Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticized federal immigration enforcement efforts targeting illegal immigrants in the city, warning that residents will begin to notice the absence of immigrant labor in daily life when there are fewer nannies and gardeners.
Bass made the comments Tuesday in an interview with journalist Katie Couric, expressing concern that deportation operations could create labor shortages.
“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.”
The Los Angeles Mayor appeared to admit that illegal immigrants are used as a form of low-cost labor, particularly for wealthy residents who rely on them for domestic labor.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
She also recalled a conversation with a resident who said their local grocery store was understocked because “there was nobody to stock” the shelves. Bass warned that immigration enforcement is causing fear among illegal immigrants and their families, saying, “[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.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security defended the ongoing operations. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a Wednesday statement, “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.”
