SGV Connect 139 Transcript: Chris Greenspon Interviews Asm. Mike Fong

Chris Greenspon (Chris) : We're here at The Field Office of 49th District Assemblymember for the state of California, Mike Fong. We're getting an update from the Assemblymember about the ongoing impacts of ICE raids and other immigration raids in the San Gabriel Valley, particularly in his corner here on the west side. So, Assemblymember, what's the state of affairs in your district?

Assemblymember Mike Fong (Fong) : Thank you so much, Chris. 

Thanks to you and Streetsblog LA for the opportunity to join you here today. 

The state of the San Gabriel Valley and the West San Gabriel Valley -- proud to represent the 49th Assembly District, representing a tremendous immigrant community -- it's been a challenging time the past few months. With a number of immigration raids throughout the West San Gabriel Valley, throughout Southern California, throughout Los Angeles, obviously, it's been a time where there's been trauma and fear inflicted upon the communities.

In these trying times, I’m grateful for many groups for stepping up to uplift our diverse immigrant communities, to really uplift them in these very challenging times. We know that immigration enforcement has happened in a number of locations in my district. We had a site prep at the Target in Alhambra. We know that there was an incident in Rosemead, near a Chipotle off of Rosemead Boulevard. 

There's been a number of rapid response networks as well to continue to uplift and to protect our communities from these challenging raids. We know that it's been an impact felt across LA County and across the 49th District, and it's something as an office that we can do to continue to uplift our diverse immigrant communities. 

I was also proud to participate in a Know Your Rights webinar with Advancing Justice Southern California, to really make sure that we're uplifting our diverse immigrant communities. Want to make sure we get the language information and language into Chinese, into Spanish, into many different languages, so that folks know what their rights are, to really make sure that we are informing communities in these challenging times. 

With these raids happening in workplaces and restaurants, outside Home Depots and bus stops, it's a very challenging time, and it's instilling fear. We know that in conversations with the Chinatown Service Center, a number of organizations, we've seen a number of people who have not been going to their healthcare appointments. We just participated with the LA Regional Food Bank on a tour and heard from them that they're not really seeing as many folks come out sometimes, or people are staying at home and sheltering in place to protect themselves and their families. 

At this time in the 49th District, we're gonna continue to uplift our diverse immigrant communities here, very diverse Asian, Pacific Islander immigrant communities as well as Latino communities, diverse Latino communities, here in the San Gabriel Valley as well. So we're gonna do everything possible to continue to protect and help lift our diverse immigrant populations in the San Gabriel Valley.

Chris - Are there any particular stories that people have come to your office with that have stuck with you, hit you right in the heart?

Fong - There’s a number of stories of folks who've been impacted by these raids. 

We know that at the raid in Rosemead, a gentleman came out with a rifle and pointed at one of the bystanders there to really address what they're doing, and it was just traumatic, and it's uncalled for. We need to do everything possible to make sure we're protecting our residents from individuals that might not be identifying themselves, and to make sure that we are having law enforcement present their IDs to make sure that they identify themselves. 

This has been an uphill battle. There's been a lot of fear in our communities, but this is something that we're going to continue to push as a legislature. We had a special session earlier part of this year to allocate nearly $50 million to provide the Attorney General and the Department of Justice…those additional resources to fight back some of these executive actions that are coming from the administration to really make sure that we're empowering our Department of Justice and empowering our attorney general to file these lawsuits, to make sure that we're protecting and our immigrant communities, but also pushing back against a number of the executive actions that have been coming down the pipeline. 

I've also introduced Assembly Bill 695, which is a bill that would allow students who are undocumented to continue their education remotely if they happen to be deported, and that would be supporting our community college students as well. These are some of the actions we're going to take, and we're going to continue to take, to really make sure we get information out there in language. 

We have also been participating in Know Your Rights webinars as well. Also participated in a recent training in the City of San Gabriel, not with the City of San Gabriel, but with a nonprofit…with a group there to really look at how we train folks, to train others, to know your rights as well. These are some things that are happening, but we know we need to continue to uplift our communities in these challenging times.

Chris - So your colleagues, Sasha Rene Perez and Scott Weiner have put forth legislation, anti-vigilante bills and no-masks police bills regarding identification of law enforcement. Do you get the sense that those are picking up steam to move forward in the state legislature?

Fong - Thank you so much. I'm grateful to my colleagues, Senators Perez and Weiner, for introducing these bills. 

Senate Bill 895 the No Vigilantes Act to require all law enforcement to show identification, to wear identification, and Senate Bill 627, the No Secret Police act to prohibit masks on law enforcement. 

There was a big, robust public hearing in the assembly Public Safety Committee a couple of weeks ago, and I was monitoring the hearing. I was outside the committee hearing room and you can sense the energy. 

