“The California Democrats voting in favor of the measure were [Rep. Scott] Peters [(San Diego)] and Reps. Pete Aguilar (Redlands), Ami Bera (Elk Grove), Julia Brownley (Westlake Village), Jim Costa (Fresno), John Garamendi (Walnut Grove), Janice Hahn (Los Angeles) and Raul Ruiz (Palm Desert).”

Democrats divided

Already reeling from a string of losses under Obama at the state and federal level, nervous Democrats nationwide proved too hard to convince to go along with the president. “New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is challenging Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) in her bid for reelection, urged the federal government to stop accepting Syrian refugees until the process is reviewed. Nevada Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto wants U.S. intelligence officials to sign off on the vetting process before admitting more refugees. And former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, aiming to unseat GOP Sen. Rob Portman in Ohio, joined the chorus,” Politico observed, “calling for a ‘short-term pause’ in the resettlement program.”

But many California Democrats have sided firmly in favor of fast-tracking more Syrian refugees, many of which have already settled in Southland locales such as San Diego. And some lawmakers explicitly linked the plight of the current group of refugees with their families’ own. Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., of Pomona, visited the Islamic Center of Claremont “to meet with members of two Syrian families who arrived in Southern California this fall,” the Times reported separately. “The stories she heard from the Kanjou and Wawieh families, about fleeing the violence of Syria and journeying through Lebanon and Egypt before arriving in Pomona, were familiar. Torres came from war-torn Guatemala to live with an uncle in Los Angeles when she was five years old.”

A spiking problem

The comparison has turned out to be well-timed. Adding to the controversy and raising the stakes, border officials have suddenly seen a significant spike in unauthorized crossings, reminiscent of the surge into Texas last year of surprising numbers of women and children. But rather than the kinds of economically-motivated unlawful immigrants who have become poster figures in California’s border debate, the current wave of includes many “women and children fleeing vicious gangs and endemic sexual violence in Central America who are hoping for asylum in the United States. Rather than hiding from Border Patrol agents they often try to find them, to ask for protection and start the long legal battle to remain here,” according to the New York Times.

“In October, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, António Guterres, said uncontrolled violence by the gangs had become ‘pervasive’ in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. He issued an ‘early warning’ of ‘a looming refugee crisis.’ A report by his agency found that women in particular ‘face a startling degree of violence that has a devastating impact on their daily lives.’ According to United Nations figures, this year El Salvador moved into first place in the world for the rate of murders of women and Guatemala ranked third, while Honduras had the highest murder rate over all.”

Politically, the situation could play into the hands of those Democrats still rallying around President Obama, who has castigated Republicans nationwide for opposing the increase in Syrian and Iraqi refugees he has targeted. “Apparently they are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” he remarked, The Hill reported. “At first, they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates. Now they are scared of three-year-old orphans. That doesn’t seem so tough to me.”

Pushing back amid the debate over the Congressional vote on Obama’s proposed policy, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., used his opportunity during a recent hearing as chairman of the House Judiciary subpanel on immigration to say of Obama that “with all due respect to him, what I’m afraid of is a foreign policy that creates more widows and orphans,” The Hill noted.

By the numbers

California has become a flashpoint for immigration politics despite indications that the long wave of illegal immigration impacting the state has crested. “More Mexicans are leaving the United States than migrating into the country, marking a reversal of one of the most significant immigration trends in U.S. history,” according to CBS News. “A study published Thursday by the Pew Research Center said a desire to reunite families is the primary reason Mexicans go home. A sluggish U.S. recovery from the Great Recession also contributed. Meanwhile, tougher border enforcement has deterred some Mexicans from coming to the United States.”

Public opinion has not shifted as dramatically — reflecting the persistent consequences of a generation’s worth of immigration. In a recent USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll, “59 percent of California voters said immigrants strengthen society, compared with 49 percent of all U.S. voters,” noted the International Business Times. “Thirty-five percent of California voters reported immigrants weaken U.S. society, while 43 percent of all U.S. voters said they weaken it. But Californians weren’t without reservations regarding immigration,” the paper added. “Despite feeling immigrants strengthen society, 41 percent of California voters said immigrants also make life harder for natives financially, while 10 percent said immigrants make things easier and 39 percent said immigrants made no difference to their lives financially.”

Checks and balances

At the same time, eight Democrats in California’s Congressional delegation recently broke with their party and voted against the president in supporting legislation that would tighten strictures on would-be refugees from Iraq and Syria. Their votes reflected the extraordinary uncertainty and discord surrounding federal immigration policy more broadly. President Barack Obama appealed to the Supreme Court for expedited consideration of the fate of his anti-deportation plan for unlawfully present immigrants, which 26 states launched an effort to reject. “Moving quickly to put the issue before the justices in time for a decision while President Barack Obama is still in office, the administration called for the court’s immediate review of its plan to protect and give work permits to as many as 5 million immigrants,” according to the Associated Press. “So far, the federal courts have sided with the GOP-led states and effectively blocked the plan.”

California Attorney General Kamala Harris, currently campaigning to replace outgoing Sen. Barbara Boxer, threw her weight behind the administration and lambasted the ruling against it. “Harris said the ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will be a blow to the California economy and would threaten public safety because many immigrants fear reporting crimes out of concerns they may face deportation,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “In a 2-1 decision, the appeals court sided with Texas and 25 other states that had sued to block Obama’s immigration programs, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, or DAPA, and an extension of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.”

Harris’s leading opponent, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., chided the court as well, calling its holding “another setback for our dysfunctional immigration system,” the Times added. “Congress must take action to pass comprehensive immigration reform, and voters must make their voices heard at the ballot box,” said Sanchez.

Networking opposition

The push against Syrian refugees has received significant support from conservatives in California. Liberals and progressives have singled out San Diego donor Robert Shillman, whose fellowship program for online journalists and funding for grassroots networks has been credited with mobilizing widespread opposition to admitting Syrian refugees in California and elsewhere. During the controversy around a Texas contest to draw Mohammad, which Shillman threw his weight behind, he told Reuters “that violent attacks on such events are making people fearful and prone to self censorship,” denying that he was “anti-Muslim.”