Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress.
Speaker 2: High whips Marties.
Speaker 1: As many of you know, I consider myself very blessed
Speaker 1: to be a Californian and even more blessed to be
Speaker 1: an Angelino. I loved growing up in LA and I
Speaker 1: love the city for its diversity and its energy, and
Speaker 1: its art and it's people. And as my home city
Speaker 1: is being ravaged by ice and aggression coming from the
Speaker 1: White House, I can't believe I have to even say
Speaker 1: that out loud, but here we are. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask some questions of someone who has been tasked with
Speaker 1: holding us together and tasked by us by the people.
Speaker 1: Today's guest is none other than our esteemed Mayor Karen.
Speaker 1: She serves as our forty third mayor of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: and prior to becoming mayor, she served in the US
Speaker 1: House of Representatives in the thirty third and thirty seventh
Speaker 1: district in California, also in the State Assembly, and was
Speaker 1: the Speaker of the California State Assembly during her final term.
Speaker 1: Karen is also an angeline. She is someone who inspires
Speaker 1: me so much. She's carried her passion for public health
Speaker 1: through her entire career. Through her many degrees, and she
Speaker 1: has been a community organizer for nearly as long. I
Speaker 1: don't know many emergency medicine physician assistants or clinical instructors
Speaker 1: who have also studied philosophy, but Mayor Bass has done
Speaker 1: it all. I so appreciate the way she looks at
Speaker 1: our human responsibilities, how we show up for each other,
Speaker 1: how we make space for each other, and how we
Speaker 1: go farther together. So, today, as the President wants to
Speaker 1: put a target on the city of Los Angeles is back,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to the woman who's actually standing
Speaker 1: in front of our city with a shield and making
Speaker 1: sure that everyone in Los Angeles and in the surrounding
Speaker 1: areas knows they're safe with us. Let's dive in with
Speaker 1: Mayor Karen Bass. Mary Bass, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us today. It means the world to have you
Speaker 1: call in from Los Angeles, and first and foremost, I
Speaker 1: just want to thank you for all of your efforts
Speaker 1: to hold the city together in such a fraught time
Speaker 1: for the nation.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that it
Speaker 3: is a tough time, but you know we've been down
Speaker 3: this road before. We'll be okay.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean that we don't fight, are we Absolutely? Absolutely?
Speaker 1: And something I admire so much about you for folks
Speaker 1: who might not be from our city or necessarily know
Speaker 1: everything about your background, is that you've always been so
Speaker 1: deeply invested in public health in California, in our city
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles. You know, from Keech Medical School to
Speaker 1: cal State University, you have leaned towards studying health and science,
Speaker 1: and you've been a community organizer since the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: You are the definition of a person who shows up
Speaker 1: for good for their community. So I want the world
Speaker 1: to know how long you've been at this before we
Speaker 1: dive into what's happening in the present moment.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, I appreciate you raising that, And I
Speaker 3: do think that a lot of times people do not
Speaker 3: see the centrality of health in so many social and
Speaker 3: sonomic issues.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I think perhaps it's a great background for
Speaker 1: the moment we find ourselves in. You know, we are
Speaker 1: experiencing six months into this second Trump administration, so much
Speaker 1: national trauma, with people realizing that this administration wants to
Speaker 1: cut our health services, wants to deregulate our clean air
Speaker 1: and water protections, wants to destabilize families that are low
Speaker 1: income from having any access to things like food, I
Speaker 1: mean basic resources, and that all speaks to public health
Speaker 1: in our city in particular. I think it's incredibly relevant
Speaker 1: because what folks who don't live near us might not
Speaker 1: know is that one in nine Americans lives in California
Speaker 1: and one in thirty five Americans lives in Los Angeles County.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I mean a massive statistic. There are forty
Speaker 1: states in this country with less population than we have
Speaker 1: a county. Medam Mayor, And I say that for our
Speaker 1: listeners at home, just to give them the backdrop of
Speaker 1: how big our city is and the way our city
Speaker 1: shows up for its people, including our incredible immigrant communities,
Speaker 1: is because these are our neighbors and our friends.
