Drama Queens - Work in Progress: Mayor Karen Bass

Episode Date: June 12, 2025

You’ve seen the headlines, the news footage, and the online outrage about the ICE raids in LA, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joins Sophia to give a real-time report on the State of the City.How did a small pocket of unruly protesters in one of the largest populations in America lead to military movement on city streets? Should law-abiding Angelinos be living in fear?Mayor Bass sounds the alarm on the daily departure from due process, and what could be next in the immigration sweeps happening across the country.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hi, everyone. It's Sophia. Welcome to work in progress. Hi, Wipsmarties. As many of you know, I consider myself very blessed to be a Californian and even more blessed to be an Angeline. I loved growing up in L.A. and I love the city for its diversity and its energy and its art and its people. And as my home city is being ravaged by ice and aggression coming from the White House, I can't believe I have to even say that out loud, but here we are. I wanted to ask some questions of someone who has been tasked with holding us together and tasked by us, by the people. Today's guest is none other than our esteemed mayor, Karen Bass. She serves as our 43rd

mayor of Los Angeles. And prior to becoming mayor, she served in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 33rd and 37th District in California, also in the State Assembly, and was the speaker of the California State Assembly during her final term. Karen is also an Angelino. She is someone who inspires me so much. She's carried her passion for public health through her entire career, through her many degrees, and she has been a community organizer for nearly as long. I don't know many emergency medicine physician assistants or clinical instructors who have also studied philosophy, but Mayor Bass has done it all. I so appreciate the way she looks at our human responsibilities, how we show up for each other, how we

make space for each other and how we go farther together. So today as the president wants to put a target on the city of Los Angeles's back, I want to talk to the woman who's actually standing in front of our city with a shield and making sure that everyone in Los Angeles and in the surrounding areas knows they're safe with us. Let's dive in with Mayor Karen Bass. Mirabas, thank you so much for joining us today. It means the world to have you call in from Los Angeles. And first and foremost, I just want to thank you for all of your efforts to hold the city together in such a fraught time for the nation.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. It is a tough time. But, you know, we've been down this road before. We'll be okay. but it doesn't mean that we don't fight our way. Absolutely. Absolutely. And something I admire so much about you for folks who might not be from our city

or necessarily know everything about your background is that you've always been so deeply invested in public health, in California, in our city of Los Angeles, you know, from KEC medical school to Cal State University, you have leaned towards studying health and science, and you've been a community organizer since the 1980s. You are the definition of a person who shows up for good for their community. So I want the world to know how long you've been at this before we dive into what's happening in the present moment. Well, thank you. I appreciate you raising that. And I do think that a lot of times people do not see the centrality of health in so many social and so economic issues. Absolutely. And I think perhaps it's a great background for the moment we find ourselves in.

You know, we are experiencing six months into this second Trump administration, so much national trauma with people realizing that this administration wants to cut our health services, wants to deregulate our clean air and water protections, wants to destabilize families that are low income from having any access to things like food, I mean, basic resources, and that all speaks to public health. In our city in particular, I think it's incredibly relevant

because what folks who don't live near us might not know is that one in nine Americans lives in California, and one in 35 Americans lives in Los Angeles County. Wow. That's incredible statistics. Yes. I mean, a massive statistic. There are 40 states in this country with less population than we have in L.A. County, Madam Mayor. And I say that for our listeners at home, just to give them the backdrop of how big our city is. and the way our city shows up for its people, including our incredible immigrant communities, is because these are our neighbors and our friends.

You know, that's exactly right. But I will tell you that after serving 12 years in Congress and watching year after year after year, Republicans wanting to cut everything, anything that has to do with people who are poor. And what I believe is at the root of it is that they have absolutely no exception. experience with people who are struggling economically and they get themselves out of, well, you just need to do X, Y, and Z. Not that there's any systemic barriers, not that there's any reasons. It's the fault of the individual, therefore they don't deserve. But corporations deserve everything. Oh, wow. What an insane thing, isn't it, that we treat corporations like

people more than people. You know, I think you illustrate such a beautiful point. that if you're not on the ground, if you don't know people, if you don't know their struggle, if you've never known a family that's trying to decide between paying rent or putting food on the table, you might not understand what those decisions feel like. Clearly, Mike Johnson, who's the Speaker of the House, doesn't. You know, he's out there saying that their six-figure salary of $174,000 a year, and free health care as elected officials is not enough to support a family in America while he's trying to cut things like SNAP

for families that live below the poverty line. Social services help people generate more successful lives. They don't make people lazy. We know this. We know that immigrants in our country commit crimes at far lower rates than citizens. But for some reason, these talking points that we know not to be true about how,

