwest border in 2017 – a drop from around 408,000 in the year before and down from a high of 1.6 million in 2000.

The state has become a flashpoint on larger issues like sanctuary cities and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, sparking high-profile legal and political fights.

“We’re also glad to see California Governor Jerry Brown work with the administration and send members of the National Guard to help secure the southern border,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said during Wednesday’s briefing. 

Texas shows CA the way in fighting Washington

Good morning! TGIF. It’s all Trump, all the time now.

Trump’s signing of executive orders Wednesday to begin planning for construction of a wall along the Mexican border, to withhold federal funds from local governments that don’t cooperate with immigration authorities and to increase efforts to track down illegal immigrants immediately prompted Senate President Kevin de Leon to announce plans to sue the Trump administration with the assistance of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Further lawsuits seem likely as the Republican Trump continues to reverse policies that heavily Democratic California embraced under President Obama.

There’s a road map for how a large, wealthy state can resist a president whose edicts it doesn’t like: Texas in the past eight years under Obama.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• Distractions: “In the wake of a turbulent election season and a disturbing new study on the credulity of many political news consumers, a handful of California legislators have put forward new bills designed to ensure the state’s public schools make students aware that not everything purporting to be factual reportage is as true or unbiased as it seems.” CalWatchdog has more.  

• Taxes: “GOP tax plan could boost prices for Californians’ (property) insurance,” reports CalWatchdog. 

• Trump’s wall: “With California’s political leaders in full resistance mode over President Trump’s executive order to build a wall on the Mexican border, Senate leader Kevin de León, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and others have floated an idea to try to stop it: the state’s famously stringent environmental laws. But legal experts say any effort to use state and federal environmental rules to block the wall faces extremely slim chances of being successful.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

• Sanctuary cities: “The executive order Trump issued Wednesday putting cities and counties on notice that they would lose federal funding if they didn’t start cooperating with immigration agents has broad implications for California, a state that aggressively protects its undocumented population from deportation. But while the order allowed Trump to boast that he is fulfilling a campaign pledge, it also commits him to a fight that he is not necessarily poised to win.” The Los Angeles Times has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone till Monday.

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced.  

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

Follow us: @calwatchdog @mflemingterp

New follower: @PhillipChenCA

Donald Trump’s primary victory in California came along with a big cost to his campaign, as the presumptive Republican nominee’s sustained attacks and insinuations against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans roiled the Golden State and slowed the party’s move to consolidate around him.

Although Trump has long put his plans for a border wall at the center of his campaign, he recently drew a fresh chorus of criticism for his invective against the judge involved in the highest-profile lawsuit against him. “Trump implied in interviews last week that U.S. district judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents, is unfit to hear a case involving the candidate’s disgraced Trump University because ‘he’s Mexican’ and thus has a conflict of interest due to Trump’s comments about Mexicans during the presidential campaign,” as Vice News recalled.

Drawing fire

In a shift that had even some Trump supporters concerned, the national news media pounced on the Curiel story, aggressively fact-checking Trump’s vague but pointed charges. “Trump said Curiel belonged to a group that is very strongly pro-Mexican. The California La Raza Lawyers Association does advance the interests of the Latino legal community and works on issues that matter in Latino communities more broadly. However, it has stayed on the sidelines in the immigration debate,” PolitiFact noted. “Trump’s statement is accurate only in the sense that the association’s mission aims to support Latinos, but even that is flawed because he said the group was pro-Mexican and the Latino designation reaches a wider set of people. The claim ignores critical facts that would give a very different impression.”

Trump’s charges, which many leading Republicans have decried as race-baiting or worse, also offered California Democrats a cudgel with which to beat their in-state opponents. “Democrats seeking to unseat several Republican members of Congress from California linked the incumbents to Donald Trump,” the Associated Press observed, “hoping to tap discontent with the presumptive GOP presidential nominee in districts with large numbers of Democrats and Latinos.” Although several GOP incumbents survived handily, the state GOP’s nerves frayed further over fears that massive anti-Trump turnout will sink their failing fortunes come November.