Speaker 3: You know that's exactly right. But I will tell you
Speaker 3: that after serving twelve years in Congress and watching year
Speaker 3: after year after year Republicans wanting to cut everything anything
Speaker 3: that has to do with people who are poor, and
Speaker 3: what I believe is at the root of it is
Speaker 3: that they have absolutely no experience with people who are
Speaker 3: struggling economically, and they get themselves out of well, you
Speaker 3: just need to do X, Y and z not that
Speaker 3: there's any systemic barriers, not that there's any reasons. It's
Speaker 3: the fault of the individual. Therefore they don't deserve but
Speaker 3: corporations deserve everything.
Speaker 1: Oh well, what an insane thing, isn't it that we
Speaker 1: treat corporations like people more than people?
Speaker 2: You know, I think you illustrate.
Speaker 1: Such a beautiful point that if you're not on the ground,
Speaker 1: if you don't know people, if you don't know their struggle,
Speaker 1: if you've never known a family that's trying to decide
Speaker 1: between paying rent or putting food on the table, you
Speaker 1: might not understand what those decisions feel like. Clearly, Mike Johnson,
Speaker 1: who's the Speaker of the House, doesn't you know he's
Speaker 1: out there saying that their six figure salary of one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy four thousand dollars a year and free
Speaker 1: healthcare as elected officials is not enough to support a
Speaker 1: family in America, while he's trying to cut things like
Speaker 1: SNAP for families that live below the poverty line. Social
Speaker 1: services help people generate more successful lives. They don't make
Speaker 1: people lazy. We know this. We know that immigrants in
Speaker 1: our country commit crimes at far lower rates than citizens,
Speaker 1: But for some reason, these talking points that we know
Speaker 1: not to be true about how oh it's that guy
Speaker 1: over there, it's his fault that you're not doing better,
Speaker 1: or he's the one who took your job, or he's
Speaker 1: someone you can't trust. They get through because fear takes hold,
Speaker 1: especially when it's making you afraid of something irrational. Understanding
Speaker 1: the human tendency to be afraid and what we're up
Speaker 1: against at the federal level in terms of harm being done,
Speaker 1: how does that make you, as the mayor of our
Speaker 1: great city analyze where this kind of rhetoric is coming from.
Speaker 1: How does it make you operate in our community? Knowing
Speaker 1: how much we in La love all of our neighbors.
Speaker 1: How do you kind of contextualize the misinformation they're spreading
Speaker 1: about these communities? As you know, ice is moving through
Speaker 1: Los Angeles.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think that oftentimes we do not
Speaker 3: pay attention or even are knowledgeable of history, and so
Speaker 3: it's very, very important to link events that are happening
Speaker 3: today with events that happened in the past to give
Speaker 3: people some sort of insight as to where it could go.
Speaker 3: For me, the way I deal with it here is
Speaker 3: really lifting up the reasons why people struggle because in
Speaker 3: Los Angeles it's a very very expensive city and the
Speaker 3: divide is massive. For example, in our city we have
Speaker 3: sixty two billionaires. We have you know, I don't even
Speaker 3: know how many millionaires. And so to explain to people
Speaker 3: how much it costs to rent an apartment, to you know,
Speaker 3: put gas in your car, you total those up and
Speaker 3: paint a very real picture, and then you take away
Speaker 3: the belief that this isn't this is the lack of
Speaker 3: individual effort. I mean, if they just worked harder, they
Speaker 3: would millionaire like me. And I'm a billionaire because I'm
Speaker 3: so brilliant, as opposed to I inherited four hundred million
Speaker 3: dollars from my friend and then by the way, I've
Speaker 3: made it all by myself.
Speaker 2: Must be nice, honey, right.
Speaker 3: I think it's important to illustrate in very practical terms,
Speaker 3: link it to history, paint a picture why people are struggling,
Speaker 3: attach the policies that contribute to that, and then put
Speaker 3: it in its historical context. That's the way I analyze things.
Speaker 3: And I think it's so important because we tend to
Speaker 3: be an in the moment culture and we don't link
Speaker 3: up to the past. We don't link up to systemic structures.