Obviously, there's folks on both sides of the issue there, and we know that a lot of times local law enforcement, they're not participating in these, coordinating in these federal immigration rates. But they might be caught up in terms of the or the public is not knowing who to trust. 

And so this is a critical time that we need to look at supporting SB 805 and SB 627. And this is part of the legislative package that the Chair of the API Legislative Caucus, our API Legislative Caucus, along with our Latino caucus, has prioritized six bills, and these are two of the bills that are part of that bill package to make sure we can do everything possible to protect our immigrant communities. 

And so I believe that these bills are out of Public Safety Committee and they say they would be coming to the floor soon, but I believe there's a lot of energy and conversations happening as well. 

We want to make sure we continue to protect and uplift the good work that our local law enforcement and state law enforcement and folks are doing, but we want to make sure there's no secret police here in California.

Chris -  I want to go back briefly to what we were talking about before. As we're mostly seeing the faces of the people who are being taken, they're tending to largely be Latino. But are you seeing any fear and or cases of Asian community members being taken in your district? At least, we know that it's happening throughout the state, and I would assume the country. But is there anything that you guys have heard from your stakeholders?

Fong - Absolutely. Thank you for that question. 

While a high number of people who have been apprehended have been Latino, we know that there's been a number of Asian, Pacific Islander Americans also apprehended as well.

I myself have participated in a number of events and press conferences in allyship and solidarity with the Latino community and latino caucus at the state level and Sacramento. Here in Los Angeles, we did a joint press conference with CHIRLA and other community leaders a few weeks ago in Little Tokyo to show that allyship, but also know that there's been reports of a number of Asian Americans also being picked up as well. 

And so these are critical times that we need to make sure that we're getting information out there to all immigrant communities that they know what their rights are. They know how to respond. They know what information they need and not need to share, but also to make sure that folks feel empowered and that they know how to respond in these challenging times,

Chris - How are people coping? How are you seeing people deal with the pain of missing loved ones, or the worry that these things could happen to their own family or people they know, their neighbors?

Fong -  In these times of fear and trauma and the pain that's been inflicted upon many families, not knowing where their loved ones are, or knowing that they're been in detention without the medications that they need…we know that families belong together. 

In these trying times, methods of opportunities to cope are getting out there, showing solidarity, joining a protest, a peaceful protest. I was personally at the rallies in downtown LA and South Pasadena and other ones across the region, but we know that we could continue to uplift our voices together, to uplift our communities together in these challenging times. 

And so I think with hope and hopeful optimism, in working with our community organizations, to working with our community leaders; I've been inspired by a number of folks who have stepped up. 

I recently was at a food distribution here in Alhambra where a gentleman put together 50 food packets and distributed those to immigrants who are sheltering in place. And so, we had folks come by to pick up these food items and distribute them to families in the neighborhood who may not be leaving their homes in these challenging times. 

We were delivering milk, eggs, chicken, and corn, so these necessary food items to get them out to folks who might not be going out there to shop. We know that in the last few months, especially when you're driving out around the San Gabriel Valley and other areas, the streets seem to be a little bit more quiet. There's just not as much street activity folks going out there. 

So, we need to meet people where they are and be responsive to those needs. So I encourage folks who are willing to step up and volunteer to help out. There are organizations that are trying to meet those needs during these very challenging times. I'm grateful and hopeful for those opportunities.

Chris - In terms of your legislative goals, what are your hopeful collective goals for your fellow elected officials, but also for community members in the year ahead?

Fong - Absolutely so. I'm grateful to my colleagues again for introducing those pieces of legislation on public safety. You mentioned the bills by Senator Perez and Senator Wiener earlier, but also the bills that I've introduced Assembly Bill 695, to uplift our undocumented students who happen to be deported that they continue education remotely, so that when they do go through as many of them are in the process of obtaining naturalization or going through the legal immigration process, that they're able to come back and continue their education to continue contributing to California's economy. 

Also, working on programs to expand dual enrollment programs, which are opportunities for high school students to take community college classes. I'm also working on bills around student housing to increase opportunities for affordable student housing to be developed around our community college, our California State University and our University of California campuses. 

I'm going to continue to uplift legislation to expand college access, college affordability student housing, but other issues around public safety as well, but also looking at opportunities to create a statewide coordinating body for K-12 education, because then we know that there's a lot of disjointed silos, folks not working together. How do we as a state of California continue to work in efforts to embrace the hopes and aspirations of our students going through our higher education system and our K-12 systems here in California? Those are some of the priorities I'll be focused on in the months and years ahead. 

Chris -  All right, assemblymember. Thanks for joining us on SGV Connect. It was a pleasure meeting you. 

Fong -  Great meeting as well. Chris. Thank you so much, and I appreciate the opportunity to join you here today.