- 5 days ago
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass holds a press briefing to decry President Trump's ICE actions.
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00:00Good morning, everyone. June 5th, three short weeks ago, Los Angeles was calm.
00:07Angelenos were going about work, school, and families were preparing for graduation events.
00:13The next day, the federal government decided to disrupt our city and began a series of immigration
00:21raids, arresting hundreds of people, many for dubious reasons, beginning what I will call
00:27an all-out assault on Los Angeles. First the raids, then randomly grabbing people off the streets,
00:36chasing Angelenos through parking lots, sending in federalized troops to stand idle, protecting
00:42two buildings, and having U.S. Marines trained to fight the enemy abroad, stationed here and
00:51caravanning around town, intimidating Angelenos, creating a sense of fear and terror in our city,
00:59families missing graduations, people afraid to go to work and school, businesses unable to open,
01:07and inflicting a serious blow to our local economy. And in addition to that, initiating investigations
01:15led by Republicans in Congress, the Secretary of Transportation, requesting documents and
01:22communications with the implication that the mayor's office and the city was either negligent
01:30or complicit in the protests and the vandalism that was falsely portrayed as citywide riots,
01:38and now filing a lawsuit against the city. Again, this is essentially an all-out assault against Los
01:47Angeles. The lawsuit is an attempt to overturn the will of the city calling for a halt to long-standing
01:55policy to protect immigrant Angelenos. We are a city of immigrants who have had policies in place
02:03for decades. Ironically, originally, the law was for public safety, so the newly arrived immigrant
02:10population that was being preyed on by criminals would feel safe in reporting crimes to law enforcement.
02:18As the city attorney said yesterday, our city remains committed to standing up for our constitutional
02:24rights and the rights of our residents. We will defend our ordinance and continue to defend policies
02:31that reflect the long-standing values of our city. We know that Los Angeles is the test case, and we
02:39will stand strong. And we do so because the people snatched off city streets and chased through parking
02:45lots are our co-workers, our neighbors, our family members, and they are Angelenos. Let me be clear, I
02:53personally won't be intimidated by these tactics. We will not be intimidated by these tactics. I will always
03:00protect Angelenos against the unwarranted and cruel actions of this administration. We know, as I said
03:09before, that our city is being used as a test case for an extremist agenda, but LA will stand strong and we
03:17will stand together. We are a city of diversity, of labor, of business, of faith, of community, of creativity, of success. We are a proud
03:28American city and we will stand united. With that, let me introduce Ernesto Medrano, Executive Secretary of the Los Angeles and Orange County Building Trades.
03:41Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good morning, everyone. We represent over 160,000 hard-working construction workers across Southern California. The hard-working people that get up before dawn to build this city.
03:57Today, I am here because our members and job sites have been turned into targets. Not because of wrongdoing,
04:06but because of assumptions, because of profiling, because of fear. What's happening right now goes beyond politics. It cuts into the foundation of fairness, due process, and respect for work. We cannot stay silent about it. The trades include people from all walks of life.
04:26Those who vote red, those who vote blue, and some of whom may not even vote at all. But at the end of the day, in the labor movement, we believe in something bigger, and that is solidarity.
04:37That is solidarity. Brotherhood. Sisterhood. We protect each other. We fight for each other. And right now, our members, their families, and our workplaces are being targeted. Last week, we saw ICE agents show up at a public works job site. These are union job sites, city-funded job sites. These are places where Los Angeles is being rebuilt, the streets, their sidewalks, and other types of infrastructure.
05:05These workers were profiled simply because of how they look and where they work. That is not law enforcement. That is intimidation. When ICE storms in without cause, it sends a chilling message to every worker, documented or not, U.S. citizen also, that your rights don't matter what it says.
05:29But they do matter. Their rights do matter. Due process does matter. And the Constitution does matter. No one should be assumed guilty just because they're brown and wearing a hard hat.
05:40This lawsuit is a political stunt disguised as public safety. But the real consequence is fear. Fear that keeps workers from showing up, that delays public projects, that weakens our economy.