Speaker 3: We just talk about what is in front of us.
Speaker 1: Right, and if we don't know our history, we're doomed
Speaker 1: to repeat it. You know, there's a reason the phrase exists.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors who make the
Speaker 1: show possible. I am curious knowing the history of our
Speaker 1: city as well as you do, having worked on advocacy
Speaker 1: as well as you have. I mean, I have watched
Speaker 1: the number of unhoused people you've gotten off the streets
Speaker 1: and into safe housing, into restorative repair organizations in ways
Speaker 1: that no one has been able to in the city
Speaker 1: in so many years prior to your becoming our mayor.
Speaker 1: It's it is such a massive city to understand again,
Speaker 1: one in thirty five Americans in Los Angeles County. How
Speaker 1: do you then work at the state level, like with
Speaker 1: our governor, because y'all are you're doing the work, you know,
Speaker 1: from helping us recoup from the fires to dealing with this.
Speaker 1: And I can imagine, although you are not the mayor
Speaker 1: of San Diego, when you knew ice raids began and
Speaker 1: in San Diego, were you then in communication with the
Speaker 1: state understanding how quickly they'd be in Los Angeles? Did
Speaker 1: you know Los Angeles was next? Is it kind of
Speaker 1: a guessing game with these agencies? Do they tell you anything?
Speaker 3: No, As a matter of fact, right now, we have
Speaker 3: no idea how long this is going to go on.
Speaker 3: Is it going to be every day? How many are
Speaker 3: they going to do a day? Where is it going
Speaker 3: to be. No, we are not knowledgeable of any of that.
Speaker 3: In terms of other mayors, yes, mayors are in contact
Speaker 3: with each other all the time. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: once a week we meet. And that is not all
Speaker 3: of the mayors in California, but it's the mayors from
Speaker 3: the thirteenth largest cities and we byquically have an advocacy
Speaker 3: agenda that always centers on homelessness, but there might be
Speaker 3: other issues. So yes, Mary, Gloria and I are definitely
Speaker 3: in regular contact. But again that is part of the
Speaker 3: reason for the sense of fear and just you know, anxiety.
Speaker 3: You are an undocumented person, You've been working every day
Speaker 3: for twenty years, you know, supporting your family legally, and
Speaker 3: then I go to work to them. Should I go
Speaker 3: to this kid's school and drop them off? You know,
Speaker 3: should I go to the store. I mean that level
Speaker 3: of fear and anxiety. I mean, I think the well,
Speaker 3: I mean, you just can't imagine it, you know, Am
Speaker 3: I going to be walking down the street? Is somebody
Speaker 3: gonna snatch me? You know? And so that it's exactly
Speaker 3: your point of Are you in contact with No, they
Speaker 3: do not communicate with us. In terms of state legislature. Yes,
Speaker 3: I'm very very comfortable there. I serve there for six
Speaker 3: years and speaker in my last two years. I have
Speaker 3: a fine relationship with the governor. We collaborate on a
Speaker 3: lot of things. You know. We spent the first five
Speaker 3: months of the year collaborating on the fires, and now
Speaker 3: we're collaborating on the presidential overreach, right.
Speaker 1: Well, and that's just it. The overreach is the problem.
Speaker 1: What the president is doing is blatantly unconstitutional. It is
Speaker 1: a violation of the law. And what frustrates me as
Speaker 1: a constituent. You know, I'm not an elected official, but
Speaker 1: I pay attention to politics. He would not call the
Speaker 1: National Garden on an actual violent mob beating and killing
Speaker 1: police officers and trying to kill elected officials in our
Speaker 1: state house, right, But he sent the National Guarden against
Speaker 1: the will of California state elected officials when protests were
Speaker 1: still peaceful, and I'd love if you could speak to that,
Speaker 1: because I know there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation,
Speaker 1: and I know it began with certain issues around the wildfires,
Speaker 1: and y'all have done as best you can to tell
Speaker 1: people what the facts are. But now it seems the
Speaker 1: misinformation is even worse because AI is powering crazy videos,
Speaker 1: crazy images that.
