California State Senate Leader Kevin de León said last week that half of his family would be eligible for deportation under President Trump's executive order cracking down on illegal immigration in the United States.
De León made the remark while speaking on Senate Bill 54, which he introduced and would make all of California a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants.
"I can tell you half of my family would be eligible for deportation under the executive order," de León testified before the Senate's Public Safety Committee.
De León, the Senate's president pro tempore, further explained that his family would be open to deportation "because if they got a false social security card, if they got a false identification, if they got a false driver license, prior to us passing AB 60, if they got a false green card, and anyone who has family members, you know who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification–that's what you need to survive, to work. They are eligible for massive deportation."
Later in his testimony, de León called for embracing everyone regardless of legal status.
"Today we need to bring our communities together, irrespective of legal status, and we need to first and foremost make our communities safe," he said.
The Senate's Public Safety Committee has said that the purpose of SB 54 "is to limit state and local law enforcement agencies involvement in immigration enforcement and to ensure that eligible individuals are able to seek services from and engage with state agencies without regard to their immigration status."
Trump signed multiple executive orders last month on immigration that called for, among other measures, cracking down on deportations and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.