Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass mentioned to Katie Couric on Tuesday that individuals will start to feel the effect of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations when there is “nobody to do childcare” or care for their gardens.
Following riots in her city last week, Bass has primarily accused President Donald Trump of inciting the unrest through immigration enforcement operations aimed at arresting illegal immigrants. She asserted that these actions triggered the anti-ICE protests that led to violent confrontations and vandalism.
During her conversation with Couric on the reporter’s YouTube channel, Bass expressed her primary concern is about the impact on illegal immigrants who are being arrested or are too fearful to go to work.
“My biggest fear is the impact that all Angelenos will begin to feel when the labor of immigrants is absent,” Bass said. “We’ll feel it in the construction industry. We’ll feel it in hospitality. We’ll feel it at grocery stores. People will begin to notice.”
She continued, “You think about the mothers who have nannies and housekeepers. They will feel it when there’s nobody to do childcare and there’s nobody to take their kids to school. You know, you will feel it when your gardener goes away, and you don’t know where he or she is. So Angelenos will feel the absence of immigrant labor.”
Bass claimed to have spoken to someone who said their local grocery store had empty shelves because “there was nobody to stock” them. She added the raids cause unnecessary “trauma” for families with parents unwilling to go to work or send their kids to school out of fear.
“[T]o have parents who are not sure they could go to work, or to be fearful of letting their kids go to school, it disrupts families. It creates unbelievable pressure and tension. You can imagine the mental health impacts on the children, especially the children that are old enough to remember the last Trump administration or were old enough to remember COVID,” Bass said.
Despite Bass’ condemnation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has signaled that it plans to continue arrests of criminal illegal immigrants.
“Secretary Noem has a message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law and arrest criminal illegal aliens,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Wednesday.