Speaker 2: Are not real.
Speaker 1: So are you how are you dealing with that letting
Speaker 1: the public know what is happening, letting people know that
Speaker 1: prior to the escalation that began with uniformed officers, these
Speaker 1: protests were largely peaceful.
Speaker 3: Well, they were largely peaceful, but even when they weren't,
Speaker 3: it was a small amount of folks. So last Saturday night,
Speaker 3: for example, when the President was tweeting that he led
Speaker 3: the peace in La because the National Guard did a
Speaker 3: splendid job, the national Guard was not even here. They
Speaker 3: didn't arrive until the next day. And the big outburst
Speaker 3: that he was talking about was about one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty people and twenty years arrested. And so it doesn't
Speaker 3: make sense any way, shape or form what you're referring
Speaker 3: to around AI. I'm actually not aware of but we
Speaker 3: have just been communicating on every platform possible what is
Speaker 3: actually happening and has been violence. I had to do
Speaker 3: a curfew. Andalism is really what has been the most prolific,
Speaker 3: graffiti just everywhere, and then on Monday night there was
Speaker 3: looting of stores, and then a little bit of that
Speaker 3: on Sunday, but on Monday it got worse. The point
Speaker 3: is is that the National Guard is not doing any
Speaker 3: of that. They are guarding one building. They are guarding
Speaker 3: the Federal building. Anything else that's happened has happened with
Speaker 3: local police. As local police, you know, they might have
Speaker 3: other people with them, the share of other departments. But
Speaker 3: I think it's always important to know why this even happened,
Speaker 3: because one week ago today Los Angeles was completely peaceful,
Speaker 3: nothing was happening. The problems started on Friday when Ice
Speaker 3: came and did raids on several workplaces, and they also
Speaker 3: did a high profile, pretty aggressive arrests of David Werta,
Speaker 3: one of our beloved, well respected labor leaders. That is
Speaker 3: what tip the whole thing off. And so it would
Speaker 3: hear like it was a purposeful provocation, because again it
Speaker 3: was fine. There was nothing happening on Thursday that warned
Speaker 3: to Friday, and then that led into Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Speaker 3: So it is important to look back at the origin.
Speaker 3: But one thing that you said that I think is
Speaker 3: really important now this is even remembering recent history, okay,
Speaker 3: is in Trump's first term, he did everything he could
Speaker 3: to change the judiciary in terms of nominating and having
Speaker 3: and passed judges that interestingly, we're all in around in
Speaker 3: the same age range, which is around in their forties.
Speaker 3: So what you said is blatantly illegal. I'm not sure
Speaker 3: anymore because it a court ruling where if this it
Speaker 3: happened six years ago, we would have said, well, I mean,
Speaker 3: that's just ridiculous. The courts will throw that out. I mean,
Speaker 3: we don't even need to worry about it. Oh no,
Speaker 3: we need to worry about the courts at every level.
Speaker 3: So it be important to remember what happened before, because
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people would just say, I'm
Speaker 3: not worried about it. It's just, you know, we can
Speaker 3: just rely on the courts.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and you know, to try to reshape a democracy's judiciary,
Speaker 1: to give yourself monarch powers is simply an American and
Speaker 1: it bears repeating for all of us. And you know,
Speaker 1: something that you just said is something I really want
Speaker 1: to noodle on for a beat for our friends at home,
Speaker 1: because the provocation, as you reference, is really crucial here
Speaker 1: when you consider again, one in thirty five Americans lives
Speaker 1: in La County, and we know the blueprint of Project
Speaker 1: twenty five is to weaponize the American military against our
Speaker 1: own citizens, starting with Blue Cities, to come to the
Speaker 1: biggest democratic city in America and provoke its people, enact violence,
Speaker 1: arrest a labor leader for standing quote unquote in their way,
Speaker 1: to raid children's graduation ceremonies, and pick up people who
Speaker 1: and this is important as well you reference this, are
Speaker 1: here legally. Being undocumented is not illegal. People who are
Speaker 1: going through their hearings and their asylum procedures, some of
Speaker 1: whom it takes fifteen years for are here legally. They
Speaker 1: are doing it the right way. They are simply not
Speaker 1: documented yet. That's why these people are being arrested at
Speaker 1: their court hearings with their families. They are provoking our
Speaker 1: people by doing harm. They are choosing cruelty. They denied
Speaker 1: Maxine Waters her absolute congressional right to go into that
Speaker 1: ice facility and check on David Huerta, even though it
Speaker 1: is the law that she be allowed in They are
Speaker 1: coming to our cities to act lawlessly and harm our neighbors,
Speaker 1: to try to provoke a response. And what's interesting to
Speaker 1: me is the protests that began, as you said, very peacefully,
Speaker 1: even within twenty four hours. For again, one in thirty
Speaker 1: five people in the whole country lives in LA and
Speaker 1: twenty seven people got arrested.
