Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. We have been talking
Speaker 1: with Congresswoman Nicole Malia Takis about the issue of immigration
Speaker 1: specific to border enforcement for years now, and now we're
Speaker 1: getting to this place in time where it's very interesting
Speaker 1: to hear from members of both sides of the aisle
Speaker 1: when it comes to enforcement in cities like Minneapolis. She's representing,
Speaker 1: of course, New York's eleventh district. Congresswoman, it's great to
Speaker 1: have you back on Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: Good to see you, good to be with you.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: So let's go through a couple of these things. We'll
Speaker 1: run through these lists, this list of demands. How do
Speaker 1: you interpret the president's remarks because it hasn't necessarily signaled
Speaker 1: a change in policy, is it a change in approach
Speaker 1: on any level for you?
Speaker 3: Look, I think I think the president the administration recognizes
Speaker 3: that the tactics that Ice was using has not has
Speaker 3: not been popular, have not been popular, regardless of where
Speaker 3: you sit on the spectrum. I think people who want
Speaker 3: it to see strong border enforcement. We achieved that. Right
Speaker 3: there's no more border crossings. People are not being released
Speaker 3: in the country, the border has been secured. Municipalities like
Speaker 3: mine who had migrant gangs and drug traffickers and criminals
Speaker 3: wreaking havoc that has been cleaned up. Those individuals are
Speaker 3: being deported, but I think when they see the aggression
Speaker 3: of ICE, there is a concern there. And now ICE
Speaker 3: ICE has really no choice but to go in the
Speaker 3: municipalities and find these perpetrators. Why, because these local municipalities
Speaker 3: are not cooperating. New York City's not cooperating, Minneapolis not cooperating.
Speaker 3: We used to be able to have ICE and Rikers
Speaker 3: Island and they would take the criminals directly from there
Speaker 3: upon release from jail and go into federal custody. Bill
Speaker 3: de Blasio unfortunately changed that. This mayor wants to continue
Speaker 3: having that policy of no cooperation, and so ICE has
Speaker 3: no choice but to go into these cities and find
Speaker 3: these individuals, which makes it less safe for the officers,
Speaker 3: for the community, or the immigrants. But I should remind
Speaker 3: people when they were in Minneapolis a couple of weeks
Speaker 3: ago and this happened, they were arresting two murderers who
Speaker 3: had detained orders of removal going back to twenty thirteen
Speaker 3: and twenty fifteen. A guy with twenty four criminal convictions,
Speaker 3: a guy was convicted of sodomizing.
Speaker 2: A twelve year old girl.
Speaker 3: So these are real criminals that are going after and unfortunately,
Speaker 3: when they don't get cooperation, it makes it less safe
Speaker 3: for everyone.
Speaker 1: So what do you think of the contours of this debate.
Speaker 1: We've been spending time this week with a number of
Speaker 1: Republican Senators John Corden and Ted Cruz, Ted Budd largely
Speaker 1: opposed to what Democrats are offering, specifically when it comes
Speaker 1: to d masking.
Speaker 2: That seems to be a real flashpoint here.
Speaker 1: And I know that there are worries about officers being targeted,
Speaker 1: being docked, and so forth.
Speaker 2: But when you look at this list, this is a lot.
Speaker 1: More lengthy and a lot more detailed than I think
Speaker 1: a lot of Republicans saw coming.
Speaker 2: We've been dealing with kind of four.
Speaker 1: Buckets, masks, bodycams, warrants, and this goes a lot further
Speaker 1: when we talk about targeted enforcement. DHS cannot enter a
Speaker 1: private property without a judicial warrant, no masks, require ID,
Speaker 1: protect sensitive locations, stop racial profiling, uphold use of force standards.
Speaker 1: Are these controversial or could they end up in a
Speaker 1: piece of legislation.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of them actually will hinder their
Speaker 3: ability to do their job, which is to actually get
Speaker 3: these individuals aside from the body cameras body cameras. I
Speaker 3: know a lot of Republicans are against them. I do
Speaker 3: support it, and I support it why because it tells
Speaker 3: the whole story. And we have them an NYPD, And
Speaker 3: I was a skeptic of them in the very beginning
Speaker 3: when this became a law on the state level, and
Speaker 3: I was a state legislator at the time. But the
Speaker 3: unions even support them, and the officers support them. And
Speaker 3: why because it tells the full story. And that's important,
Speaker 3: right because most of the time, if not all the time,
Speaker 3: these officers are actually following the book. They're following the
Speaker 3: training manual how they're supposed to perform in certain situations.
Speaker 3: And if the camera tells the full story, it helps
Speaker 3: clear their names and can really put a lot to rest.
Speaker 3: And so I think that that is one where I
Speaker 3: would disagree with some of the folks in my party,
Speaker 3: but some of the others. A judicial warrant is an
Speaker 3: issue simply because the time it's going to take to
Speaker 3: get a court order is going to be really hindering
Speaker 3: the operations. I mean, if you have a murderer, you
Speaker 3: know that you're trying to get or any type of
Speaker 3: convicted criminal who should not be in this country to
Speaker 3: have to go to court and get into war and
Speaker 3: do all these things I think could be a real
Speaker 3: complication and hinder the operations the masks. You know, if
Speaker 3: these municipalities cooperated, we wouldn't have these raids where the
Speaker 3: agitators are are disrupting, and that could be avoided if
Speaker 3: there was just some more cooperation with these these sanctuary cities.
Speaker 3: So I think there's Look, I think there's going to
Speaker 3: be some type of compromise. There needs to be because
Speaker 3: you need those sixty votes in the Senate, and it's
Speaker 3: going to have to be a little bit of a
Speaker 3: give and take. And I think that there's some common ground,
Speaker 3: maybe not necessarily with the enforcement, some stuff with the enforcement,
Speaker 3: but I would say, what about just regular immigration policy.
