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Seemingly absent from the fight for the last two months, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered 29 more sanctuary jurisdictions to comply with federal immigration laws or lose funding.

The sanctuary city debate is the essential fight on illegal immigration, as these lawless jurisdictions signal to the world: “Come here illegally, and we won’t stop you.”

These cities invite crime, drug and human trafficking, and degradation to our American quality of life. AG Sessions has witnessed key victories: Suffolk and Miami Counties complied and rescinded their lawless resistance. Even Virginia Democratic governor-elect Ralph Northam announced opposition to sanctuary jurisdictions, to the hateful despair of his Democratic base.

We will see whether “Sanctuary State” Governor-Elect Phil Murphy follows through on his promise to turn New Jersey into an outlaw state, too.

In California, the sanctuary cities fight has become particularly contentious. Los Angeles hasn’t officially labeled itself such, but activists are agitating for the name change. Only one California city, Pittsburg, rescinded its sanctuary city stance. Oxnard opted for “Safe City”, at the behest of the police chief. Sacramento lawmakers passed their Sanctuary State law, but only after Governor Brown required massive revisions to sign that bill.

Despite these “victories”, illegal social justice warriors won’t stop until ICE is permanently banned from California’s borders: law-breakers in; law enforcement out. Opponents of the sanctuary state law (including Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell) warned the amnesty panderers that any state statute would not prevent federal officials from enforcing immigration laws. Despite California lawmakers’ attempt to hamstring cooperation between the jails and the immigration officers, sheriffs are siding with the feds and reporting as many illegals to ICE as possible. So much for sanctuary ordinances. The fight against the rule of law has not stayed in Los Angeles, either. Indivisible 35 wants the Pomona city council to impose a detailed sanctuary city ordinance, doubling-down on the lawlessness.

The sanctuary city push, however, has undermined the essence of what cities are supposed to be: safe havens for citizens. Outside the Roybal Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles, I counter-protested a vigil for the federal government to restore the Temporary Protective Status program, a much-abused refugee grant which allowed foreigners to stay for extended periods of time. Despite heavy police presence, the TPS protesters stole my signs, right under the nose of the supervising police officers. Then they tore one of my signs up … right in front of the LAPD Sergeant Keenan. He refused to enforce the law against the pro-illegals. I had to settle for compensation from one of the pastoral leaders, and a police report. Where’s the sanctuary for me as a citizen?

Three days later in the West Adams area of Los Angeles , McCarty Memorial Christian Church hosted a Saturday morning “Sanctuary Town Hall.” They want Los Angeles to adopt an official sanctuary city policy, too. It was advertised to the public by PeoplePower.org through the ACLU, so I signed up, as did fifteen fellow Trump supporters. Where’s the dialogue if the other side—those who favor enforcement of our immigration laws—cannot attend?

The church, a decayed neo-Gothic architecture in the midst of a decaying section of a dying city, stood out as the last relic of an older, saner Los Angeles community from the early 1930s. McCarty Church had a Catholic cathedral feel to it, until I saw the swastikas etched into the church floor tiles. Any sense of welcoming inclusivity was dispelled within ten minutes of our arrival, when the illegal alien organizers told us to leave. “You have come to disrupt the meeting.” And illegals breaking into our country is not a disruption? Clearly, these ACLU “Fight for Fifteen” types weren’t interested in discussion.

The organizers called the police on us, then moved their “meeting” into the church basement. Undaunted, our team demanded the right to attend. It was a public meeting, even if they were holding the event in a private space. The Reverend had even promised that we could stay, but then laid down last-minute conditions. More discrimination, this time against citizens. This drive for sanctuary status has turned safe havens into battlefields of bitter, ideological conflict.

Two of our team entered the room. Then a third member pushed through, despite police presence blocking us, and he was arrested on the spot (the police released him without citation). Officer Choub ordered everyone out of the church, or he would cite us for trespassing. WHAT?! Ten minutes later, the police led the two members in the meeting out of the church in hand-cuffs. McCarty Memorial Christian Church was not a welcome place for all after all.

This is the new meaning of “sanctuary city”. A church in Los Angeles hosts a town hall to teach illegal aliens how to skirt our nation’s immigration laws and how to organize the take-down of Los Angeles City Hall. American citizens are denied entry to this meeting, advertised to the public, and the police violate our rights, following orders from the corrupt, left-wing city council. Where is the “sanctuary” in sanctuary cities?

Despite all the ongoing agitation among these left-wing groups to push cities to impose their own local outlaw ordinances, it’s evident that sanctuary cities have not provided any sanctuary for the illegals, either. ICE is still knocking on doors, arresting and deporting illegal aliens, and enforcing our immigration laws. Sanctuary is gone not just for the illegals, but now taxpaying citizens find no safety or security.

AG Sessions is going after cities, but he needs to target these lawless churches. The churches! They are supposed to be the essence of sanctuary, providing refuge to those falsely accused of crime or fleeing political or religious persecution. But what happens when the citizens are persecuted in their own country, and by the very houses of worship founded on a respect for divine and by extension temporal authorities?

These are grave times indeed for the Republic, especially in California. Where there is no law, the people perish, but the entire country cannot long stand divided in this manner.