S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On today's show , we'll get local reaction to news out of Iran and division within the Iranian community. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Tensions are rising after a U.S. Border Patrol officer killed Alex Preti in Minneapolis this weekend. The latest shooting happened just weeks after the killing of Rene Nicole Goode. The violence there has led to multiple protests around San Diego County , and to questions over how prepared local leaders are to prevent similar actions here. Joining me to talk more is San Diego County board chair Tara Lawson Riemer , supervisor. Welcome to Midday Edition. Hi.
S2: Hi. Great to be here. Thank you.
S1: Great to have you here. So listen , yesterday you ordered all county and American flags to be flown. Half staff. Talk to me about that decision.
S2: Well , I'm , um. I'm angry , I'm scared , I'm sad.
S1: But lowering the flags , it really is a symbolic gesture.
S2: A dangerous set of activities by the Trump administration , by Ice that's making all of us extremely unsafe and threatening , frankly threatening our Constitution. I mean , the notion that we have Ice agents who have now killed two US citizens who were exercising their constitutional right to protest. It's terrifying. It's unconscionable. Um , and it is it is something that we need to make sure that we don't normalize.
S1: And I'll go back to to what you said just moments ago , and that is that this is a constitutional crisis. And those are strong words.
S2: Um , you know , we are. We actually just hired a new county council who comes from the US Attorney's office. I mean , sorry , the , um , the California State Attorney's office so that we can be better prepared to initiate the kind of legislative litigation that Minnesota has initiated to potentially block Ice activities. If and they come to San Diego and they are unlawful. Um , you know , I , I continue to believe that the law is our best defense , um , and being prepared to seek a legal injunction as the leadership , as the governor and the mayor of Minnesota have done , is going to be a very important tool. Um , I've also directed our public health officer , um , to notify , uh , Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Otay Mesa detention facility that we are intending to conduct a public health and safety investigation of that facility. Uh , this is a power that we have under the California Health and Safety Code. Um , and , and so we're we're looking to do that investigation. Um , and we've also passed recently passed an ordinance that's made it very clear that , um , ice is not permitted in most county facilities , especially particularly those that are not , um , available for public access. Uh , we and requiring that that these individuals not be masked. So we are looking at every power that we have , uh , here in San Diego County to keep people safe. Mm.
S1: Mm. Lots of things happening there. San Diego , um , has not yet seen such a large scale immigration blitz as as we're seeing in Minneapolis right now. So how prepared are local officials for that possibility ? I mean , you mentioned the possibility of lawsuits.
S2: We have to keep focusing on is , um , to request that our own law enforcement focus on protecting the health and safety of residents and not sharing sensitive information with with Ice. We have already passed that policy at the county. The city of San Diego has passed a similar policy. Other cities across the county have passed similar policies. So ensuring that we're not making that information available to Ice , that would , um , you know , allow them to target people. Um , and instead really focusing on keeping citizens safe , uh , is something that we have requested of law enforcement. And , you know , to be honest , uh , some cities in our region , um , are not on board with that , um , that approach , but the vast majority are and we are working really closely with partners in other cities across our region to , to really focus on , on safety. And um , and to say , you know , not not and to say we will not be sharing information with Ice , but there's more work to be done on that front. Absolutely. Um , it's come to light that there's , uh , potentially some information sharing or data sharing happening at sandag. Um , we need to get we need to stop that. Um , and so there's still some holes that we need to plug as well. But I think we have to also just be realistic. You know , I think the people of Minnesota and the , the , the mayor and the , you know , the governor have done a lot , um , to , to fight back and to protect , uh , the safety of , of Minnesotans. But yet ISIS still managed to invade that city and , um , impede investigation and , and refuse to allow an investigation to move forward regarding these , these two killings. So I think we have to be realistic to say we can do as much as we can locally , But at the end of the day , we really do need to be demanding and focusing our attention on on changes at the federal level , because this is , as I said , a constitutional crisis.
S1:
S2: The first things obviously are legal. And again , I'm very excited about our new county council , um , joining our team because he brings a lot of experience and trying to ensure that , um , you know , local jurisdictions do follow , uh , policies that are set by voters and set by elected officials. So that's the first tool in the toolbox is to , um , you know , look at our own legal enforcement mechanisms , which. So , uh , so basically that is , is litigation. You go to the courts and you ask the courts to issue a court order. That's always the first stop. Okay.
S1: Okay. Because. Because , you know , I mean , you mentioned Sandag earlier and recently , KPBS Gustavo Solis reported on how a database run by the San Diego Association of Governments , better known as Sandag , may have been sharing data from local law enforcement with federal agencies , including , you know , Customs and Border Protection. So. So how is the county working to address that ? And I'll start with that , because then , you know , we also then move on to Sheriff Martinez. So start me off with Sandag. Yes.
