This would make literally illogical, but I think Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores is a Marine Veteran in Iraq and Afghanistan, when he announced in a press conference with the mayor of Southern California that he was “immigrants and customs enforcement by Americans, whether their documents, or they are not them”'''
“The president has been talking about foreign invasions,” Flores told me on Thursday. “He has been trying to portray us as each other. I said, 'No, you're dealing with Americans.'”
An estimated 1.8 million unrecorded immigrants in California have lived among us for several years, working and paying taxes here for decades, they have sent their births to schools here, taking all the responsibilities of citizens, minus many rights. Yes, technically, they violated the law. (For this purpose, President Trump is a felon and he continues to break the constitution day after day as his court losses proved it.)
But undocumented Mexico and Central American immigrants in our region are inseparable from our lives. They take care of our children, build our houses, dig trenches, prune our trees, clean our houses, hotels and businesses, wash dishes, pick up our crops, sew clothes. Many of their own small businesses are paying mortgages, attending colleges, and rising. In 2013, I wrote about Sergio Garcia, the first undocumented immigrant to a California bar. He has since become a U.S. citizen and owns a personal injury law firm.
These Californians are much less likely to break the law than native-born Americans, and they should not be subject to the terror reigns caused by the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who makes no sense but is dramatic in the Marines.
“So, we first heard the government wanted to follow members of the violent felon gang, drug dealers,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who organized the mayor’s press conference last week. “But when you raid parents and children, when you tear parents and children apart, when you’re ext. When you walk through the armored wagon on our streets, you’re not trying to get anyone to work hard to stay safe.
And, don't forget that when Congress united and finalized a bipartisan immigration reform bill under President Biden, Trump asked Republicans to kill it because he didn't want to create rational policies and he hoped to continue hammering Democrats.
But there seems to be more to be done here than rounding up undocumented immigrants and intimidating families. We seem to have entered the “punishment of California” phase of Trump 2.0.
“Trump has a high vision in California, how to hurt the economy and cause chaos, and he does double in this sport,” Flores told me. “He has a little bit.
“We are here to free the city from socialists and heavy leadership,” Noem told reporters at a press conference in the Westwood Federal Building on Thursday. “We are not leaving.”
So now we are talking about the change in the regime? (As former Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe put it, the military force aimed at replacing democratically elected leaders “is the definition of a coup.”)
The mix of Noem's intentional ignorance and inflammatory speech is almost too ridiculous to simulate. It was with Trump's stupid announcement that our city was burned by mobs and no army patrolling our streets, Los Angeles “will be a crime scene we have never seen in years” and that “paid insurgents” fueled anti-ice protests.
What we see in the news and the community is the intentional cause of fear, trauma and intimidation designed to inspire violent responses, trauma and intimidation, and distortions of reality to allow the Trump administration to further invade the blue state, the blue country of America’s authoritarian aspirations against him.
For weeks, Trump has been depriving California of (possibly illegal) federal funding for public schools and universities, citing boycotts of executive orders for his diversity, equity and inclusion programs, immigration, environmental regulations, and more.
However, since he is perhaps the most ignorant head of state in the world, he seems to suddenly realize that weakening the California economy can be a bad politics for him. On Thursday, he suggested in his own chaotic way, perhaps expelling thousands of farms in the state, and hospitality workers could cause pain to his friends, employers. (For example, Central Valley growers and agribusiness PAC is in overwhelmingly supporting Trump in 2024.)
“Our farmers were seriously hurt, their workers were very good. They worked for them for 20 years.” “They are not citizens, but they have proven to be great. We will have to do something about it.”
Like many Californians, I feel helpless in the face of attacks on immigrants.
I thought of a Guatemala, a father of three young-born children who flourished their thriving garbage business. I met him a few years ago at my local Home Depot and hired him several times to drag home debris. Once, after I couldn’t find help from the city, he dragged a small piece of sand from the dune at the end of my street, which had become a piss pad for local dogs.
I called him this week – I have more things I need to get rid of, and I'm pretty sure he can use the job. He arrived at two workers on time in the early hours of Friday. He said he had no work for two weeks, but hoped he could return to Home Depot as soon as possible.
“How is your child doing?” I asked.
“They are worried,” he said. “They asked, 'What should we do if you're deported?'”
He told them not to worry, things will return to normal soon. After driving away, he texted: “Thank you so much for your help today. God bless you.”
No, God bless him. Work hard. Become a good dad. And still believe that the difficulties are violated in the American dream.
@rabcarian.bsky.social @rabcarian