Speaker 3: I've been pushing the administration to approve the backlog of
Speaker 3: renewals for work authorization. This is a big issue, not
Speaker 3: just in my district, across the country. Employers who rely
Speaker 3: on these people for employees, they're filling an economic need,
Speaker 3: They're contributing to our society. They don't have any work
Speaker 3: in criminal history, they're paying taxes, they're losing their status
Speaker 3: because of the lag and the time that it's taking
Speaker 3: to approve these work authorization renewals. They lose their job
Speaker 3: as a result, and the employer loses a good worker.
Speaker 3: So if we can just make some progress in some
Speaker 3: of that stuff, it shows compassion from the administration. It
Speaker 3: helps our economy, and it helps these people who are
Speaker 3: here trying to find a better lives.
Speaker 2: Is a big deal for our audience as an issue.
Speaker 1: Do you think we can avoid a shutdown next Friday?
Speaker 1: Does there need to be another cr before we move
Speaker 1: on to some other issues.
Speaker 3: So there won't be a shutdown?
Speaker 2: It's just the Home Security.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I hope not. I mean, I hope the
Speaker 3: Democrats recognize here that when they mess with the Department
Speaker 3: of Homeland Security, it's not just ICE. In fact, ICE
Speaker 3: has the resources from kind of the irony. Yeah, ICE
Speaker 3: has the resources. You're shutting down the TSA airport screening
Speaker 3: and flight security. You're shutting down counter terrorism, cybersecurity programs
Speaker 3: and coast Guard. You know, these are important operations that
Speaker 3: need you know, don't mess with our homeland security and
Speaker 3: especially these legislative leaders. They're from New York. Schumer and
Speaker 3: Jeffrey should know better than to try to play politics
Speaker 3: with homeland security. So I do hope that there's some
Speaker 3: compromise here, we get to a resolution so there won't
Speaker 3: be a lapse in funding for all those other critical
Speaker 3: agencies under Department of Homeland Security.
Speaker 2: FEMA is in that group, that's right.
Speaker 1: I was shocked to see seventeen people have died in
Speaker 1: New York from freezing cold weather, and this has been
Speaker 1: one heck of a winter. Congresswoman, another cold front is
Speaker 1: coming this weekend. Though.
Speaker 2: Is Mayor Mombani on top.
Speaker 3: Of this, I hope he's, you know, it seems like
Speaker 3: he's doing some on the job training. I hope he's
Speaker 3: paying attention to how this first storm went, what happened there.
Speaker 3: That change in policy to not remove people who are
Speaker 3: homeless from the streets in these frigid weathers was obviously
Speaker 3: a deadly mistake. Mayors in the past have always proactively
Speaker 3: sought shelter for those individuals, and there's no reason why
Speaker 3: we shouldn't be able to do that. Remember, we had
Speaker 3: all these migrants in luxury hotel rooms at taxpayer expense.
Speaker 3: There's no reason why you can't help these individuals. And
Speaker 3: a lot of them are mentally ill. They don't know,
Speaker 3: they can't make a decision for themselves in some cases
Speaker 3: to seek shelter, and so I think the mayor made
Speaker 3: a big mistake there, and not to mention the disaster
Speaker 3: that we're seeing in terms of garbage piling up all
Speaker 3: over the streets of New York City. That's not common.
Speaker 3: You know, that's not common. You know, maybe some of
Speaker 3: his advocates are saying, well, it's a snowstorm, that's what happens. No, no, no,
Speaker 3: he needs to put resources back into the basic services
Speaker 3: that people deserve. He's cutting over time for our public
Speaker 3: safety officers. He's not putting the resources necessary to get
Speaker 3: the streets cleaned in a timely manner. And I think
Speaker 3: I hope he's learning for this, learning from this, and
Speaker 3: adjusting as we go along.
Speaker 1: Well, in our remaining moment here, I had to note
Speaker 1: that he has now endorsed Kathy Hockel's reelection campaign with
Speaker 1: the Adrian Adams. What does Bruce Blakeman need to do
Speaker 1: to be the first Republican in about two decades to
Speaker 1: win that seat?
Speaker 3: I think Bruce needs to remind everyone the radical positions
Speaker 3: that these two individuals have taken. Not only did they
Speaker 3: support the bail law that was disastrous and led to
Speaker 3: crime skyrocketing, but Adrian Adams in particular, I mean she
Speaker 3: voted for she was a co sponsor of non citizen voting,
Speaker 3: which is a law that we went to court and
Speaker 3: we stopped from taking effect, thankfully. But she also voted
Speaker 3: to defund the NYPD by a billion dollars, tie the
Speaker 3: hands of our NYPD officers, voted to increase the property
Speaker 3: tax levy year after year. So I would say that
Speaker 3: but these are radical positions that are hurting the cost
Speaker 3: of living and making it much less affordable in New
Speaker 3: York City to live, particularly for our middle class. And
Speaker 3: they've made us less safe. Now we've seen some crime
Speaker 3: come down, it's a result of President Trump. People need
Speaker 3: to recognize that he's deported criminals, He's put pressure on
Speaker 3: these municipalities. That's why New York City is safer today
Speaker 3: than it was just a little over a year ago.
Speaker 2: I know your new congressional map is due tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Come back and talk to us next time about what's
Speaker 1: going to happen with your district.
Speaker 3: We hope to keep our map as is, because this
Speaker 3: is a grab by the Democrats who try to take
Speaker 3: the only Republican voice in New York City.
Speaker 2: Nicole Malia Takis from New York