Violence from the left

But Trump’s adversaries confronted a public relations mess of their own in his wake, as protests that spiraled into violence fed perceptions among pro-Trump voters that even peaceful rallies will meet with intimidation and physical retaliation. “Donald Trump supporters leaving the presumptive GOP nominee’s rally in San Jose […] were pounced by protesters, some of whom threw punches and eggs,” according to NBC Los Angeles. “The protesters chased and taunted Trump’s supporters outside the San Jose Convention Center. They surrounded one woman and threw eggs and bottles at her.”

Those attacks have now resulted in arrests. Three juvenile males “were accused of taking part in a number of skirmishes between Trump supporters and anti-Trump demonstrators […] outside the San Jose Convention Center,” where Trump was holding one of his trademark rallies, Reuters reported. “Two of the teenagers, aged 16 and 17, face charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon. The third, also 16, faces a misdemeanor battery charge, the San Jose Police Department said in a statement.”

“Four others were arrested during the protests last week. Two 19-year-olds and an 18-year-old face charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon, while another 19-year-old faces a misdemeanor charge of refusal to disperse. It is unclear whether the seven charged were Trump supporters or among the hundreds of protesters who were seen on news clips waving Mexican flags, chanting anti-Trump slogans, and burning Trump hats and at least one U.S. flag.”

Costly California

Nevertheless, with Hillary Clinton opening a bigger lead over Trump in the polls now that she has all but dispatched Bernie Sanders, analysts doubt that Trump can put California electorally in play. Despite his apparent claim to the contrary, as Slate observed, California’s high campaign cost seems prohibitive barring a dramatic change in his fortunes.

“About 33,000 immigrants moved to California from China last year, roughly triple the number who came in 2005,” the Sacramento Bee reported, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Public Policy Institute of California. “The number of immigrants coming to California from Mexico fell from almost 100,000 in 2005 to just over 30,000 in 2014, a roughly 70 percent decline.”

Long-term shifts in the west coast economy appeared to have influenced the shift, tilting away from so-called “jobs Americans won’t do” to high-tech opportunities that require college or graduate education. “Arrivals from Asia have disproportionately settled in and around Silicon Valley,” the Bee noted, adding that “India, which sent about 29,500 immigrants to California last year, also is poised to overtake Mexico. Some of California’s recent Asian arrivals are college students or long-term workers who eventually may leave the country; others will stay permanently.”

Making money

For that reason, they have remained a target for rhetoric and policy proposals this U.S. election year. But Mexico’s American immigrants have become a political football in a truer sense as well: both teams now wish to have them. In an appearance on WFAA’s Inside Texas Politics, former Mexican president Vicente Fox made the pitch for return migration. “We are building the opportunities in Mexico. We work hard to have jobs for them. We want them back,” he said. “We need them back.” Alluding to the economic rise of China, Fox hinted that Mexico could attract back former U.S. immigrants in much the same way the U.S. draws Chinese newcomers. “At the very end, we have to meet the challenge of the East,” he said. “The East is growing fast. The East is getting powerful.”

Bowing to intense criticism, the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto yanked a contract worth nearly $4 billion from a Chinese-led consortium to build a bullet train, billed as one of Mexico’s largest infrastructure projects in recent times.

The government ordered a new bidding process after the awarding of the concession to the Chinese group was attacked by legislators and others for its lack of transparency and apparent favoritism benefiting allies of the president. The bid was uncontested.

The consortium included several Mexican construction companies, one owned by the brother-in-law of former president and Peña Nieto mentor Carlos Salinas, Mexican news outlets have reported. Another won millions of dollars’ worth of projects in the State of Mexico when Peña Nieto was governor there.

Aside from the financial problems, Mexico has a problem similar to California’s: not enough people for a bullet train. Here are some population densities, per square kilometer:

• Japan: 336
• China: 142, mainly in the Eastern one-third of the country.
• California: 95
• Mexico: 62

California also is different because the lion’s share of our population is centered around two large areas more than 300 miles apart: Southern California and the Bay Area. It’s easier and cheaper just to hop on an airplane than to mess around with a train, however fast.

Also note that Mexico’s project would cost $4 billion, compared to California’s $68 billion. Even though labor is cheaper in Mexico, that’s still a big difference.