oh, it's that guy over there. It's his fault that you're not doing better or he's the one who took your job or he's someone you can't trust. They get through because fear takes hold, especially when it's making you afraid of something irrational, understanding the human tendency to be afraid and what we're up against at the federal level

in terms of harm being done, how does that make you as the mayor of, our great city, analyze where this kind of rhetoric is coming from. How does it make you operate in our community, knowing how much we in L.A. love all of our neighbors. How do you kind of contextualize the misinformation they're spreading about these communities as you know ICE is moving through Los Angeles? Well, you know, I think that oftentimes we do not pay attention or even are knowledgeable of history. And so it's very, very important to link events they're happening today with events that

happened in the past to give people some sort of insight as to where it could go. For me, the way I deal with it here is really lifting up the reasons why people struggle because in Los Angeles, it's a very, very expensive city and the income divide is massive. For example, in our city, we have 62 billionaires. We have, you know, I don't even know how many millionaires. And so to explain to people how much it costs to rent a apartment, you know, put gas in your car, you total those up and paint a very real picture, and then you take away the belief that this is the lack of individual effort. I mean, if they just worked harder, they would be a billionaire like me. And I'm a billionaire because I'm so brilliant, as opposed to I inherited $400 million from my family.

And then by the way, I made it all by myself. Must be nice, honey. Right. I think it's important to illustrate in very practical terms, link it to history. Paint a picture why people are struggling. Attach the policies that contribute to that and then put it in its historical context. that's the way I analyze things and I think it's so important

because we tend to be an in-the-moment culture and we don't link up to the past we don't leak up to systemic structures we just talk about what is in front of us right and if we don't know our history we're doomed to repeat it you know there's a reason the phrase exists absolutely

and now a word from our sponsors who make this show possible I am curious knowing the history of our city as well as you do, having worked on advocacy as well as you have. I mean, I have watched the number of unhoused people you've gotten off the streets and into safe housing into restorative repair organizations. in ways that no one has been able to in the city in so many years prior to your becoming our mayor. It's it is such a massive city to understand again one in 35 Americans in Los Angeles County how do you then work at the state level like with our governor because y'all are you're doing the work you know from helping us recoup from the fires to dealing

with this. And I can imagine, although you are not the mayor of San Diego, when you knew ice raids began in San Diego, were you then in communication with the state understanding how quickly they'd be in Los Angeles? Did you know Los Angeles was next? Is it kind of a guessing game with these agencies? Do they tell you anything? No. As a matter of fact, right now, we have no idea how long this is going to go on. Is it going to be every day? How many are they going to do a day? Where is it going to be? No, we are not knowledgeable of any of that.

In terms of other mayors, yes, mayors are in contact with each other all the time. As a matter of fact, what's a week? We meet. And that is not all of the mayors in California, but it's the mayors from the 13th largest cities. Wow. We have an advocacy agenda that always centers on homelessness, but there might be other issues.

So, yes, Mary Gloria and I are definitely in, in regular contact. But again, that is part of the reason for the sense of fear and terror and just anxiety. You are an undocumented person. You've been working every day for 20 years, you know, supporting your family legally. And then should I go to work today? Should I go to this kid's school and drop them off? You know, should I go to the store?

I mean, that level of fear and anxiety. I mean, I think the, well, I mean, you just can't imagine it. You know, am I going to be walking down the street? Is somebody going to snatch me? You know, and so that is, it's exactly your point of, are you in contact with? No, they do not communicate with us. In terms of state legislature, yes, I'm very, very comfortable there. I served there for six years and speaker in my last two years.

I have a fine relationship with the governor. We collaborate on a lot of things. We spent the first five months of the year collaborating on the fires, and now we're collaborating on the presidential overreach. Right. Well, and that's just it. The overreach is the problem. What the president is doing is blatantly unconstitutional. It is a violation of the law. And what frustrates me as a constituent, you know, I'm not an elected official, but I pay attention to politics. He would not call the National Guard in on an actual violent mob beating and killing police. officers and trying to kill elected officials in our state house. Right. But he sent the National Guard in against the will of California state elected officials when protests were still peaceful.

And I'd love if you could speak to that because I know there's a lot of misinformation and disinformation. And I know it began with certain issues around the wildfires and you all have done as best you can to tell people what the facts are. But now it seems the misinformation is even worse because AI is powering crazy videos, crazy images that are not real. So how are you dealing with that letting the public know what is happening, letting people know that prior to the escalation that began with uniformed officers, these protests were largely peaceful? Well, they were largely peaceful, but even when they weren't, it was a small amount of folks. So on last Saturday night, for example, when the president was tweeting that he led the peace in L.A.