S2: Yes. Thank you. I mean , it's something I am deeply concerned. I have the same information that I think all of your listeners have regarding these reports of data sharing. We are currently trying to get to the bottom of this. We're getting conflicting information. I do want to credit the leadership of my colleague , Supervisor Paloma Aguirre , who represents the county on Sandag for her work on this and representing the county's position that that is unacceptable and illegal. Um , so I don't think I have any. I think I don't have personally of a more of an update for you right now , but we've made our position very clear , and I know Supervisor Aguirre is working very hard to get to the bottom of whether that's true and not true and what's true , and just make sure it doesn't happen anymore. Okay.
S1: Okay. And so now the sheriff , because recent reporting from a news source confirmed that the sheriff is , in fact , disregarding the county's restrictions on Ice assistance. You know , the county policy requires a judicial warrant to be present before an inmate with a serious criminal background can be transferred into Ice custody.
S2: Um , these , uh , Ice agents are in our community. And it's really unfortunate , because we know that the role of law enforcement should be to keep us safe. And ice is now , um , actually making us all feel incredibly unsafe and under threat. I think it absolutely reinforces the core principle that , um , you know , we we cannot be just handing people over to Ice without a judicial warrant. I think that's the right. That's right. And unfortunately , ICE's actions in the last few months has , has made that abundantly clear. So , um , you know , I , I would say that the to the extent that we are able to begin to try to get on the same page here in San Diego , um , on that policy , I think that would be a step in the right direction. Uh , we're not there right now. Um , the board has made our position quite clear that you need to have a judicial warrant before handing someone over to Ice. So there's there's absolutely work to be done on that front. And , you know , I think for me , this really uplifts , um , you know , something I've really been thinking a lot about is the the fact that this is this is all happening in plain sight. You know , people with mobile phones , um , you know , American citizens walking down the street or filming or photographing are able to witness the brutality and the lawlessness and the unconstitutional overreach of ice in our streets and in across the state of Minnesota. You know what is happening behind closed doors and out of sight in these detention centers where there are no cameras and there are no monitor , there is no monitoring. And they , you know , continue to refuse to allow the congressional delegation to exercise its rights of oversight. So it is it is very , very , very scary. Um , and it makes me also really focused on , you know , the fact that we need to do everything we can as a county to exercise our , um , California constitutionally mandated powers to ensure health and safety in our jurisdiction and inspect the Otay Mesa facility. Right.
S1: Right. Tell me more about that facility and your concerns about conditions there.
S2: And the. You know , a couple weeks ago , we had reports of deaths. I think it was three deaths in a detention facility in Texas. We know that historically , there's been , um , consistent reports of pregnant women being denied access to medical care in the Otay Mesa detention facility. So I'm very concerned , particularly given the huge influx of new inmates and all the individuals that have been swept up in Ice activities. Um , how the Mesa facility is handling this massive increase in individuals that are now incarcerated. And , you know , how are they going to be able to to handle that ? So we have , as I said , directed our public health officer to notify Ice that we will be conducting an inspection. Um , we will be the first county in the state of California to to exercise this legal authority. So we definitely imagine a pushback from Ice , um , and a refusal from the federal government and the federal administration. But this this is our job is to ensure our health and safety , just like we inspect restaurants. You know , those a through through F ratings that you get , you know , we make we inspect grocery stores to make sure the weights and measures are working. That's what the county does. So we are going to be working very hard to get into that Otay Mesa facility. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. Well listen before we go. You know , recently it was a little more than a handful of six protesters were arrested in San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria's office on Friday. We've seen multiple protests , though , happening in our county. More are planned.
S2: Um , for , you know , nearly six months now , I've been working on organizing a weekly protest at the federal building every Thursday. So that's something I've been working on and sponsoring , along with dozens of other organizations across San Diego , to give people a place to gather where they're every Thursday. Um , from about ten to noon or so. Um , so this is the moment and I think , you know , people should should be in the streets , you should get trained , you should learn how to use your camera and learn how to be a witness , because we would not know what has happened in Minnesota , we would not all be angry and sad and outraged and terrified and know that we are in the midst of a genuine constitutional crisis. If it was not for the brave , brave people who are putting their bodies on the line and showing up with cameras to to film , and so that we we have a witness. We have millions of witnesses. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. I've been speaking with San Diego County Board of Supervisors chair Tara Lawson. Remer. Supervisor Lawson Reimer , thank you so very much I appreciate you.
S2: Thank you.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
