Donald Trump. / Reuters

U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) recently made headlines after being forcibly thrown to the floor by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Los Angeles despite identifying himself as a Senator. Speaking with the media at the American Community Media (ACoM), the Senator shared his concern about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and the additional funding for DHS. It makes Trump’s deportation agenda not just rhetoric, but fully financed policy.

“The only area of the budget that saw true investments was the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, said the Senator. 

The OBBBA channels $170 billion directly into deportation, detention, border security, and the political and legal infrastructure for mass removal of migrants. 

Under this Act ICE’s budget jumps from $10 B to over $100 B by 2029, making it the single most-funded federal law enforcement body.  

“With a trillion dollars being cut from Medicaid, kicking 17 million Americans off of their healthcare and rolling back the historic progress that we made on the clean energy transition, this bill also adds an additional $170 billion to the budget for Trump's mass deportation agenda. A ramp up in their campaign of terror like the one we saw in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles,” said the Senator.

Bad policy that is unpopular with Americans

“They are setting the stage for not just a continuation but an escalation of the cruelty of these mass detention and deportation actions, which we know are both bad policy and unpopular with the American public.”

A CNN/SSRS poll showed that 55 percent of Americans think that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids are going too far. A new CBS News/YouGov poll also found 52 percent of Americans say that the administration is trying to deport more people than they expected. A majority in both polls—57 percent in the CNN poll, 58 percent in the CBS News poll—said they opposed how the Trump administration was using massive detention facilities for migrants, while 53 percent of people told CNN they didn’t want ICE’s budget to increase. 

Be Visible. Identify yourself

The Senator introduced the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement Act that requires immigration officers to display identification and bans non-medical face coverings during enforcement. We have, in Shasta County, unofficial citizen militias and even sheriffs who have indicated that they would work with ICE if asked, reported a media person. 

“Given that ICE doesn't identify themselves or follow basic protocol or legal conventions, we lawmakers discussed the role that vigilantes, either sheriffs or individual people might play in abductions!” agreed the Senator. 

What can the people do?

He urged people to follow up with the authorities about missing people. They can ask questions and make formal inquiries for information and for data from different departments and agencies, especially Homeland Security.

“We continue to inquire about who's in custody and where. It's not always immediate, but that helps us locate somebody sooner rather than later.”

Ultimate political pushback will be at the ballot box

“If we are able to change the makeup of Congress next year, if we can get a Democratic majority in the House or the Senate, or both then we will be able to make the future fiscal year budgets very, very different from what the current Republican majority and Donald Trump have agreed on,” Senator said. 

Until then Democrats can engage informally in "shadow hearings" and publicly question individuals and issues. A group of Democratic senators, picks a theme or topic, brings in experts to testify and answer questions. They're not the formal official committee oversight hearing, because Republicans don't want to engage in that.”

“That's been part of the challenge this year is not just what Donald Trump is doing or not doing, it's not just his cabinet and other parts of the administration, but it's the lack of Republicans in Congress doing their job as a separate and co-equal branch of government to hold this administration accountable. 

“While we are doing everything we can right now, we're also working to try to impact the midterm elections to change that dynamic.”