Now it’s taking the biggest step of all: Allowing foreign companies back in to drill for oil.

It was 76 years ago that Mexico’s government nationalized all oil production. It was a time when socialism was on the march globally: fascism in Italy; National Socialism in Germany; communism in the Soviet Union. The Mexicans especially didn’t like the meddling Yanqui, who had invaded their country as recently as 1914-17 — 21 years earlier.

But times change. Today, seemingly everyone with a backyard in North America is finding black gold. Neighboring Texas has doubled oil production in a decade. North Dakota can’t control the growth it’s enjoying from the fracking boom.

Wildcatters

The boom is largely being carried out by wildcatters, as told in “The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters.” It’s the profit motive. When government tries to find oil, it’s like putting the DMV in charge. Mexico is figuring that out.

According to Fortune:

In a move that has both shocked and thrilled the global oil industry, Mexico’s government is performing an about-face.

For the first time in three-quarters of a century, it intends to invite international oil firms into the country to sink their drills into its petroleum-rich earth. That decision has infuriated many Mexicans, and it fundamentally threatens Pemex, which has always been a monopoly. As the oil giants prepare to pounce, ]Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya], a Harvard-educated investment executive and an oil industry newcomer, has the task of whipping the bloated behemoth into competitive shape.

“It is, by all means, the most important transformation Pemex has suffered in our entire 76 years,” says the fresh-faced CEO, who speaks excellent English and chooses his words—including his verbs—deliberately. As he talks, he jots talking points onto a small white notepad that has been placed in front of his high-backed chair. By his right hand sits a red phone, a direct line to the office of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the oil reform’s architect and Lozoya’s friend and boss. 

Jobs

It means plentiful new jobs and strong continuing prosperity for Mexico. That means the recent trend of net zero immigration to the United States from Mexico will continue. Indeed, I suspect many Mexicans will go back to enjoy the prosperity and the much lower cost of living. Why put up with median-price $750,000 homes in Southern California and $1 million in Silicon Valley? You can’t even smoke in bars in Puritan California anymore, something the more libertarian Mexicans still can enjoy.

An Anglo friend of mine moved to Baja last year and loves it. Same weather as Yanqui California, but you still can get a safe place on the beach. Everything else is cheaper, including the tequila. And you legally can get Cuban stogies.

Sure, you have to find places that don’t have violence. But it’s the same here. You avoid Detroit.

Time to Go South?

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana wrote:

“Don’t bring firearms or ammunition across the border into Mexico.

“Don’t carry a knife, even a small pocketknife, on your person in Mexico.

“You may become one of dozens of U.S. Citizens who are arrested each month for unintentionally violating Mexico’s strict weapons laws.”

But Mexico’s gun laws are starting to loosen. The NY Daily News just reported:

“Vigilantes were give assault weapons and new blue uniforms in western Mexico on Saturday, which was the deadline for militia members to join the police or face arrest.

“Self-defensive groups have been on the rise since last year, arming themselves for war against murderous drug cartels terrorizing entire towns and regions.

“Farmers formed long lines at a cattle ranch in Tepalcatepec to receive fresh blue uniforms and AR-15s as new members of regional police in the agriculturally rich state of Michoacan, where the vicious Knights Templar run a vast network of human and narcotics trafficking and widespread extortion of villagers and small businesses.”

It’s too bad the government is co-opting the vigilantes instead of just legalizing all guns. But the government’s action still is a concession that the way to reduce violence is to arm the victims of the criminal gangs.

Next step: A Mexican version of the U.S. Second Amendment, which guarantees:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

“The Mission will focus on boosting direct investment in the state, expanding bilateral economic and environmental cooperation and connecting California businesses with new opportunities and partnerships.”

He also will witness a Mexico that’s much different from the country that crashed and nearly collapsed just two decades ago during the 1994-95 Mexican Peso Crisis. Since then, Mexico has conducted numerous free-market reforms, first under the Presidente Ernesto Zedillo from 1994 to 2000 and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had ruled the country for decades.

Then, in 2000, PRI’s 71 years of rule came to an end with the election of Presidente Vicente Fox and his conservative National Action Party (PAN). Fox’s further reforms were continued by Presidente Felipe Calderon, elected in 2006, also of PAN. PRI took office again in 2012 with the election of current Presidente Enrique Pena Nieto.

