SACRAMENTO, CA – The Chair and Vice Chair of the California Legislative Bay Area Caucus, Senator Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) released the following statement:
“We wholeheartedly condemn the federal administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles and throughout the country. We represent thousands of immigrants that contribute to our economy and make up the fabric of our communities. Over 30% of Bay Area residents are immigrants—families fleeing violence, building new lives, and contributing every day to the success of our state.
The federal government has deployed ICE agents and even Marines—not to protect, but to intimidate. Peaceful protesters, immigrant families, and entire communities are being targeted in a campaign rooted not in national security, but in fear, control, and scapegoating. ICE raids are being carried out across California—in homes, hospitals, schools, courtrooms, farms and even churches. Individuals are being detained in public spaces based solely on perceived ethnicity or racial profiling. Men, women, and children are being rounded up without due process. They are targeting farmworkers, seamstresses, hotel workers, day laborers, and people who are going through the legal immigration system at court.
This is cruel, it is cowardly, and it is fundamentally un-American. We will not allow them to be vilified, terrorized, or erased.
The United States Senator from California, Alex Padilla, was even assaulted, thrown to the ground, and handcuffed for simply trying to ask questions to the Secretary of Homeland Security about the treatment of detained immigrants.
Let us be clear: this is not law enforcement. This is authoritarianism. The California Legislature collectively warned last year that this could happen with its unanimous approval of The Mexican Repatriation Memorial Act, which calls for expanded education about the Mexican Repatriation of the 1930s, when over two million Mexicans and Mexican Americans were forcibly deported to "make room" for so-called "real Americans.
We are seeing chilling echoes of that dark chapter now. Local law enforcement is fully capable of ensuring public safety without military intervention. California will not be a pawn in a federal campaign of fear and force. We stand united—from the Bay to LA—in our outrage, our resistance, and our unshakable commitment to justice and human dignity.
Our Caucus will keep fighting to protect our communities, defend our values, and push back against this authoritarian regime."