(Photo: still image from California Attorney General's Office video feed of Wednesday's news conference)
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Wednesday he'll use his position to challenge the Trump administration's efforts to relax environmental regulations and increase enforcement of immigration laws.
"We're playing offense, we're moving forward," Becerra said at a news conference to mark his first 100 days in office.
"I've got your back," Becerra said, and repeated his vision of the state's top law enforcement job as a defender of peoples' rights, including the rights of those who are living in the U.S. illegally.
"Until someone tells me otherwise, we're going to continue to keep families together," and said he'd personally told federal immigration officials he would not allow local law enforcement to be deputized for immigration enforcement.
"The federal government, we understand, has a right to enforce immigration laws, we got that, but they don't have a right to force us to do their work for them," and said he believed legal action threatened against so-called "sanctuary" states or municipalities was a, "Constitutional over-reach."
"It's time for us to continue to lead, because in Washington, D.C., it looks like they're trying to turn back the time, and roll back our clock, California won't do that," he said.
Becerra, who said California was, "moving forward," or, "leaning forward," at least two dozen times in the first 10 minutes of his remarks, said he'd hired some subject matter experts to work against certain Trump administration initiatives and other tasks, such as enforcing tax rules being abused by shady non-profits.