Letter: Let’s Do This

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Letter to the Editor

A few weeks ago, I witnessed Martin Sheen speak to the city council, urging that Malibu should become a “sanctuary city.” I support this action.

Thiry-four California cities, including San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, San Bernardino and San Diego, and at least 15 California counties have done this and, in fact, the entire State of California has in effect become a “sanctuary state.” This means that they will follow certain procedures to shelter immigrants from federal efforts to enforce federal immigration laws; they will not permit police or municipal employees to help ICE, etc., round up illegal immigrants.

Trump (or as I call him, “Trumputin”) has promised to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities, and if this happens, I propose a radical countermeasure — establish via state legislation “Freedom Escrow Accounts,” allowing California citizens to withhold paying federal income taxes and, instead, depositing those taxes into California state—run escrow accounts, which would be invested while in escrow, with the income from those accounts used to fund lawyers who will defend the taxpayers against IRS collection efforts. 

California currently gets back only 73 cents for every $1 we pay in federal income taxes. If the Trumputin Administration further penalizes our sanctuary cities, perhaps we can get five million or so California citizens to withhold $100 million or so in federal income taxes until they drop this punitive action.

Some local state officials I have talked to about this idea have said, “but that would be illegal.” I say nothing is illegal until a court says it is.

Malibu should become a “sanctuary city.”

Ted Vaill