05:53Even Republican state lawmakers here in California have called for a change in tactics. They know that indiscriminate raids hurt communities and do nothing actually to make us any safer.
06:06This isn't about being red or being blue. This is about standing up for the people that make the city move. People who believe in a fair shot, a fair wage, and a fair day's work without fear. Thank you.
06:19The political stunt has profound economic consequences. There are entire sectors of our economy that are dependent on immigrant labor.
06:36I want to introduce Frederick Nielsen, the principal with Steinberg and Hart.
06:43Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Mayor.
06:45Yeah, I'm with Steinberg and Hart, and we daily are reminded about the struggle to get permits and approvals for much needed housing in the city.
06:55And this action is going to further delay much needed housing. I have colleagues from all scales of firms, from small landscape firms to larger architecture firms like ours, where labor is feared to go into work.
07:14It's causing a lot of angst and causing bad morale in construction. And we just need to stop this and go on with much needed housing in the city. Thank you.
07:33The political stunt with economic consequences is also a moral issue. I recount the wives that I met right after Father's Day, whose husbands did not come home, and they had to explain to their children, where were their fathers? When would they see them again?
07:59Again, this inflicts life-long trauma on the children.
08:05I'd like to introduce Reverend Zachary Hoover with LA Voice.
08:13Good morning, everyone. Thank you, Mayor Bass, for the opportunity to stand together strong for the city that we all love.
08:20I love Los Angeles. Raising my son here, happy to do so.
08:24In the streets, in recent weeks, in our nonviolent protest, one song that we have been singing is one that comes from both Christian and Hebrew scriptures.
08:32Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary.
08:34The call is a moral call. It's a call that asks all of us to not only make rooms in our own hearts for God, but doing so by always being welcoming to others.
08:45Whether they come from a different neighborhood, a different religion, a different race, a different country, whatever it might be, that's the moral calling that we have.
08:54And frankly, that's a calling that we have seen alive in our country for many years in many different ways as we've continued to expand welcome to people, not just in Los Angeles, but across the United States.
09:04What does sanctuary mean besides this? That families and children feel safe, that workers feel safe, that people know that if they need to report a crime, they can, that people are free to work, worship and play without fear.
09:21This is what we want for not just Los Angeles, but the nation as a whole.
09:26In recent weeks, from when I showed up with Raquel Roman was already there, when we showed up and saw a family that had been, whose car had been hit by mass federal agents, flash banged with a toddler and a child inside.
09:41And the man that they removed was a US citizen. This is what is happening in Los Angeles.
09:46Or Job, whom we've seen on the news recently, who was detained at the Home Depot simply for being there, doing his job.
09:53He's a US citizen, detained for 36 hours by the federal agents.
09:58Or the countless other stories we've heard. One of our member congregations, we have a hundred member congregations we work with across the county.
10:06One of them has 14 families that have a family member, a long-term resident of this country, a worker, a churchgoer, who have been detained.
10:14And those families are struggling. There's a four-year-old who keeps asking, where's my daddy? And they cannot explain to him where his father is.
10:21Today, we're also faced with the moral failure of this big bill.
10:26This bill that comes from the mouths of people saying they want to protect families in our country.
10:31But in fact, they are ripping away healthcare from people who need it most. Reducing food assistance for our neighbors and our families and our friends.
10:40And saying that they're doing it for the good of our country. Taking away school funding.
10:44And guess where those cuts are going? To bring federal agents into Los Angeles to tear our families apart.
10:49So miss me with the I'm protecting families thing. That's not what's happening here.
10:54We expect Americans, we invite you wherever you are in this country.
10:59If you don't like what you're hearing about what's happening right now, you have to make your voices heard.
11:04And in particular, I want to speak to my fellow faith leaders, be you Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, whatever tradition you come from.
11:11We need you to stand up and talk about what's going on. Tell the truth about what's happening in our country right now.
11:24The political stunt with economic consequences challenges the moral values of this nation, but not the values of Los Angeles, because we will stand strong.