Because the National Guard did a splendid job, the National Guard was not even here. They didn't even arrive until the next day. And the big, you know, outburst that he was talking about was about 120 people and 20 arrested. And so it doesn't make sense any way, shape, or form. What you're referring to around AI, I'm actually not aware of, but we have just been communicating on every platform possible what is actually happening. And it has been violence. I had to do a curfew.

Andalism is really what has been the most prolific graffiti just everywhere. And then on Monday night, there was a, looting of stores. And there was a little bit of that on Sunday, but on Monday it got worse. The point is, is that the National Guard is not doing any of that. They are guarding one building. They are guarding the federal building. Anything else that's happened has happened with local police. Yes. Local police, you know, they might have other people with them, the sheriff's other departments. But I think it's always important to know why this even happened. Because one week ago today, Los Angeles was completely peaceful.

Nothing was happening. The problem started on Friday when ICE came and did raids on several workplaces. And they also did a high profile, pretty aggressive arrest of David Werta, one of our beloved well-respected labor leaders. That is what ticked the whole thing off. And so you would hear like it was a purposeful provocation. Because again, it was fine. There was nothing happening on Thursday that warranted Friday. And then that led into Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.

So it is important to look back at the origin. But one thing that you said that I think is really important. Now, this is even remembering recent history, okay? Recent history is in Trump's first term, he did everything he could to change the judiciary. Yes. of nominating and having passed judges that, interestingly, we're all around in the same age range, which is around in their 40s.

So what you said is blatantly illegal. I'm not sure anymore because it depends on a court ruling, where if this had happened six years ago, we would have said, well, I mean, that's just ridiculous. The courts will throw that out. I mean, we don't even need to worry about it. Oh, no. We need to worry about the courts at every level.

So it is important to be. It's important to remember what happened before, because I think a lot of people would just say, I'm not worried about it. It's just, you know, we can just rely on the courts. Absolutely. And, you know, to try to reshape a democracy's judiciary to give yourself monarch powers is simply un-American, and it bears repeating for all of us. And, you know, something that you just said is something I really want to. noodle on for a beat for our friends at home because the the provocation as you reference is really crucial here when you consider again one in 35 Americans lives in LA County and we know the

blueprint of Project 2025 is to weaponize the American military against our own citizens starting with blue cities to come to the biggest Democratic city in America and provoke its people, enact violence, arrest a labor leader for standing, quote unquote, in their way, to raid children's graduation ceremonies and pick up people who, and this is important as well, you reference this, are here legally. Being undocumented is not illegal. People who are going through their hearings and their asylum procedures, some of whom it takes 50, 15 years for are here legally. They are doing it the right way. They are simply not documented yet. That's why these people are being arrested at their court hearings with their families.

They are provoking our people by doing harm. They are choosing cruelty. They denied Maxine Waters her absolute congressional right to go into that ICE facility and check on David Huerta, even though it is the law that she be allowed in. They are coming to our cities to act lawlessly and harm our neighbors to try to provoke a response. And what's interesting to me is the protests that began, as you said, very peacefully, even within 24 hours for, again, one in 35 people in the whole country lives in L.A. and 27 people got arrested. That's not a big deal for us. It's not a big protest. It's a couple of people being a little squirrely and like L.A. has seen way bigger things happen. And so to say that that is the reason to deploy the National Guard when we have the LAPD at its size

and budget and resource level is simply laughable. And I think these things really are important to hammer home for our listeners so they can go out armed with these facts and make sure they don't get bamboozled by, you know, the guy saying the National Guard saved us on Saturday when they didn't even get there until Sunday. Like, come on, bro. You got to fact check yourself a little bit here. Well, there is an opinion about facts, right? True. You speak the truth, Madam Mayor. Can I ask you a question? Just on a, I know we're talking about all the politics, but I'm also really worried about our neighbors. And so to take it local for a minute. Yes, for the folks in LA, but look, we know ICE is coming everywhere. Do you know who

they're targeting? Because they've said it's criminals. We know it's not. It's mothers and fathers. It's people who are at their asylum hearings who are upstanding residents. Is it strictly based on skin color and low-income areas? How are they finding these folks who pay their taxes and participate in their communities. Let me just say, let me make it a little worse. You talked about people going through their asylum hearings. There are people with green cards who are turning in turning up for their annual appointment, which is right. So they are definitely here legally. All they're doing is their checking appointment and then they get engaged and maybe with with their family. So if we remember, yes, we started with violent drug dealers, gang members and we. And we.

translate and now we're at a place where exactly what you said it's parents it's people at a graduation i know that uh ice agent showed up near my grandson's school and uh what they did was they snatched a couple of street vendors selling food i mean again i just have a hard time connecting that up with the original goals but i do for a minute to the violence that has happened the that has happened especially. I don't believe that anybody that is doing that is actually doing it in support of the immigrant community. They couldn't be.

