S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. Today , Representative Juan Vargas talks about how Congress is responding to recent Ice raids. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Last night , California Governor Gavin Newsom gave an impassioned speech in response to recent Ice raids in the state , as well as the Trump administration's decision to send National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.
S2: If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin color , then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves , but they do not stop there.
S1: I'm joined now by San Diego Congressman Juan Vargas. He's a Democrat representing parts of San Diego and much of the South Bay. Congressman Vargas , welcome.
S3: Thank you.
S1: Okay , so at the heart of what we are seeing here over the last few weeks seems to be a battle over the limits of presidential power.
S3: Obviously , we're not in charge. We didn't win this last election , but all of us are pushing hard , trying to get investigations , trying to get the courts involved. Because truly there's a there's huge overstep right now by the president. Obviously there's three branches of government. He thinks there's only one. And what he's done up to now is scandalous. It literally is scandalous. It's never happened before in this way. And so again , he thinks he's some sort of king. I don't know , but he's way overstepped the boundaries of his job as the president , and instead he's trying to take the jobs of both being the president , being the Congress , and frankly , trying to be also the judge.
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S3: I mean , I think , well , obviously the guy's a criminal to begin with. We already know that. And some of these things that he has done , I think are certainly impeachable. Will he be impeached ? No. To impeach somebody , you need to have a majority here of people willing to do that. And that means your party has to be in the majority. So will it happen , though , if we try to do it ? What will it be ? Probably a distraction. So I don't think anyone's going to bring it up. But we may I don't know. But but is it impeachable ? Of course it is. Absolutely. Way overstepped the boundaries of what he should be doing.
S1: Well , last week , you and some of your congressional colleagues called for an investigation into the recent raid at Buena Vista Restaurant in San Diego's South Park neighborhood. Tell us more about this investigation and what questions you're looking to get answered.
S3: Well , we need we need answers because so far we've gotten very little. I have read the warrant. It's information. Interestingly , that was old. Most of the information on the warrant was from five years ago. And that's why I think , frankly , when they went in there looking for 19 people , they only found four is because the information has been very old. So how can you rely on a warrant that is that old ? The information is that old. That's one. And secondly , it was so broad , the court should not sign off on something like this where it says , go in and arrest everybody , no matter who they are. If they work there , arrest them and then we'll find out , you know , who's undocumented , who's not. That's a huge violation of the Constitution. Article four unreasonable searches and seizures right there. That's very unreasonable. The first thing is the seizure of your person. That's the first part of the , um , the Fourth Amendment. And obviously this this was a huge mistake on the part of the court for signing off on it. And they should not have.
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S3: Again , we're not in charge , to be frank. I mean , right now you have the Republicans who are a bunch of boot lickers. They know that what the president's doing is wrong. They know that they see also not only in this , I mean in the crypto and everything else , how corrupt he is once in his administration is over. You're going to find historians say that it was an incredible time. It was the most corrupt time in American history for a president. The things that he did. My colleagues know this on the Republican side , but they're afraid of him , and that's why they won't speak up. They say , you know , and they and then they're right about this. They said , you know , the people that spoke up , you know , the Liz Cheney's the Adam Kinzinger , they all lose their elections and we don't want to lose our election. Well , you know , they're actually right about that. But at least have some courage. Stand up , tell the truth. But they don't want to do that because , again , they're afraid of their base , which is no longer a base. It's really a mob , which is sad. It's not the old GOP that I remember , one that , you know , believed in values and rights and all this.
S1: Are you saying are you saying that you and your Democratic colleagues have been rendered ineffective at this point.
S3: Not ineffective. But let's be frank. When you're not in charge , you're not in charge , right ? I mean , it's not ineffective. You're just not in charge. There's things that we can do , and we'll try to leverage everything we can. But we're not in charge. We didn't win. We didn't win. Maybe we said , well , why don't you pass these laws ? We didn't win. That's why. Why don't Republicans pass laws when we're in charge because they didn't win. That's the way it works in politics , and we follow the rules. You know , that's one of the things about Democrats. They said , well , why don't you guys do like the Republicans ? What do you want us to do ? Attack the Capitol. Is that what you guys want to do ? We're not going to do crap like that. We're Democrats , you know. We try to follow the law. We don't try to do things that are illegal. So we'll do something. What would you like us to tackle them ? Beat them up like they did our poor police officers here. We don't do stuff like that.
S1: Meanwhile , this weekend , the president is holding a large military parade in Washington , D.C. , and protests are also planned across the country there. Here is what the president had to say about the possibility of protests.
S4: And we're going to be celebrating big on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of and if there's any protest that wants to come out , they will be met with very big force. By the way , for those people that want to protest , they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest. But , you know , this is people that hate our country , but they will be met with very heavy force.
S1: Free speech. Being able to protest it is a First Amendment right.
S3: That's how I react. I mean , people can protest. That's your right. That's a First Amendment right. I mean , he really does think he's the king. He thinks that he can prevent people from doing things that they have the right to do. You know , I get people protesting me all the time. You know , I'm a I'm a , you know , Democrat and I'm a liberal , so people don't like that. I get death threats , I get protest. Now , the death threats , that's not the right to threaten me , to kill me. But it is their right to protest and to say , you know , I don't like you because you don't believe in women's rights and LGBTQ rights and immigrants rights. Well , okay. I mean , that's your right to do it. I don't I don't think you're right either. But you know what ? You can say that all day long. It's your right to do it. The president doesn't understand that. He thinks he's the king and he's going to use force and they're going to be tough. Well , there's rules. There's laws. You can protest as long as it's peaceful. You have every right to do that.
S1: We are certainly in changing times. I've been speaking with San Diego Congressman Juan Vargas. Congressman Vargas , thank you so much for taking the time today.
S3: 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.