11:36Rabbi Sharon Brouse of ECAR.
11:39Good morning, folks, and thank you so much to Mayor Bass for your leadership.
11:46In this moment, we are here today not only as elected officials and faith leaders and community leaders, but also as neighbors, as friends and as human beings.
11:57In the book of Genesis, we read of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
12:02Now, contrary to common misinterpretation, the sin of Sodom was not some kind of sexual deviance.
12:09Sodom and Gomorrah, our rabbis tell us, were abundant in natural resources.
12:14These were blooming oases in the middle of the desert.
12:19But that natural abundance fueled a spirit of scarcity among the city's inhabitants, who sought to safeguard their riches.
12:27And so what did they do?
12:29They forcibly removed foreigners from the land.
12:32They sealed off their borders.
12:34No one would deprive them of what was rightfully theirs.
12:39In Sodom and Gomorrah, the people's worst inclinations were propped up by a legal system that made a mockery of justice.
12:47Lawmakers passed zero tolerance policies that meted out torture to anyone who offered sanctuary to a struggling neighbor.
12:56This was a cynical effort to quash human goodness and to fuel a culture of distrust, betrayal, and callousness.
13:06And it is as old as the Hebrew Bible.
13:09These past few weeks, we have witnessed these same behaviors here in our city.
13:15In our homes, in our workplaces, in our churches, in our graduation ceremonies.
13:21People are afraid to go to work.
13:23Children fear that their parents might not come home.
13:26The harshness, the physical and the emotional violence inflicted in these raids and detentions shocks the conscience.
13:36We will not stand back and watch as our families and our neighborhoods and our city and our country is torn apart.
13:47Here in Los Angeles, we will always choose to respond to cruelty and callousness with courage.
13:54To respond to hatred with love.
13:57We will not stay silent in the face of this outrage.
14:01We will continue to stand in moral protest against a system that treats human beings as disposable, as political props.
14:10There is no righteousness in laws and policies that break families and shatter lives.
14:17We will not become Sodom.
14:20Instead, we will continue to be a city that shelters and protects and uplifts.
14:27A city that remembers that the measure of our humanity is how we treat those who are most vulnerable.
14:33Today, we hear the cry.
14:36And we will rise with courage and we will continue to protect one another with love.
14:42Thank you so much.
14:43We can open up for questions now and I'll ask Deputy Mayor to lead that.
14:54We'll start right here and then we'll go to Dave.
14:55Mayor Vassbrook with NBCLA.
14:56My question is two part.
14:57First, can you explicitly say how the city is responding to this lawsuit and in turn how the city is going to be able to afford to respond to it?
15:07Last week, the city council did announce that we're in a fiscal emergency.
15:11That's right.
15:12There's a lot of debt.
15:13The Trump administration threatened to pull a lot of funding during the Palisades fire.
15:17So how does the cost of this weigh with the policy?
15:20Is there any chance that this policy could be revoked if it means that we don't get any more funding?
15:26Let me just say that first of all, you're raising a very, very important issue in terms of the fiscal impact.
15:31And the fiscal impact began on June 6th when the raid started.
15:36Because in the week after that, we spent $30 million on LAPD overtime and security related expenses.
15:45$30 million, that was unnecessary.
15:47You're asking how we're responding to the lawsuit.
15:50You know we just received a lawsuit yesterday.
15:52So attorneys are reviewing it.
15:54But it's still the same point.
15:56It's going to cost a lot of resources to defend the city in the lawsuit.
16:01But I also mentioned that it's not just the lawsuit.
16:04It's also the inquiries from the Government Oversight and Reform Committee in the House.
16:09The Secretary of Transportation.
16:11And what they are essentially doing is trying to lay a foundation.
16:15There was some complicity with the city, with the city government, and the protests that took place.
16:22Especially in terms of the vandalism.
16:25Which is ridiculous.
16:26A follow up question from that.
16:28Should the federal government, should the Trump administration withdraw Los Angeles federal funding?
16:33Of course not.
16:34What the federal government should do is stay in Washington.
