LOS ANGELES – Today, Mayor Bass was joined by more than a hundred labor, business and community leaders and immigrant rights groups to call for an end to recent immigration raids.
Watch the press conference here. Below is a transcript of Mayor Bass’ remarks:
Thank you everyone for being here. We put a call out about an hour ago. And with this call, you came on a moment’s notice because every single person here understands the gravity of the situation. You want to know Los Angeles? This is Los Angeles.
Last Thursday, Los Angeles was peaceful. There was nothing here that warranted what began to take place on Friday. So, today, I wanted to present a visual – one that Angelenos know – but I wanted to make sure that the state, the country, and the world knows that this is Los Angeles. We are a city of labor, we are a city of businesses, we are a city of faith, we are a city of believers and we are a city of dreamers.
Let's just remember why we are here today. Last Thursday, ICE entered our city and provoked the city by chasing people through Home Depots and car washes and showing up at schools and, today, showing up at emergency rooms and homeless shelters. ICE intervened as a pretext to federalize the National Guard, and then, in the White House, the National Guard was complimented for the work that they did to keep peace in the city Saturday night. But I will tell you, the Guard didn't even arrive here until Sunday. They used this as a pretext to send the U.S. Marines into an American city, which will target our own citizens.
They've been threatening elected officials with arrests, and they just shoved and cuffed a sitting U.S. Senator. How could you say that you did not know who he was? We see the videotape. We see him saying who he was. But how do you not recognize one of two Senators in our state? And he is not just any Senator. He is the first Latino citizen Senator to ever represent our state.
The images we have seen of our city over the past week – the raids, the vandalism, the looting – none of that is L.A. Los Angeles is who you see behind me: representatives of the faith community, the business community, community organizations. Yesterday, I stood at this podium with over 30 mayors from Los Angeles County who are all concerned about what is going on. Los Angeles is a Jewish community, a Muslim community, a Christian community and many other faiths. Los Angeles is Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Filipinotown, Koreatown, Thai Town, the South L.A. African American community, the Chamber of Commerce, the Central City Association. This is L.A., and we are united.
I was listening to the words of the Secretary at the press conference describing L.A. as a war zone. It is my understanding that she arrived here late last night, was here for a few hours today, and came to that conclusion. There is no one up here that sees Los Angeles like that, and I know, as the press, you know this is not all of Los Angeles. This is isolated to a few blocks in a city that is over 500 square miles, and out of those 500 miles, the protests – and especially the protests that were devolved into vandalism – represents about half a square mile.
So the notion that this is happening all over our city, the notion that this city is not governable, the notion that we need the military to intervene – we have the capacity to address these problems, and I know there's not a person up here that supports vandalism, that supports violence, and they understand, if you support the immigrant community, you know how to do it in a peaceful manner. We are proud to say that we have well-established, well-respected immigrant rights organizations that have been holding protests for years and years that have never devolved into violence.
To characterize what is going on as our city is a city of mayhem is just an outright lie. I'm not going to call it an untruth. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to call it for what it is, which is a lie.
I served with the Secretary. I served with the Secretary for probably about ten years in Congress. Madam Secretary, I do not recognize you anymore. I do not know Kristi Noem that I served with for ten years.
No matter what happens out of the White House, we will always uphold and reflect what Los Angeles and the United States of America are truly about: freedom, tolerance, and – for God's sake – our Constitution.