Speaker 2: That's not a big deal for us. It's not a
Speaker 2: big protest. It's a couple of people being a.
Speaker 1: Little squirrely and like LA has seen way bigger things happen.
Speaker 1: And so to say that that is the reason to
Speaker 1: deploy the National Guard when we have the LAPD at
Speaker 1: its size and budget and resource level is simply laughable.
Speaker 1: And I think these things really are important to hammer
Speaker 1: home for our listeners so they can go out armed
Speaker 1: with these facts and make sure they don't get bamboozled
Speaker 1: by you know, the guy saying the National Guards saved
Speaker 1: us on Saturday when they didn't even get there till Sunday. Like,
Speaker 1: come on, bro, you gotta fact check yourself a little
Speaker 1: bit here.
Speaker 3: Well, there is an opinion about facts, right, true?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you speak the truth, Madam mayor, can I ask
Speaker 1: you a question just on a I know we're talking
Speaker 1: about all the politics, but I'm also really worried about
Speaker 1: our neighbors, and so to take it local for a minute, Yes,
Speaker 1: for the folks in LA. But look, we know ice
Speaker 1: is coming everywhere. Do you know who they're targeting is
Speaker 1: Because they've said it's criminals, we know it's not. It's
Speaker 1: mothers and fathers. It's people who are you know, out
Speaker 1: their asylum hearings, who are upstanding residents.
Speaker 2: Is it strictly based on skin.
Speaker 1: Color and low income areas? How are they finding these
Speaker 1: folks who pay their taxes and participate in their communities.
Speaker 3: Let me just say, let me make it a little worse.
Speaker 3: You talked about people going through their asylum hearings. There
Speaker 3: are people with green cards who are turning in, turning
Speaker 3: up for their annual appointment, which is supposed to happen, right,
Speaker 3: So they are definitely here legally. All they're doing is
Speaker 3: they're checking appointment and then they get the pay and
Speaker 3: maybe with their family. So if we remember, yes, we
Speaker 3: started with violent drug dealers, gang members, and we translate
Speaker 3: and now we're at a place where exactly what you said,
Speaker 3: it's parents, it's people at a graduation. And I know
Speaker 3: that ICE agents showed up near my grandson's school and
Speaker 3: what they did was they snatched a couple of street
Speaker 3: vendors selling food. I mean, again, I just have a
Speaker 3: hard time connecting that up with the original goals. But
Speaker 3: I know minute to the violence that has happened, that
Speaker 3: has happened especially, I don't believe that anybody that is
Speaker 3: doing that is actually doing it in support of the
Speaker 3: immigrant community. They couldn't be now because if they supported
Speaker 3: the immigrant community, they would not be provoking and providing
Speaker 3: a reason quote unquote for there to be federal intervention.
Speaker 3: And part of what I think is happening here is
Speaker 3: that it's social media driven and those things that is
Speaker 3: typical where social media gathers people to, you know, do
Speaker 3: a street takeover or something like that. So I think
Speaker 3: that that's really important. And then some of the other
Speaker 3: stories I've heard people being picked up at a customer
Speaker 3: being picked up at a car wash and his son
Speaker 3: being left there to make his way home and take
Speaker 3: care of his family. I had somebody tell me that
Speaker 3: they went to their grocery store and the shelves were empty.