16:38And remove the troops.
16:40And do not have ICE raids in our city.
16:42That's what the federal government should do.
16:44Next.
16:45Next question to Dave and then to Macy.
16:47So, hi.
16:49The city council is scheduled a vote today to ask the city attorney to make suing from the administration a top priority over these immigration raids.
17:02A couple of their council members have said they want specifically to have the city sue to protect the Fourth Amendment rights of people living in Los Angeles.
17:11Do you support that?
17:12And where do you see your role in this lawsuit that's being prepared?
17:17Well, first of all, I'm named the lawsuit.
17:20So that is my role.
17:21They have determined my role.
17:23In terms of the actions that the city council is taking today, they're taking them today.
17:27So I have not had an opportunity to review what they're doing.
17:31I definitely support the city attorney participating in defending us and then in other lawsuits.
17:38For example, and it's been reported over and over again, we don't know who these masked men are.
17:43They're riding up and down the street, pulling people off the street, completely masked, wearing very dubious uniforms, not showing their ID.
17:53And so there is absolutely a push to allow that, to have that stop.
17:58Next.
18:00Hi, Mayor.
18:01Question for you.
18:02I spoke with Bill Assembly yesterday.
18:04He said people are being swept up because we have the castle bar that's asking for California's policies.
18:09If the mayor didn't like it, she should have changed the law when she was in Congress, but she didn't do that.
18:14Well, I'm not even sure that's worth responding to.
18:17But anyway, I will tell you that in the 12 years I spent in Congress, I fought every year for comprehensive immigration reform
18:25and was very involved during family separation and authored my own legislation that unfortunately did not pass
18:32because of the Republican control of the Senate.
18:35So anyway, that's my response to that.
18:39Greg and Francine, Mayor.
18:41I'd like to know, has LAPD changed its policy and all in responding to what oftentimes we're understanding,
18:4890 month calls reporting an abduction, when people are being taken away by people who appear to be federal agents?
18:55So LAPD shows up, and do they have a procedure to verify it?
19:00I understand.
19:01Fortunately, or unfortunately, that's only happened once.
19:04What you're referring to is what people saw as a kidnapping.
19:09And they called 911, and when the police showed up, they saw it was an immigration action,
19:14which again creates chaos and confusion, because how did they know what?
19:19How did they know it was a legit immigration?
19:22Well, they knew it was an immigration action.
19:25Legit is another question, up for debate.
19:28But when they got there, they saw people in the uniforms, and they saw them as federal agents.
19:35Beyond that, I don't know that.
19:37I don't know if they saw IDs.
19:39You know, sometimes they do have uniforms that say custom border patrol.
19:43Oftentimes they have uniforms that say things like police that look like they bought online.
19:48So it just depends on what the uniforms were that day, if there were.
19:52We're going with Francine and then Lila.
19:54May I ask?
19:55May I ask?
19:56Hi, Francine from the Christian Science Monitor.
19:58Nice to see you again.
20:00Crises can sometimes yield opportunities for negotiation or common ground or behind the scenes work.
20:09I'm wondering if you're still in touch with the administration during this period,
20:13and you see any opportunity for common ground or some kind of compromise at this time.
20:20I'll tell you, the only opportunity I want to see is for those individuals to be returned to their families.
20:25For those fathers and mothers to return home.
20:28That's the opportunity I want to see.
20:30And then Lila and then down in front.
20:34Yeah, that was my question too.
20:36Under what conditions would the city ever comply and compromise so there can be peace?
20:42Well, you know, I think that that is an interesting question because I'm not sure that the administration wants us to.
20:49I think they want the chaos.
20:51I think we're the petri dish for the nation.
20:54Basically, if the public will tolerate the federal seizure of state power,
21:00which is what they did in terms of taking the power away from Governor Newsom around the troops.
21:06Whether or not, let's see, how far can we push the envelope?
21:09Will the American public tolerate Marines driving up and down the street?
21:13Well, a follow-up, aren't you complaining immigration with the immigrants with undocumented?
