As President Donald Trump marks six months into his second time period, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advised ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that the administration’s immigration crackdown has not solely sparked protests, however worry among the many metropolis’s residents.
“Los Angeles is a metropolis of immigrants — 3.8 million individuals, and about 50% of our inhabitants is Latino. And so when the raids began, worry unfold,” Bass stated.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids began in Los Angeles early June, prompting demonstrations that at instances turned violent. Whereas Trump’s deportation push was initially stated to be centered round undocumented immigrants with prison data, an ABC Information evaluation of latest knowledge exhibits that in current weeks, the Trump administration has arrested an growing variety of migrants with no prison convictions.
Since then, farmers, enterprise house owners and immigrant advocacy teams have, just like the mayor, stated that many residents have been afraid to depart their houses for worry of deportation, affecting the workforce, meals provide and the tradition of the town. Bass stated that the restaurant the interview occurred in, positioned within the predominantly Latino Boyle Heights neighborhood of east Los Angeles, was sometimes bustling. However now, it — and the neighborhood total — can really feel like a ghost city.
ABC’s Martha Raddatz interviews Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at Boyle Heights restaurant Casa Fina.
Julia Cherner/ABC Information
“It is not simply the deportation. It is the worry that units in when raids happen, when persons are snatched off the road,” Bass stated. “Even people who find themselves right here legally, even people who find themselves U.S. Residents, have been detained. Immigrants who’ve their papers and had been displaying up for his or her annual immigration appointment had been detained once they confirmed up doing precisely what they had been imagined to be doing.”
She criticized ICE for brokers for executing enforcement operations with out their affiliation being prominently displayed.
“Masked males in unmarked vehicles, no license plate, no actual uniforms, leaping out of vehicles with rifles, and snatching individuals off the road, main lots of people to suppose perhaps kidnappings had been going down,” Bass stated. “How do you will have masked males who then say, ‘Properly, we’re federal officers,’ with no identification?”
Raddatz famous that administration says these brokers try this as a result of “there have been threats… [and] doxing.”
“Now we have a Los Angeles police division that has to cope with crime on this metropolis each single day. They usually’re not masked. They keep right here,” Bass stated. “The masked males parachute in, keep right here for some time, and depart. And so that you enter a occupation like policing, like legislation enforcement? I am sorry, I do not suppose you will have a proper to have a masks and snatch individuals off the road.”
Bass additionally touched on the continued presence of federal troops within the metropolis. In response to these protests in early June, Trump deployed the Nationwide Guard and active-duty Marines to Los Angeles after protesters clashed with police. Some protestors threw rocks, fireworks and different objects at police, in accordance with studies, earlier than the arrival of federal troops.
Trump signed a memorandum in June saying the Nationwide Guard was deployed to deal with lawlessness in Los Angeles. The California Nationwide Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Fight Workforce posted on X that its goal was to guard federal protesters and personnel.
In her interview with ABC Information, Bass denounced the violence as “horrible,” however stated it didn’t “warrant army intervention.”
“It didn’t warrant the Marines coming into our metropolis with principally no actual mission, however simply to indicate a power,” Bass stated.
Whereas the variety of Nationwide Guard members within the metropolis has been minimize roughly in half, Bass stated that their goal has not modified since they first arrived — and argued they’re presence continues to be not mandatory.
“In case you drive by our two federal buildings, you will note them standing on the market. However there’s nothing happening in these federal buildings. So in my view, we’re misusing taxpayers’ {dollars}, and we’re misusing our troops,” she stated.
Whereas she disagreed strongly with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, Bass stated she appreciated the assistance the administration gave Los Angeles in the course of the large January wildfires.
“Properly, I’ll heap reward on the administration for the primary six months in Los Angeles with the fires. In case you ask me, is there something that they’ve finished good by way of immigration? I do not know. I do not suppose so,” she stated. “I feel that the point of view has been punitive, has been let’s make it as depressing as doable in order that these individuals do not come.”
Bass stated that she continues to be prepared to “work” with the White Home, noting each the Olympics and World Cup coming to the town over the following few years.
“How does this finish?” Raddatz requested. “How do you see the following six months, the following two years for immigrants in your metropolis?”“Properly, I’m simply hoping that this reign of terror ends. I am hoping that the army leaves, as a result of they had been by no means wanted right here to start with. I am hoping that we will get again to regular. I am hoping that the following time I come to this restaurant, that will probably be crammed, as a result of individuals will not be afraid to come back right here,” Bass stated.