No. Because if they supported the immigrant community, they would not be provoking and providing a reason, quote unquote, for there to be federal intervention. That part. What I think is happening here is that it's social media driven

and those things that is typical where social media gathers people to, you know, do a street takeover or something like that. So I think that that's really important. And then some of the other stories I've heard, people being picked up at a customer being picked up at a car wash and his son being left there to, you know, make his way home and take care of his family. I had somebody tell me that they went to their grocery store and the shelves were empty. Why? Because people weren't showing up to work. So look at the economy in Los Angeles. We have very specific sectors of our economy that cannot function without immigrant labor.

If you think about construction, if you think by hospitality, that's just a problem. But there's a lot of manufacturing jobs. And by the way, the plant that was raided on Friday was owned, was Korean-owned. And the people that were detained were both Korean. and Latino. And so one of the biggest problems that the immigrant rights organizations are having. And, you know, we're fortunate in LA to have a well-established, well-respected immigrant rights community. And they've been for years and years. But they said they've never experienced where they could not contact people. They could give them to their lawyers, which is, you know, to me denying them

due process. And also the family members. So when you have... When the raid is happening in a workplace, and then people start calling their family on their cell phone, and then the family shows up at the workplace, watching their relatives being carted out into who knows where. They don't know downtown, if they're in another county, if they've been shipped off to El Salvador. The latest I heard is that he's talking about taking the people from L.A. and bringing them to Guantanamo. I heard that too.

closing Guantanamo because there's no need for it anymore, you know, you are looking to occupy it with as many people as possible. And just think about all the money that the city of L.A. is having to spend, all of the money that is being spent on the military that has absolutely no role here. Do you know if all of the soldiers that he's talking about are rolled out into our city, do you know there will be more military in Los Angeles than remains today in Iraq? And so those kind of things are just really, really crazy that is happening and talk about creating a sense of fear and terror. But I do feel like that we're a test case. I think they're like, you know, flood the zone with a little strategy and tactic and let's see how it plays with the American people. Let's see how it plays in Los Angeles. But the trap you're kind of in is that if people rebel too much, then that becomes the pretense.

Well, let's roll up troops. The other thing I think that's so important, and I love what you're saying in terms of one of 35 people, I'm going to have to use that. I think that is great. But when you look at our city that is 500 square miles, protests occupy about four or five streets. Yes. Maybe a square mile? The curfew that I impose covers about six square miles. That's for a curfew.

six square miles out of five hundred. Yes. The unrest, the vandalism has been about five streets. Yes. So the portrayal on TV, and this isn't even AI, the portrayal on the news, especially the national news, is that there's massive civil unrest happening. I mean, would have Trump say the city would have burnt down?

The city would have been, you know, had he not saved the day. and I'm going to go back to the fact that the National Guard is guarding one building. The police response has been Los Angeles Police Department, sheriffs, and other adjacent departments that are providing mutual aid. It is not necessary to, one, take power away from the governor and federalize the National Guard. Now, any time we have needed the National Guard, the governor is right there and will cooperate wholeheartedly,

as he did in the fires. And I played an incredible role. Everybody, tremendous fans of the national state area. Well, but I think there's also something, let's be practical as well. When you actually respect our armed services, you don't want to waste their time. Right. You don't want them bust into a city with no lodging, no food, no water. You know, for the president of the United States to send our men.

military around like their props, like their, you know, extras on the set of his reality TV show is really, for me, incredibly disrespectful. Not only is it incendiary for the city, not only is it inflammatory, not only is it, you know, absolutely fascist, it's disrespectful to the men and women wearing those uniforms. Exactly. And it's an unnecessary deployment. But let's talk about the military for a quick second. The military is trained to fight wars on foreign soil. Yes. They do not arrest. They do not do crowd control. They don't do any of that. So what is the purpose here? Is it the turn the military on the American people? Do Angelinos need to be shot? I don't, I don't understand it. So when you say a prop, I just don't know any other way of looking at these

things. Mm-hmm. And now a word from our sponsors. Can I ask you about this? I'm very curious. And listen, to be clear for folks at home, you know, there were deportations at these numbers and sometimes higher in the Obama administration, in the Clinton administration,

