We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

On Monday, I wrote that the woman responsible for passing the San Diego County anti-ICE cooperation resolution and board policy, which unleashed a firestorm…

At the beginning of December, I wrote a VIP piece about a pretty aggressive move the San Diego Board of Supervisors was contemplating in response to the Trump election and his implementation of announced immigration rejiggering plans, aka mass deportations. 

Introducing the resolution and leading the charge for passage was the Democratic District 1 supervisor and chairwoman of the board, Nora Vargas. What her proposal would do was ban the use of any county resources – including the county sheriff – from being used to assist ICE and the federal government in removing illegal aliens from San Diego County.

Advertisement

…had done this out of the blue last Friday.

…While the storm that Vargas set in motion was breaking over everyone’s head, as well as drawing an unwelcome Tom Homan beady eye on the county, the voluble chairwoman herself suddenly clammed up. She couldn’t be reached for comment and blamed her recurring vocal nodule issues.

There wasn’t a peep out of her until Friday. Then she dropped a bombshell on her staff and the county she’d just pretty well boned with the federal government.

I QUIT

Nora Vargas, District 1 supervisor and Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors, didn’t even do her own staff the courtesy of a heads up when she released her statement that she would not be continuing in office come January.

Scrooge McVargas signing out – Merry Christmas, worker bees.

Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas, who represents a heavily Hispanic district that stretches to the U.S.-Mexico border, released a statement on social media sharing her decision to “conclude my tenure as County Supervisor, completing my first term this January 6, 2025.”

She won reelection in November, taking more than 62 percent of the vote in her race.

“Due to personal safety and security reasons, I will not take the oath of office for a second term,” she said, without providing details.

As board chair, Vargas received fierce online criticism for backing a measure that sought to prevent county resources from being used to support federal immigration enforcement.

Once the initial shock of the announcement wore off – and people had the weekend to mull it over as it was a classic Friday dump – “Why’d she do it?” speculation started swirling, and there was no shortage of guessing going on. I mentioned a few in my piece – the racial bias lawsuits and ongoing federal investigations into money issues at different projects of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), which Vargas also chaired – but it seems as if the woman was dogged by controversies, self-inflicted or otherwise.

Advertisement

 Likewise, her luster within her district had diminished significantly during her first term, and she’d alienated many original supporters in the heavily Hispanic area.

…Though she took office in 2021 with great fanfare as the first Latina on the Board of Supervisors, she proceeded to engage in a series of high-profile disputes with organized labor groups who once supported her and was broadly perceived by residents near the Tijuana River as ineffective in responding to the region’s ongoing sewage crisis.

Multiple legal claims accused her and members of her staff of making racist comments about prospective employees and engaging in backroom maneuvers to prevent Michael Vu, a longtime county administrator, from landing a coveted role as the county’s chief administrative officer because, according to a claim filed by Vu, Vargas wanted “a Hispanic or Black” candidate instead. Vargas and members of her staff have denied that they discriminated against potential employees.

This year, the board endured a series of high-profile setbacks under Vargas’ leadership, including the abrupt cancellation of a homeless housing project, delays in establishing an aid center for migrants and the collapse of a proposed collaboration with the University of California, San Diego to establish a hub for mental health treatment.

Vargas’ resignation was so sudden and apparently unplanned, staff members in her office said they learned about it only moments before an official announcement was emailed to reporters at 11 a.m. Friday. Vargas declined interview requests and staff in her office referred to her resignation statement.

Advertisement

The racial bias claim is pretty fugly and pits three supervisors, former and current, against each other on top of it.

…Michael Vu was appointed to serve as the county’s Registrar of Voters in 2012 before he took on his new role as assistant chief administrative officer in 2021.

In a redacted copy of the claim filed by Vu on Wednesday, he alleged that on June 4, the Board of Supervisors bypassed him for the position of chief administrative officer, a seat left vacant due to the retirement of Helen Robbins-Meyer.

The claim said Robbins-Meyer had promoted Vu to his current position as her assistant chief administrative officer. However, Vu said he did not receive the promotion to fill her seat due to the actions of other county officials, the claim said.

