Why does our government only enforce the law when it's convenient?

Cost/Benefit analysis.

Sometimes enforcing a law/regulation costs more than the harm caused by the crime banned by such law.

Enforcement discretion is a parallel to the medical triage system. Handle the most important things first, with your most valuable resources, and work down the list. Eventually you run out or resources and the lowest priority items aren't worth enforcing. Hence "Blue Laws."

In the case of the article, California has determined that Immigration is a low priority.

Because the various levels of government, once entities that were strictly governed by laws, rules, and regulations, has become a mixed bag of special interests, political corruption AND correctness, where legal, social, racial, and financial expediency is the norm. Rules and Regs are made to be bent and Laws are made to be ignored for the sake of expediency..............and all those votes in the next election!!!

Even legal immigrants can risk deportation if they commit a crime why would illegal immigrants receive more favorable treatment than those following the legal process?

It costs little to send a criminal back to their home country it is far more costly to leave them here to further victimize other Americans. We always forget about the human cost of the victims of these crimes and worry about he dollars and cents to show someone the door. Being the victim of a crime would be bad enough. To learn the person that committed a crime against you was in prison and here illegally and then released in our country to wreak more havoc would be infuriating.

They should have to get in line to become citizens like everyone else. Had a patient while stationed at the old Walter Reed. Went into his room late in the evening because he was making a commotion. He was watching TV News and was upset that he came into our country legally and earned his citizenship through service from late WWII thru Korea and Thru Vietnam. He had a very thick accent. Think he was Cuban. I'm all for LEGAL immigration.

This lack of enforcement hurts the legal immigrats and Americans who play by the rules.

Hi, I'm a retired custom officer, which means I did immigration too. Due to politics, there would be days were were told, don't do "this". I get politics, I have spoken to way too many politicians, but where does it stop? Felons are killing Americans, and those felons had detainers that the locals were told to ignore by politicians. People forget, someone may not have a criminal history in the USA, but may have a huge wrap sheet in other countries. SMH

I want to vote, I want to have an opinion on this one and contribute to what would hopefully be an enlightening discussion, but there is just so much about everything when immigration is involved that is simply disappointing to me. I am not sure I could refrain from making ignorant or inflammatory comments. So I'll just leave it with this: the system is desperately broken and needs a terrifying amount of fixing.

I really don't want to be flip, convenience is the path of least resistance. It's almost like a human wave. When does it stop. We our overwhelmed.

Why do service members only enforce regulations when convenient? Because it is convenient!