Our government does track folks. And yes, I think we all agree no matter how we vote. If there's a dangerous criminal in the country that's not supposed to be here, get them out. But people's moms and dads and children, this is not acceptable. Why do you think this is causing such chaos when other presidents have also worked with federal enforcement? Is it different because it's meant to be a fear tactic? Well, I think it is different because it's meant to be a fear tactic like you described. But I think it's also the aggressiveness that they have used,

the fanfare that accompanies it, the rhetoric that accompanies it from D.C. You know, if you're out describing our city as overrun by migrants, a city that's absolute chaos, you know, when you do things like that, it leaves people with, well, okay, this is the reason why it's being done. So you might, I mean, a lot of people were deported under President Obama, President Biden. What I am not sure of personally is how that was carried out. But what I'm absolutely sure of is the rhetoric that did not take place on this. Yes. Yeah, we weren't trying to demonize folks. The demonizing of people who are in this country, the demonizing of people who

I mean, they've gone from violent felons to saying anybody that's in the country is illegal, you know, if they came here. Now, I heard the news today that he's offering $5 million Trump cards. I don't know how he did. You heard that. But the Trump cards are if you pay $5 million, you get a gold card and you get entry into the country. Right. To bring, you know, 67,000 or to invite 67,000 people from South Africa to come here. It's clear that some people are welcome and some people aren't.

But the thing that is so bizarre is that if you were to expel every undocumented person or person who was in wobbly status, the city would stop. Well, the nation would stop. I don't know who would do child care. I don't know who gardening, landscaping, and child care I'm referring to as nannies, people in homes. I don't know who's going to do that work. And maybe there's other people that could do that work, but they're not going to be found immediately at such massive numbers. Exactly. And by the way, I just want to clarify, it's not that our immigrant communities are only valuable to us because of the work they do.

It's that the work they do is invaluable. These are our neighbors. These are our friends. And they are also integral parts of our society, our communities, our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, this country. you know, I don't think, to your point, people would have a clue how to deal with the vacuum in this society where all of these people suddenly gone from our country. And why would we want them to be? Right. Who's going to rebuild the cities? You know, who's going to rebuild the 500,000 units of housing that we need in Los Angeles? Who's going to take care of people in hotels and restaurants? Who's going to do that work? So what he is doing is an absolute blow to our economy. And understand, it's not so much the numbers because we don't even know the numbers.

I have heard now that 300 people are detained, okay? That's a relatively small number considering our population of 3.80. However, when you do things like this, then people don't want to go to work. They're afraid to go to work. In the first administration, kids didn't want to go to school. parents didn't want to go to work. They were paralyzed. So it's the intentional drama that is inflicted on the city and is inflicted on our population

to say any day we could come get you. Don't walk the house. But I don't know. Your house isn't sacred. We'll come to your house to get you. Am I on the list? Is it going to happen to me? Will they take me from my children?

You know, you saw the nine-year-old that got deported. His father was being deported. And what they've said is. in this administration is, well, no, we're not going to separate families. If you are of mixed status, then you all go. Yeah. Well, and they're deporting U.S. citizens. Right.

They're deporting our kids. Now, it's a lot, look, it's a lot that's heavy. I was going to ask you about, you know, what folks should do if a family member is picked up by ICE, who should they call? But part of the strategy, as you said earlier, is to ensure that people don't know how to communicate with their loved ones and really the overarching feeling that it seems the administration wants us all to be racked with is fear, uncertainty, not knowing the answer to these questions. As a leader of the city and also a community organizer with decades

of getting people together for good under your belt, for those folks that are scared, to go to work, scared to walk the streets, scared of what neighbors they can trust. For those of us who want to know how to defend our neighbors, what do you want us to know right now? Well, I will tell you, the most important thing is for people to be well informed about their rights, which you could certainly find on the city's website, but you could also find on the website of organizations like Cherla, that, you know, provide that information. And also to know your rights, like, for example, if I showed up at the house, I don't have to open the door.

And what do they have? And so knowing the specific questions to answer is what people need to make sure that they're well-educated about. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate the time on your show. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us. Please go, be well, be safe, and thank you for holding the line. Well, I appreciate it. I am going to continue to do this. I know that this time will pass. And one in 35.

I got it. It's pretty great in L.A. County, right? I was like, oh, okay. All right. It's been wonderful to speak to you. So thank you so much. And thank you for your kind words and support. It means a lot right about now.

always thank you so much for what you do for our city mayor okay bye bye this is an i heart