As President Donald Trump marks six months into his second time period, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass instructed ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that the administration’s immigration crackdown has not solely sparked protests, however concern 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, concern unfold,” Bass mentioned.
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 mentioned to be centered round undocumented immigrants with felony data, an ABC Information evaluation of recent information exhibits that in latest weeks, the Trump administration has arrested an rising variety of migrants with no felony convictions.
Since then, farmers, enterprise house owners and immigrant advocacy teams have, just like the mayor, mentioned that many residents have been afraid to go away their properties for concern of deportation, affecting the workforce, meals provide and the tradition of town. Bass mentioned that the restaurant the interview befell 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 concern that units in when raids happen, when individuals are snatched off the road,” Bass mentioned. “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 have been exhibiting up for his or her annual immigration appointment have been detained after they confirmed up doing precisely what they have 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 have been happening,” Bass mentioned. “How do you may 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.”
“We have now a Los Angeles police division that has to take care of crime on this metropolis each single day. They usually’re not masked. They keep right here,” Bass mentioned. “The masked males parachute in, keep right here for some time, and go away. And so that you enter a career like policing, like regulation enforcement? I am sorry, I do not suppose you may 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 line with experiences, 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 Crew 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 mentioned it didn’t “warrant navy intervention.”
“It didn’t warrant the Marines coming into our metropolis with mainly no actual mission, however simply to point out a drive,” Bass mentioned.
Whereas the variety of Nationwide Guard members within the metropolis has been reduce roughly in half, Bass mentioned that their goal has not modified since they first arrived — and argued they’re presence remains to be not crucial.
“In case you drive by our two federal buildings, you will note them standing on the market. However there’s nothing occurring in these federal buildings. So for my part, we’re misusing taxpayers’ {dollars}, and we’re misusing our troops,” she mentioned.
Whereas she disagreed strongly with the Trump administration’s immigration agenda, Bass mentioned she appreciated the assistance the administration gave Los Angeles through 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 achieved good when it comes to immigration? I do not know. I do not suppose so,” she mentioned. “I feel that the perspective has been punitive, has been let’s make it as depressing as potential in order that these individuals do not come.”
Bass mentioned that she remains to be prepared to “work” with the White Home, noting each the Olympics and World Cup coming to town over the subsequent few years.
“How does this finish?” Raddatz requested. “How do you see the subsequent six months, the subsequent two years for immigrants in your metropolis?”“Properly, I’m simply hoping that this reign of terror ends. I am hoping that the navy leaves, as a result of they have 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 subsequent 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 mentioned.
