By April Ryan
“This is the federal seizure of power,” according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who emphasizes that the Trump administration has federalized the National Guard, seizing power from California Governor Gavin Newsom. She says the administration has “taken his ability to manage the National Guard.” This week, Bass filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration regarding his immigration measures in the city, which she considers “overreach.” She wants the federal authorities out of LA. According to Bass, there are three components to this: political, humanitarian, and economic. Calling Los Angeles a “Petri dish” that President Trump is “experimenting” with.
The President’s move to federalize the National Guard in LA has usurped local authorities. “The LAPD is definitely not in charge,” says the first Black woman mayor of the city. However, ICE, the National Guard, Border Patrol, and the Marines “blend together” in policing and arresting Mexicans, Koreans, Iranians, and Haitians in Los Angeles. The mayor reminds that there has been an instance when the public sees these immigrant arrests, where some residents perceive it as “kidnappings.” In one example, the mayor says there was a “bit of a confrontation with the public, ICE, and the LAPD. Bass says, “It’s a mess.”
3.8 million people call Los Angeles home, which is “overwhelmingly a city of color,” with almost half of the population being Latino, the majority from Mexico. The mayor says a lot of that number is from Central America. Asians make up 25% of the city’s population, and African Americans make up 9%. “Parts of Los Angeles are empty because people can’t go to work.” Bass says,” entire industries in the city of Los Angeles are totally dependent on migrant labor,” like the ‘garment district,’ she calls a ‘ghost town’ right now. Ethnic restaurants say this is ‘worse than Covid as people don’t even want deliveries.”
