After a weekend of protests, Los Angeles police have declared downtown LA unlawful for assembly. Demonstrators took to the streets after immigration agents made a series of workplace arrests around the city. Protestors burned several cars and stopped traffic on U.S. Highway 101
On Sunday, President Trump deployed National Guard troops against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“The reason they’re there is because we have a crisis of Donald Trump’s own making,” said California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla. “The increasingly aggressive and cruel immigration enforcement tactics that they’ve chosen to do, of course, is going to lead to a response in communities like Los Angeles, where you have a lot of passionate people speaking up for fundamental rights and due process.”
4 questions with Sen. Alex Padilla
NPR’s reporting in LA indicates that troops appear to be protecting government buildings. They have not interacted with protesters, if that’s all they’re doing. Do you still take issue with the deployment?
“Well, I think the magic word in your question is the ‘if.’ If that’s all they’re doing, because this administration has been anything but transparent and forthcoming with their actions. But when it comes to what’s happening in Los Angeles specifically, I’ve been hearing from LA County sheriffs and others that there has been no communication as to what is the guard’s mission while they’re there. And so that lack of communication coordination leads to the chaos.
“Just their presence, by the way, not only is it not helpful, it’s counterproductive.”
LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell said his officers were overwhelmed. Rocks were thrown at them, fireworks thrown at them. Do you think local officials are able to handle the situation without help from federal troops?
“Well, I think they can unless or until they tell us otherwise. So a reassessment is just that, every day is going to be different. Saturday was different than Friday. Yesterday was different than Saturday. We’ll see how today develops and how the week develops. But I can tell you, Los Angeles is no stranger to marches, to protest, to demonstrations and war. And I do trust local law enforcement leaders to handle the scenario to request the help when they need.
“That being said, I do want to condemn the violence that has taken place, the vandalism and destruction of property. It’s not helpful to the cause. 99% of the protesters out there are peacefully protesting. And I encourage people to continue to peacefully protest and exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Demonstrators also burned vehicles, blocked highways and vandalized federal buildings. Do you think that kind of action gives the president the excuse he needs to call in the guard?
“Again, I want to distinguish the vast majority of people out there peacefully protesting and those that have been arrested for vandalism or anything else. Those aren’t the immigrant rights leaders or advocates, the folks that are trying to exploit the situation, which is wrong and harmful and yes, plays right into Donald Trump’s hands because he wants one of two things. He either wants people to stay silent and cower in a corner while he continues to abuse his powers, or he wants a little bit of an overreact to justify even further escalation on his part. But he’s the one that escalated in the first place with these tactics and deployment.”
How do you respond to the fact that a majority of Americans, according to polls that we’ve seen, support the president’s efforts to remove immigrants living here without legal documentation?
“I don’t think it’s that simple. Are there people who suggest, yes, we should be prioritizing violent criminals, as Donald Trump said over and over again in the campaign. There’s no disagreement there. But what we’ve seen since the beginning of his second term is far beyond that. Story after story of not just hardworking women and men, but even children being targeted by increasingly theatrical and cruel raids is not only unnecessary, it’s harmful to our interests.
“Take a step back and consider this. California is not just the most populous and diverse state in the nation, home to the most immigrants of any state in the nation. It’s also by far the largest economy of any other state in the nation. That happens not despite the immigrant population, but because of the immigrant population and the contributions not just as workforce, but as consumers and as entrepreneurs. So, yes, if we were going to only focus on the violent, dangerous criminals, by all means. But when you go beyond that and you’re not just disrupting families and stoking fear in communities, you’re also going to hurt the economy.”
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Mark Navin produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. James Perkins Mastromarino adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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