On Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) commented on raids in California and said that while going after criminals is fine, President Donald Trump has “gone after kids. He’s going after farmworkers, other folks, folks that have been in our communities for a long time. I think that’s where he’s going to lose public support.”
Host Blake Burman asked, “We saw the raids there in your home state, in California, last week. … The government now says 350-plus undocumented workers, including 14 children, four people were picked up who had been convicted at one point in time of kidnapping, rape, or burglary. Is California safer now?”
Bera responded, “I think California’s always been pretty safe, and most crime statistics over the last four or five years are way down. So, I think California’s pretty safe. If he wants to go after criminals, folks with warrants, and so forth, that’s fine. I think he’s going to find a lot of support amongst Democrats. But he’s gone after kids. He’s going after farmworkers, other folks, folks that have been in our communities for a long time. I think that’s where he’s going to lose public support. And if you look at those poll numbers, he is starting to lose some of that support.”
Burman followed up, “So what’s the balance here? Because I just read off what the government says occurred there, in part, last week, and I think anybody would acknowledge, at least when it comes to those kids and violent criminals, that you need to step in.”
Bera answered, “Yeah. I mean, so, for violent criminals, that’s fine. Again, he’s not going to see any pushback. What we’re starting to hear is that they’re picking up families, they’re approaching folks that look like they might have brown skin, and so forth, they might have an accent. I don’t think that’s what the public voted for. You’re hearing the farm workers are afraid to go pick the crops. You’re having construction workers being afraid to go to work. Those guys are not criminals. Those men and women are here helping support our economy. I think we ought to have an honest conversation about where we want to go with immigration at this point.”
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