21:19There seems to be...
21:20They are, absolutely.
21:21I mean, you know, we know it's not just people who are undocumented.
21:24We know that people who had their annual immigration check, they are here legally, they have papers,
21:30they're required to report in to immigration once a year.
21:33They show up and they get detained.
21:35We know that U.S. citizens have been detained.
21:37So it's basically indiscriminate.
21:39It's a wide net they have cast in order to meet Stephen Miller's quota of 3,000 people a day being detained around the nation.
21:49And I don't know how the other cities are faring, but I will tell you that mayors across the country are very concerned.
21:57I've been on Zoom calls with over 100 mayors looking at what is happening in L.A.
22:02This is the test case, and we're going to pass the test.
22:04Down in front.
22:05We're going to go down in front and then...
22:06Go ahead.
22:07Mayor Bass, Andy Mack with Spectra.
22:08Were you surprised to see that this lawsuit against the city came out yesterday, and is there any risk that the city would stop being a sanctuary city?
22:23Well, let me just tell you, at this point I'm kind of not surprised about anything coming out of the administration that continues to disrupt our city.
22:33Right here in the gray hoodie and then in the blue.
22:35Mayor Bass, can we plan a place to protect the city's financial stability in case federal funding is pulled?
22:40Well, you know, that is something that we absolutely have to look at, and we are going to be doing a deep analysis to see how we would respond.
22:50What would the impact be if federal funding was pulled?
22:54But, you know, you can't govern the city that way.
22:57We have to function and move forward and do the best that we can given these circumstances.
23:04You know, the irony is that we received a lot of help in the beginning with the fires, and then all of a sudden it was a dramatic change.
23:13Right here in the blue.
23:14One last question.
23:15Hello.
23:16So my question about that, maybe very basic.
23:23The federal government claimed that the right against the .
23:29But the government of the state tried to protect the rights of the .
23:35And have there any, maybe, mutual point to solve this problem in general?
23:40It's my first question.
23:43Well, I mean, I'll just say I'm not sure they want it solved.
23:47There has to be two parties.
23:48We would like it to be solved.
23:50We would like for the ICE raids to stop.
23:53We would like for the array of federal officials or civilians dressed as federal officials to go home.
24:00And my second question.
24:01Two times I tried in this downtown LA to cover the operation of ICE in the streets.
24:09So, but they didn't give me permission.
24:12Is it possible because the street, the downtown LA, belong to the power administration?
24:17But the ICE didn't give the journalists to cover the operation.
24:21I don't know who you're, who are you referring to didn't give you permission?
24:24The people doing the raid?
24:26No, the ICE, ICE, ICE.
24:27Right, right.
24:28They didn't give us permission to cover the operation.
24:31Well, they probably don't want it to be covered because they don't want it to be seen.
24:34I mean, I can't answer for why ICE did what they did or didn't do.
24:37But it would make sense to me.
24:39I think that they're trying to masquerade this whole situation.
24:43And remember now, this started talking about hardened criminals, drug dealers, gang members.
24:49And I'm just hard pressed to think, to see the lady who wasn't even five feet tall, the isolated street vendor who was selling fruit as a dangerous criminal.
25:00You know?
25:01Or the parents who were trying to attend graduation.
25:04Or the day laborers at Home Depot being chased through parking lots.
25:08And by the way, when the secretary did her press conference where Senator Padilla was disrespected and thrown to the floor, she did a slide show of the hardened criminals.
25:21And there were four.
25:22We know that the vast majority of people that have been detained and arrested have no criminal history at all.
25:30Last question.
25:31You're welcome.
25:32Thank you, Mayor Bass.
25:33My question is two parts.
25:35Would you be willing to have a sit-down meeting with ICE for DHS?
25:38And because Homan says that they wouldn't be sending ICE out into the communities if you were handing criminal illegals over at jails, is there a deal to be made?
25:47I don't know if there's a deal to be made.
25:49Like I told you, the deal that needs to be made is for them to go home.
25:55Thanks so much, everybody.