Nieto had no intention of returning to the socialist policies PRI followed before the Zedillo reforms. Instead, he has kept Mexico on a steady market footing.

According to a recent survey by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, in 2014 the Mexican top corporate tax rate dropped to 28 percent from 30 percent in 2012. By contrast, the United States‘ top corporate is 39.1 percent, the highest of the OECD countries.

California piles another 8.84 percent on top of that. Total in corporate tax rate in California: 47.94 percent.

Texas, where Toyota will be moving its headquarters, has no state corporate tax rate.

Mexico’s top personal income tax rate is 30 percent. The U.S. top income tax rate was raised in 2013 to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. And in California, the top state income tax rate was raised in 2012 to 13.3 percent from 10.3 percent under Proposition 30. Total top income tax rate in California: 52.9 percent.

Texas also has no state income tax.

No wonder PWC concluded:

“Mexico has kept its fiscal and monetary policies under strict discipline, a situation that has maintained the country with an adequate macro-economic position and suitable for an investment from that perspective, as well as maintaining an ‘investment grade’ from the international financial community.”

‘Highest growth’ in the world

Earlier this month, PBS Newshour ran a report on the Mexican state of Querataro:

“Of all the cities in the world, this small Mexican town had the highest growth last year in foreign direct investment — that’s money invested directly into local business. And its population is growing rapidly too.

“With its colonial center, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its new industrial parks, the poster child for Mexico’s burgeoning new economy is here in Querétaro.”

Of course, like any country Mexico has problems. The main one is the continuing violence of the drug cartels. But even that has been improving.

The University of San Diego’s Justice in Mexico project just released a new report, “Drug Violence in Mexico.” It found:

“The total number of homicides appears to have declined by approximately 15% in 2013. While INEGI’s figures are not available for 2013, preliminary data from Mexico’s National Security System (SNSP) suggests that the total number of intentional homicides in 2013 declined again this year, and more than in 2012.”

However, the report also noted that the data may not be completely reliable and will need to be confirmed by further study.

Brown will witness a vibrant Mexico that is going places under a much smaller burden of government than people and businesses must put up with in California. Perhaps he will bring those lessons home.

]]> https://calwatchdog.com/2014/04/29/gov-brown-will-see-mexicos-low-taxes-in-action/feed/ 7 63072 https://calwatchdog.com/2013/12/27/californias-international-competition/ https://calwatchdog.com/2013/12/27/californias-international-competition/#comments Fri, 27 Dec 2013 20:18:51 +0000 http://calwatchdog.com/?p=56158 Maybe the publication that is most influential among the global elite is Foreign Affairs, which is published by the Council on Foreign Relations. The new Jan/Feb 2014 number includes a symposium on, “Where to Bet Now: Six Markets to Watch.” This is important for California because: 1) California is not on the list; nor is the United States as a whole; 2) most of the areas are on the Pacific Rim, and so are major Golden State trading partners.

The six areas are: South Korea, Turkey, Poland, the Mekong Delta Region (Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Southern China), Indonesia/the Philippines and Mexico.

In their introduction, “The Shape of Things to Come,” Editor Gideon Rose and Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman, provide a clear warning to American, especially Californian, policymakers who might be tempted to make doing business here even more difficult:

“Elite investors now routinely send their capital abroad in a ceaseless quest for new opportunities and high returns; whether they realize it or not, hundreds of millions of less highflying people do the same indirectly, through their mutual or pension funds. So global economic forecasting — trying to look past current events to glimpse what’s coming over the horizon — has become an exercise of general, not specialized, concern.”

Of our good neighbors to the South, they explain:

“After years of stagnation, violence, and political drift, Mexico is now enjoying energetic new management, and recent reforms, plus the country’s vast oil wealth and proximity to the world’s largest market, should spur it forward in the years to come. (In an exclusive accompanying interview, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto explains how he did it and what he plans next.)”

And across the Pacific pond:

“[The] Philippines, now an outsourcing powerhouse, has been racing ahead under the clean and committed stewardship of President Benigno Aquino III.”