Alex Padilla Asks Entire Panel To Raise Their Hand If They Believe 'All Immigrants' Are Criminals

5 months ago

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) spoke about the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Transcript

00:00the record. Senator Padilla. Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the first things I want to clarify,

00:09something I keep hearing, not just during this hearing, but for months and months now from the

00:17Trump administration, that they're going after the worst of the worst. That's the soundbite,

00:22that's the rhetoric. And their aggressive show of force is accomplishing the goal. That's their

00:28claim. The way they present it, the way they talk about President Biden's administration and prior

00:34Democratic administrations is like it was never a priority for Democratic administrations to go

00:41after criminals and that Democrats and Democratic administrations just didn't care about the

00:46presence of dangerous people in our communities. Simply not true. So I want to help set the record

00:54straight. And again, if you can't take my word for it, let's turn to an expert.

01:02Ms. Fleshaker, you were in ICE leadership. In your view, in your experience, did the Biden

01:07administration ever restrain ICE from pursuing serious criminals? Part B to that question,

01:13only because one of the other witnesses implied that the Biden administration was restraining ICE,

01:20either by policy or by resources from doing its job. True or false? Can you expand on both of those,

01:25please?

01:28We absolutely did not stop ICE agents from enforcing the law and going after public safety threats.

01:35In fact, we encouraged them to do so. We very much want to find and arrest public safety threats in the

01:41community.

01:41Well, thank you for that. And anybody on this side of the diocese, similar with

01:46the appropriations process in Congress, particularly in the Senate, given the filibuster rules, knows that

01:54spending plans are adopted on a bipartisan basis, on a bipartisan basis. So we can

02:02discuss and debate the need for additional investments in not just enforcement, but as I mentioned

02:08previously, immigration judges, hearing officers, etc. In fact, not too long ago, there was a bipartisan

02:17proposal on the table to significantly ramp up the budgets for those agencies. And Republicans walked

02:24away from that deal. That's a fact. Second area I want to tackle is in the area of indiscriminate

02:32enforcement. Just by show of hands, by the way, raise your hand if you think all immigrants are

02:39criminals.

02:39I'm very precise in my question. Very precise in my question. Raise your hand if you believe

02:53all immigrants are criminals. Are you talking about illegal immigrants or are you talking about

02:57regular immigrants?

02:58Microphone.

02:59All immigrants. I'm using my words very precisely.

03:02Are you talking about illegal immigrants or immigrants who came here legally and did it the

03:07right way? Which one?

03:08By a show of hands. Raise your hand if you believe all immigrants are criminals.

03:10Well, that's not going to be a proper answer to that.

03:13Or even most.

03:14No. All illegal immigrants are criminals because they came here illegally.

03:19So I don't think anyone here would disagree with the idea of rooting out the, quote, worst

03:24of the worst, even if we disagree over what immigration policy should be. But I believe it's

03:30unacceptable that these raids are so indiscriminate that they end up sweeping up people with no

03:35history of violent crime. Hardworking people trying to give their children a better life like

03:43Alejandro's father. Narciso.

03:48Alejandro, question is for you. First of all, I'm so sorry about what happened to your father

03:52and what your family's been going through. Targeting somebody like him does not seem to make the

03:58community, the state of California, or the country any safer. And it's an insult to our history of

04:04welcoming people who want a better life. Now, I agree we need to modernize our immigration system to

04:10make you more strategic, more effective. Is there anything else that you would like to share

04:15about the cruelty with which your father was treated or what your family's gone through?

04:21I think that the way they treated him and the way they handled that situation was very

04:27unprofessional. It showed

04:29men who were not trained. It doesn't seem like it. They were running with fingers.

04:36They're running with guns in their hand with fingers on the trigger, pointing it at

04:40civilian vehicles. And honestly, I don't think that's for the best of public safety.

04:47And I believe that they should have better training and go out and chase after the real criminals.

04:56Well, I couldn't agree more. And the more resources, personnel funding, and otherwise that's

05:03directed at, again, just broad-based enforcement is less focus, less prioritization of those violent

05:13criminals that we know are out there, the administration knows are out there, but they're

05:17not the clear priority or focus. If I may, Mr. Chairman, just one more question in this round.

05:23We know that the massive show of force by the Department of Homeland Security

05:28has scared people across communities, not just Los Angeles, not just throughout my home state of

05:34California, but other parts of the country, to the point that we're now seeing people hesitate to go

05:39to work, hesitate to patronize stores, and to visit public spaces, even go to church.

05:46So I'm deeply concerned that this fear will also deter people from reporting crimes like

05:52domestic violence, sexual assault, robbery, etc.

05:57Dr. Valise, you have three decades of experience encouraging community members to come out of the

06:03shadows and trust you and your officers to report crime, to engage in law enforcement, to improve

06:10public safety. You spoke to this a little bit during your opening statement, but can you describe the

06:15impact of these indiscriminate raids on the types of relationships that you trained your officers

06:20to build with immigrant communities?

06:22Thank you, Senator Padilla, for the question. So under my leadership, Senator Padilla,

06:26we spent days, years, weeks, I spent 30 years building trust. Trust is the fulcrum

06:34to crime reduction, to the safety committee members, to the safety police officers.

06:38This is an ongoing day, daily, through every single interactions. When the community have the

06:45perception that we're involved in immigration enforcement, they are not going to come forward

06:50and report crimes. They're not going to come forward and access police services.

06:55Those, what's going to happen is, that will increase the percentage for these

07:00immigrant communities to be revitalized by violent offenders. And once again, that will put

07:12greater rates for police officers. Community members are the ones who are home in their community 24-7.

07:19They are our eyes and ears when we respond and we try to reduce crime.

07:23Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have additional questions. I'll wait for the next round.

07:29Senator Moody. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Alex Padilla Asks Entire Panel To Raise Their Hand If They Believe 'All Immigrants' Are Criminals

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