Speaker 3: Why because people weren't showing up to work. So you
Speaker 3: look at the economy in LUs we have very specific
Speaker 3: sectors of our economy that cannot function without immigrant labor.
Speaker 3: If you think about construction, if you think a bout hospitality,
Speaker 3: that's just a but there's a lot of manufacturing jobs.
Speaker 3: And by the way, the plant that was raided on
Speaker 3: Friday was owned that was Korean owned, and the people
Speaker 3: that were detained were both Korean and Latino. And so
Speaker 3: one of the biggest problems that the immigrant rights organizations
Speaker 3: are having. And you know, we're fortunate in LA to
Speaker 3: have a well established, well respected immigrant rights community and
Speaker 3: they for years and years, but they said they've never
Speaker 3: experienced where they could not contact people. They could sell
Speaker 3: them to their lawyers, which is, you know, to me
Speaker 3: denying them due process. And also the family members. So
Speaker 3: when you have when you know, when the raid is
Speaker 3: happening in a in a workplace and then people start
Speaker 3: calling their family on their cell phone and the family
Speaker 3: shows up at the workplace watching their relatives being carted
Speaker 3: out into who knows where they downtown, if they're in
Speaker 3: another county, if they've been shipped off to El Salvador.
Speaker 3: The latest I heard is that he's talking about taking
Speaker 3: the people from LA and bringing them to Guantanamo. Rather
Speaker 3: hear that too, closing Guantanamo because there's no need for
Speaker 3: it anymore. You know, you are looking to occupy it
Speaker 3: with as many people as possible, and just all the
Speaker 3: money that the city of LA is having to spend,
Speaker 3: all of the money that is being spent on the
Speaker 3: military that has absolutely no role here. Do you know
Speaker 3: if all of the soldiers that he's talking about are
Speaker 3: rolled out into our city, do you know there will
Speaker 3: be more military in Los Angeles than remains today in Iraq?
Speaker 3: And so those kind of things are just really really
Speaker 3: crazy that it's happening. And talk about creating a sense
Speaker 3: of fear and terror. But I do feel like that
Speaker 3: we're a test case. I think they're like, you know,
Speaker 3: flood the zone with little strategy and tactic, and let's
Speaker 3: see how it plays with the American people. Let's see
Speaker 3: how it plays in Los Angeles. But the trap you're
Speaker 3: kind of in is that if people rebel too much,
Speaker 3: then that becomes the pretense. Well, let's roll troops. The
Speaker 3: other thing. I think that's so important, and I love
Speaker 3: what you're saying in terms of one of thirty five people,
Speaker 3: I'm I am going to have to use that. I
Speaker 3: think I think that is great. But when you look
Speaker 3: at our city that is five hundred square miles, protests
Speaker 3: occupy about four or five streets, yes, maybe maybe a
Speaker 3: square mile. The curfew that I impose covers about six
Speaker 3: square miles. That's for a curfew six square miles out
Speaker 3: of five.
Speaker 1: Yes, the.
Speaker 3: Unrest of vandalism has been about five streets.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: So the portrayal on TV and this isn't even AI.
Speaker 3: The portrayal on the news, especially the national news, is
Speaker 3: that there's massive civil unrest happening. I mean, what did
Speaker 3: Trump say? The city would have burnt down? The city
Speaker 3: would have been, you know in had he not saved
Speaker 3: the day. And I'm going to go back to the
Speaker 3: fact that the National Guard is guarding one building. The
Speaker 3: police response has been Los Angeles police departments, sheriffs and
Speaker 3: other adjacent departments that are providing mutual aid. It is
Speaker 3: not necessary to one take power away from the governor
Speaker 3: and federalize the National Guard. Now, anytime we have needed
Speaker 3: the National Guard, the governor is right there and will
Speaker 3: Cootate wholeheartedly as he did in the Fires and our
Speaker 3: play incredible role everybody, tremendous fans of the National Saintsary.
Speaker 1: Well, but I think there's also something let's let's be
Speaker 1: practical as well. When you actually respect our armed services,
Speaker 1: you don't want to waste their time, right you don't.
