EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s New California U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli Says He Will Fight Sanctuary State Policies, Signals Prosecution for “Anyone” who Interferes with Immigration Law as Leftist Officials Defy ICE – “Law and Order is Back” (VIDEO)
Trump’s United States Attorney for the Central District of California and former California GOP Assemblyman Bill Essayli spoke to The Gateway Pundit on Thursday and outlined his plan to restore law and order to California.
The former pro-border security legislator and Newsom foe said, “Sanctuary state is not workable, and it’s not legal, and we’re going to use every tool at our disposal to end sanctuary state as we know it, in the state of California.”
While it’s a “complicated issue,” he says, California officials may be criminally liable under 8 U.S. Code § 1324, which carries penalties of prison time, for facilitating the invasion and harboring of illegal aliens. Previously, in an interview with The Gateway Pundit, then-California Assemblyman Essayli discussed California’s policies of shielding dangerous illegal immigrants from ICE deportations and releasing them back into the community. California officials have long ignored ICE detainers, which request that local law enforcement maintain custody of illegals and notify ICE instead of releasing them back into the community after they’ve been prosecuted for a crime.
This is a clear violation of federal law, which states that anybody who "conceals, harbors, or shields from detection" an illegal alien may face prison time of not more than 5 years. Charges may be enhanced if the alien causes injury or death to another person.
The office will be "aggressively enforcing our immigration laws" and prosecuting "anyone" who interferes with federal law enforcement's deportation efforts, potentially including California politicians who are protecting illegal aliens.
"We would be willing to charge and prosecute them if they interfere in our investigation or in our ability to apprehend criminal illegal immigrants when we are acting within the law," Essayli said.
Another federal prosecutor, speaking outside of their official capacity, told The Gateway Pundit that sanctuary state and city officials "could and should" be prosecuted under 8 U.S.C. § 1324.
Essayli was sworn in last week by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. His office oversees the largest federal judicial district in the country, consisting of nearly 20 million people in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
"I am honored that President Trump and Attorney General Bondi have placed their trust in me to serve as United States Attorney for the Central District of California," Essayli said after he was chosen to lead the office.
"I intend to implement the President's mission to restore trust in our justice system and pursue those who dare to cause harm to the United States and the People of our nation."
"We're going to go back to basics. We're focusing on violent organized crime, drug trafficking, disturbing gangs that are hurting people and committing crimes, public corruption, transnational organizations," Essayli told The Gateway Pundit during our exclusive interview. "We're going to get back to doing all the stuff the Department of Justice was doing and should be doing to help make the streets safer here in the state of California."
Also among his priorities are investigating the missing funds that have gone to California's homelessness crisis and enforcing federal election laws, he said.
A recent audit of California's homelessness spending found that over $24 billion has been spent over five years with nothing to show, and over $2 billion has gone missing. Essayli said that in his ongoing probe of the spending, he's working with the FBI, IRS, and HUD Inspector General to "find where every dollar went" and prosecute anybody who broke the law. "No one is off limits in our investigation, no one is above the law, and we will be looking at everyone and everything," he said when asked if California politicians could go down for being complicit in the potential fraud.
Regarding elections, Essayli says, "We're going to be taking a look at some of the practices here in the state of California and determining whether they are, in fact, compliant with federal law or not." This includes looking at the voter rolls to ensure that illegal aliens are not registered to vote and voting in federal elections. He added, "To the extent that California is not in compliance with federal law, or they're not cleaning up their voter rolls as required by federal law, we have, again, several tools in our disposal we can use, including bringing civil action and civil enforcement against the appropriate state agencies."
Watch the full interview below:
Conradson: I know that you've launched an investigation into the waste, fraud and abuse surrounding the homelessness industrial complex, you're effectively DOGE-ing the homelessness industrial complex. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Essayli: This is an issue that's been on the radar for a while. Even in my former position up in Sacramento, we had a lot of hearings in which we were asking, sort of, where's the money? I mean, California has spent over $24 billion over the last five years to address homelessness. The voters have authorized, you know, money, a lot of money, to be used to solve this issue, and the homeless crisis has only got worse. There's really nothing to show for it. I toured Skid Row just last Sunday, and it's devastating. It's really devastating, it's really sad to see the level of need out there, and the money is not making it to where it belongs to help people. There was an audit just conducted at the behest of a federal judge here. It discovered that there is at least, just in one organization, $2 billion that's missing or unaccounted for. They cannot explain where that money went. So I put together a task force of the best prosecutors in my office, public corruption section, major fraud section. We have the FBI, the IRS, and the inspector general from HUD. And we're going to get to work, and we're going to go and find where every dollar went. And if we discover that any federal laws were broken, we will prosecute people.
Conradson: Oftentimes, it's not just these NGOs. There's politicians involved. Is that something that you'll be looking at, is there potentially politicians that might be arrested and prosecuted if they were involved in this homelessness fraud?
Essayli: We will look at everyone and anyone where the evidence leads us to. So, no one is off limits in our investigation, no one is above the law, and we will be looking at everyone and everything, and we have a lot of tools at our disposal. I will tell you just since I've made the announcement earlier this week, the amount of information we're getting from the public on this has been overwhelming, and so if anyone has any information they want to share with us, we're directing them to call 1-800-call-FBI… That's going to be our clearing house for any tips or information people may have on this topic.
Conradson: 8 U.S.C. § 1324, just a quick look at it shows it's a crime punishable by prison time to transport, conceal, harbor, or shield from detection illegal aliens. It would appear that California is in violation of this federal law, which does carry prison time for those found guilty, especially when it comes to how they're harboring these illegals, concealing them from ICE, defying ICE detainers. And you know, the penalties get worse when there's a crime involved that harms another or kills another individual. We saw this recently with a soccer coach in LA who molested and murdered a young boy. Should people in the state of California that have created these policies, are ignoring federal law enforcement, should they be potentially prosecuted for these crimes?
Essayli: Look, this is a big issue. Sanctuary state is not workable, and it's not legal, and we're going to use every tool at our disposal to end sanctuary state as we know it, in the state of California. I know congress is looking at addressing it through removing funding. So is the President, I'm going to be looking at it from a criminal enforcement standpoint. What I can tell you right now is this is something that is definitely on my radar. It is a priority, and I believe we have a plan that we're putting together, not really ready to announce it yet, but we have a plan, which, I believe, will basically end sanctuary state status as we know it in the state of California. But it's coming. I've been here a week, so give me a little bit of time, and I think you won't be disappointed.
Conradson: We'll definitely give you time, let you break in the new office. But is it possible that politicians from either side of the aisle, either party, who facilitated this invasion of our country, and who continue to defy ice— is there a possibility that they might be charged with a crime?
Essayli: It's a complicated issue. There's a complicated issue when it comes to the role of the federal government, the role of state government. What I can tell you is that we're going to be aggressively enforcing our immigration laws, and if anyone interferes or gets in our way, we're not going to put up with that, and we would be willing to to charge and prosecute them if they interfere in our investigation or in our ability to apprehend criminal illegal immigrants when we are acting within the law. I mean, Congress has made these laws. Congress, you read the code section 8 USC § 1324, we have 1325, and 1326. We have several laws on the book. We will be enforcing the law as written. It's not a buffet. You don't get to pick and choose which laws you want to follow, and if anyone gets in our way, we will charge them and prosecute them.
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