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today we are welcoming Senator Alex Padilla.
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Senator, thank you so much for your time.
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Daniela, for giving me this opportunity and,
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and to be able to speak directly to the audience.
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So let's jump right into it.
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Following your public confrontation with Christi Nam at the press briefing.
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Can you speak to what authority you have as a senator to
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inspect ICE detention facilities and how do you plan to ensure detainees
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are treated with dignity and due process?
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Yeah. No, that's a great question.
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It speaks to why I was actually there because after months and
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months of trying to get information from the secretary from the
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department overall from the administration in general about how and why they're
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going about immigration enforcement,
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I was able to at least secure a briefing from
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the Department of Defense,
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so I was in the federal building in West Los
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Angeles last week for a scheduled briefing when I caught wind of
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a press conference happening just down the hall,
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my escort to secure building,
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a National Guardsmen, an FBI agent to,
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if we can go listen in,
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they escorted me to the.
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Press briefing room and I was listening when I had the audacity
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to ask a question and despite how they treated me,
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we're going to keep asking questions,
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we're going to keep demanding answers.
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but it's not just me,
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right? I have a colleague in Senator Adam Schiff,
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California delegation and and others from around the country that we court
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it with. And so there have been visits to detention
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centers. There's, you know,
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briefings and secure settings and everything in between because what this administration
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doing is unconscionable.,
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I think is, you know,
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you guys have had the conversations,
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if all they were doing is what they say they're doing targeting
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only violent criminals, that'd be a very different discussion,
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but we've heard anecdotally of so many migrants who happen to
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be undocumented but are otherwise law abiding,
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hardworking, taxpaying. Members of our community that are being victimized
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that are being terrorized,
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that's not right, and so we're gonna keep pressing until
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we get changes. And just like the unlawful treatment you endured
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last week yesterday, mayoral candidate Brad Lander was apprehended after trying
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to intervene at an immigration hearing.
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What can Congress do to stand up to an administration that's trying
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to intimidate those who are defending their communities,
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whether it's a seated member of the government,
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an elected official or a citizen that's exercising their First Amendment rights
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at a minimum, we got to keep calling it out and
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shedding light on what's happening here because it is an abuse of
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power that we're seeing from the president on an ongoing basis every
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day more and more extreme.
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number 2, keep asking people to not cower down,
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That's what Donald Trump wants.
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We got to keep speaking up.
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We got to be demonstrating,
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we got to keep peacefully protesting.
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To, to call out the situation for what it is all
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in the hopes of getting some action from our Republican colleagues in
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Congress. Look, the last I checked and we learned this
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in government class in high school,
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Congress is a co-equal branch of government and right now the Republican
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majority both in the House and the Senate.
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You know, continues to give the administration of pretty much everything
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that they want since the beginning of this term.
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We need Republicans to stand up for due process.
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We need Republicans to stand up for the Constitution.
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We need the Republicans to also join us in standing up for
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justice. There's frequent political rhetoric about immigrants doing it the right
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way, as you mentioned,
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we've seen our communities being ripped apart.
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ICE is detaining people at court dates and immigration check-ins.
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What can be done to end these contradictory and harmful enforcement tactics
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again, the law is the law,
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but the way each administration chooses their policy to enforce the law
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has been different, right from Trump back to Biden to Trump
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but. That there's a smart way to do it
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and then there's the unfair,
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unjust, inhumane way that this administration is doing it,
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calling out the hypocrisy,
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and I won't get into the hypocrisy of calling in the National
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Guard in Los Angeles versus what happened on January 6,
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2021. That can be a whole other segment or episode
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here, but the hypocrisy of them saying all these immigrants are
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are threats to national.
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Security, they're dangerous,
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then why are they going after immigrants in schools,
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in houses of worship,
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Republican colleagues wake up to the reality of what's going on and
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not the Trump rhetoric.
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If this was only targeting violent criminals,
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that would be one thing,
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but that's not what's happening here.
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More than 90% of migrants,
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more than 90%. That have been detained by ICE going back
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to October have no serious criminal conviction.
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That's a a data point,
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that's evidence, it's facts,
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is just now being released.
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So what we've been suspecting for a long time,
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we now know to be true,
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and we hope that translates into hopefully a change of policy,
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if not actually a change in the law.
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Trump has ordered ICE operations to increase in Democratic cities.
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I mean, California is historically a democratic state.
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Is California still a sanctuary state at this point?
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So California is still a sanctuary state because state law does not
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change, and let's be clear on what that is or what
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that isn't. All the sanctuary law means at a city level
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or at a state level is,
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look, we're not going to commit state and local resources to
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do the federal government's job.
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It's the job of the federal government to enforce federal law,
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and we got to check them on how they're doing
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it to protect due process and other fundamental rights,
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but You know, whether it's state law enforcement resources,
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local law enforcement resources.
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They're not the immigration officers,
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they're in charge of local public safety.
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We're not gonna do the federal job for them,
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to your point, what Donald Trump is doing is saying the
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quiet part out loud.
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We've known that this is nothing but a pure partisan political attack
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on Democrats or cities and states that elect democratic leaders.
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that should be a wake up call again to our
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Republican colleagues. Is this a president?
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That they're comfortable setting.
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Imagine if a Democratic president were making these threats,
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they would be up in arms,
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challenging it, questioning it,
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demanding a change,,
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but it all speaks to why I had to speak up at
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that press conference last week.
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When you hear the Department of Homeland Security suggest that it's the
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mission of the administration and the Marines.
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To liberate Los Angeles from the governor and from the mayor,
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that is dangerous territory since when is it the job of a
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president or an administration to decide which governors and which mayors that
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the people elected get to lead their cities,
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constitutional crisis.
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Beyond just in the making,
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it's time for the people to wake up.
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Let's hope the demonstrations on No King's Day is just the beginning
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but again, my colleagues in Congress on the other side of
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the aisle, it's time for them to start living up to
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their constitutional responsibilities and their oath of office.
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And Senator Padilla, for DACA's 13th anniversary,
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you are calling for permanent protection through the DREAM Act.
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Why do you feel Congress should prioritize passing the DREAM Act?
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Look at the Dreamers have been waiting,
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much longer than they should have for Congress to act
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and provide the protection,
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the legalization, the pathway to citizenship that they so much deserve
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That's not a partisan ask.
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We know that there's bipartisan support.
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Amongst the public in general,
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Democrats, Republicans, and Independents,
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historically there's been bipartisan support in Congress,
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but in this Trump era of divisiveness and chaos and cruelty
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we're not seeing the willingness from our Republican colleagues
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right now. There's legal,
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questions about the,
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the status in the courts,
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and peace of mind and justice will come when Congress acts to
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protect,, not just DACA participants but all dreamers.
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Senator Padilla, thank you so much for your time speaking directly
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to our community that's being directly impacted.
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We appreciate the work you're doing for us and.
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Thank you. Thank you,
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everybody. Please keep the faith and keep organizing.
Series