Speaker 1: You don't want them bust into a city with no lodging,
Speaker 1: no food, no water, you know. For the President of
Speaker 1: the United States to send our military around like their props,
Speaker 1: like they're you know, uh, extras on the set of
Speaker 1: his reality TV show is really, for me, incredibly disrespectful.
Speaker 1: Not only is it incendiary for the city, Not only
Speaker 1: is it inflammatory, not only is it you know, absolutely fascist.
Speaker 1: It's disrespectful to the men and women wearing those.
Speaker 3: Uniforms exactly, and it's an unnecessary deployment. But let's talk
Speaker 3: about the military for a quick second. The military is
Speaker 3: trained to fight wars on foreign soil. Yes, they do
Speaker 3: not arrests, They do not do crowd control, they don't
Speaker 3: do any of that. So what is was here? Is
Speaker 3: it to turn the military on the American people. Do
Speaker 3: Angelinos need to be shot? I don't understand it. So
Speaker 3: when you say a prop I just don't know any
Speaker 3: other way of looking at these things.
Speaker 1: And now a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 2: Can I ask you about this?
Speaker 1: I'm very curious and listen to be clear, for folks
Speaker 1: at home, you know, there were deportations at these numbers
Speaker 1: and sometimes higher in the Obama administration, in the Clinton administration,
Speaker 1: our government does track folks. And yes, I think we
Speaker 1: all agree, no matter how we vote, if there's a
Speaker 1: danger criminal in the country that's not supposed to be here,
Speaker 1: get them out. But people's moms and dads and children.
Speaker 1: This is not acceptable.
Speaker 2: Why Why do you think.
Speaker 1: This is causing such chaos when other presidents have also
Speaker 1: worked with federal enforcement. Is it different because it's meant
Speaker 1: to be a fear tactic.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it is different because it's meant to
Speaker 3: be a fear tactic like you described. But I think
Speaker 3: it's also the aggressiveness that they have used, the fanfare
Speaker 3: that accompanies it, the rhetoric that accompanies it from DC.
Speaker 3: You know, if you're out describing our city as overrun
Speaker 3: by migrants, a city that absolute chaos. You know, when
Speaker 3: you do things like that, it leaves people with well, okay,
Speaker 3: this is the reason why it's being done. So you right,
Speaker 3: I mean a lot of peop people were deported under
Speaker 3: President Obama, President Biden. What I am not sure of
Speaker 3: personally is how that was carried out. But what I'm
Speaker 3: absolutely sure of is the rhetoric that did not take
Speaker 3: place on.
Speaker 1: This Yeah, we weren't trying to demonize folks.
Speaker 3: The demonizing of people who are in this country, the
Speaker 3: demonizing of people who I mean, they've gone from violent
Speaker 3: felons to saying anybody that's in the country is illegal,
Speaker 3: you know, if they came here. Now, I heard the
Speaker 3: news today that he's offering five million dollar Trump cards.
Speaker 3: I don't know how he did it. You heard that,
Speaker 3: but the Trump if you pay five million dollars, you
Speaker 3: get a gold card and you get entry into the country,
Speaker 3: right to bring you know, sixty seven or to invite
Speaker 3: sixty seven thousand people from South Africa to come here.
Speaker 3: It's clear that some people are welcome and some people aren't.
Speaker 3: But it is so bizarre is that if you were
Speaker 3: to expel every undocumented person, our person who was in
Speaker 3: wobbly status, the city would.
Speaker 2: Stop, well, the nation would stop.
Speaker 3: Who would do childcare? I don't know who gardening, landscaping,
Speaker 3: and childcare I'm referring to as nannies, people and homes.
Speaker 3: I don't know who's going to do that work. And
Speaker 3: maybe there's other people that could do that work, but
Speaker 3: they're not going to be found immediately at such massive.
Speaker 2: Numbers, exactly.