In the claim, Vu accused Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas of not supporting him as CAO because of his racial background. The claim said, during a conversation that occurred between October of 2022 and February of 2023, Robbins-Meyer was discussing her retirement and succession plan and mentioned staying on the job an additional year for the purpose of “assisting Michael Vu in transitioning into the job of CAO.”

According to Vu’s claim, Vargas stated, “We need a person of color,” to which Robbins-Meyer reportedly replied, “Michael is a person of color, he is Asian!” The claim reportedly said that Vargas responded, “That doesn’t count, they have opportunities and education. We need a Hispanic of black.”

Advertisement

She seems like a real peach if any of that is true.

There’s also a bit of a legal question as the quitter has taken all her media accounts dark. As those are technically public records, it would be best if they were only disabled, not deleted.

But what frosted everyone’s chaps was, of course, turning the county into a Super Sanctuary by fiat… 

…The “disastrous” new resolution — which was adopted in a 3-1 vote by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors last week — now forces local cops in the southernmost California county to obtain a warrant signed by a state or federal judge before they can contact ICE over an illegal migrant busted for a crime, according to NewsNation.

Local law enforcement was previously restricted from contacting the feds if they found out someone’s immigration status was illegal — and this new law extends that protection to include even those here illegally who are arrested for a crime, unless a warrant is issued.

ICE can’t even be notified of an accused criminal illegal migrant’s release from custody under the policy without a warrant.

…and then bailing out of what is sure to be a mess of epic proportions.

The county is already awash in illegals, inland city mayors were furiously railing against the measure, and the San Diego sheriff said flat-out she wasn’t beholden to uphold any of it. 

Advertisement

Most assuredly, there would be increased scrutiny from the federal government with a policy so diametrically opposed to goals being set by the incoming Trump administration. Border Czar Tom Homan, aware of it weeks ago when the policy first passed,  issued a warning while vowing to thwart the county’s efforts.

…Homan, during an interview with The Post on Friday about his recent meeting with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said the policy is “10 times worse” than California’s existing sanctuary state law.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller, Homan said, “Congratulations, SD County. You just won yourself ICE agents all through your neighborhoods.” 

Their “protection” policy is going to make border and immigration enforcement more intrusive and things worse.

…Homan, who has been tasked with fulfilling President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass apprehensions and deportations of illegal migrants across the United States, blasted the lawmakers involved with the vote and said they can simply expect more ICE agents in their neighborhoods as a result.

“Rather than arresting an illegal alien criminal in the safety and security of a county jail where we know he doesn’t have weapons, they’re forcing ICE officers into the streets, into neighborhoods to find these people,” Homan said to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s ridiculous.”

Now, ICE will be on the blocks and in homes instead of picking criminal offenders up at the jail when they get a call.

…“[Sanctuary laws] make it more difficult, but it doesn’t mean we’re not going to do it,” Homan said. “It just means we’ll have more agents in San Diego because rather than one guy arresting a guy in a jail — we have to send a whole team to safely arrest a guy, so they can expect a lot more agents in that jurisdiction.”

Advertisement

Even former CA governor Jerry Brown is murmuring sweet nothings about the law he signed all those years ago, and why there were exceptions for violent crimes committed by illegals left in it.

Because they were violent criminals? Could be, but I’m just stabbing in the dark here.

… During an interview in December, former Democrat California Gov. Jerry Brown — who signed SB 54 into law in 2017, which prohibits some cooperation between ICE and local authorities — said he believes some cities across the state have now gone “way, way beyond” what he put on the books, and noted that his statewide policy made exceptions for migrants convicted of violent crimes.

Well done, San Diego County! 

Not only have you let your worst instincts make your situation worse, but the woman you foolishly let bamboozle you into this touchy-feely, expensively futile gesture is nowhere to be found just as the rubber-faced Homan and his ICE men are about to hit the road.

Seriously. Even a blind man could have seen this coming.

A question now looms for the new board, too – do they take the heat and appoint someone to take Vargas’s place or pony up for a special election? Potential candidates are lining up, and the way things are going, voters might very well demand a say in determining the composition of the board.

How much more blind man’s bluff can the SD Board of Supervisors afford to play? 

I know the Trump team got game.