Speaker 1: And by the way, I just want to clarify, it's
Speaker 1: not that our immigrant communities are only valuable to us
Speaker 1: because of the work they do. It's that the work
Speaker 1: they do is invaluable. These are our neighbors, These are
Speaker 1: our friends, and they are also integral parts of our society,
Speaker 1: our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, this country.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't think to your point, people would
Speaker 1: have a clue how to deal with the vacuum in
Speaker 1: this society. Were all of these people suddenly gone from
Speaker 1: our country, and why would we want them to be?
Speaker 3: Right? Who's going to rebuild the cities? You know, who's
Speaker 3: going to rebuild the five hundred thousand units of housing
Speaker 3: that we need in Los Angeles. Who's going to take
Speaker 3: care of people in hotels and restaurants? Who's going to
Speaker 3: do that work? So what he is doing is an
Speaker 3: absolute blow to our economy. And understand, it's not so
Speaker 3: much the numbers, because we don't even know the numbers.
Speaker 3: I have heard now that three hundred people are detained. Okay,
Speaker 3: that's a relatively small number considering our population at three
Speaker 3: point eight. However, when you do things like this, then
Speaker 3: people don't want to go to work, they're afraid to work.
Speaker 3: In the first administration of kids didn't want to go
Speaker 3: to school, parents didn't want to go to work. They
Speaker 3: were paralyzed. So it's the intentional drama that is inflicted
Speaker 3: on the city and is inflicted on our population to
Speaker 3: say any day we can cold come get you. Don't
Speaker 3: but I don't know your house isn't isn't sacred. We'll
Speaker 3: come to your house to get you, right, am I
Speaker 3: on the list? Is it going to happen to me? Well,
Speaker 3: they take one of my children. You know, you saw
Speaker 3: the nine year old that got his father was being deported.
Speaker 3: And what they've said in this administration is, well, no,
Speaker 3: we're not going to separate families. If if you are
Speaker 3: of mixed status, then you all.
Speaker 1: Go yeah, well, and they're they're deporting you as citizens.
Speaker 1: They're they're deporting our kids. Now it's a lot. Look,
Speaker 1: it's a lot that's heavy. I was going to ask
Speaker 1: you about you know, what folks should do if a
Speaker 1: family member is picked up by ice, who should they call?
Speaker 1: But part of the strategy, as you said earlier, is
Speaker 1: to ensure that people don't know how to communicate with
Speaker 1: their loved ones. And really the overarching feeling that it
Speaker 1: seems the administration wants us all to be racked with
Speaker 1: is fear, uncertainty, not knowing the answer to these questions.
Speaker 1: As a leader of the city and also a community
Speaker 1: organizer with decades of getting people together for good under
Speaker 1: your belt. For those folks that are scared to go
Speaker 1: to work, scared to walk the streets, scared of what
Speaker 1: neighbors they can trust. For those of us who want
Speaker 1: to know how to defend our neighbors, what do you
Speaker 1: want us to know right now?
Speaker 3: Well, I will tell you the most important thing is
Speaker 3: for people to be well informed about their rights, which
Speaker 3: you could sertain find on the city's website, but you
Speaker 3: could also find on the website of organizations like Shirla
Speaker 3: that provide that information and also to know your rights,
Speaker 3: like for example, if I showed up at the house,
Speaker 3: I don't have to open the door, what do they have?
Speaker 3: And so knowing the specific questions to answer is what
Speaker 3: people need to make sure that they're well educated about.
Speaker 3: Thank you and you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate
Speaker 3: the time on your.
Speaker 1: Show absolutely, Thank you so much for joining us. Please
Speaker 1: go be well, be safe, and thank you for holding
Speaker 1: the line.
Speaker 3: Well. I appreciate it. I am going to continue to
Speaker 3: do this. I know that this time will pass and
Speaker 3: one in thirty five. I got it.
Speaker 1: It's pretty great in La County, right, I was like, oh, okay.
Speaker 3: All right, it's been wonderful to speak to you, so
Speaker 3: thank you so much and thank you for your kind
Speaker 3: words and support. It means a lot right about now.
Speaker 1: Always thank you so much for what you do for
Speaker 1: our city.
Speaker 3: Mayor Okay, bye, bye bye