Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. We have been talking with Congresswoman Nicole Malia Takis about the issue of immigration specific to border enforcement for years now, and now we're getting to this place in time where it's very interesting to hear from members of both sides of the aisle when it comes to enforcement in cities like Minneapolis. She's representing, of course, New York's eleventh district. Congresswoman, it's great to have you back on Bloomberg.
Good to see you, good to be with you.
Thank you.
So let's go through a couple of these things. We'll run through these lists, this list of demands. How do you interpret the president's remarks because it hasn't necessarily signaled a change in policy, is it a change in approach on any level for you?
Look, I think I think the president the administration recognizes that the tactics that Ice was using has not has not been popular, have not been popular, regardless of where you sit on the spectrum. I think people who want it to see strong border enforcement. We achieved that. Right there's no more border crossings. People are not being released in the country, the border has been secured. Municipalities like mine who had migrant gangs and drug traffickers and criminals
wreaking havoc that has been cleaned up. Those individuals are being deported, but I think when they see the aggression of ICE, there is a concern there. And now ICE ICE has really no choice but to go in the municipalities and find these perpetrators. Why, because these local municipalities are not cooperating. New York City's not cooperating, Minneapolis not cooperating. We used to be able to have ICE and Rikers Island and they would take the criminals directly from there
upon release from jail and go into federal custody. Bill de Blasio unfortunately changed that. This mayor wants to continue having that policy of no cooperation, and so ICE has no choice but to go into these cities and find these individuals, which makes it less safe for the officers,
for the community, or the immigrants. But I should remind people when they were in Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago and this happened, they were arresting two murderers who had detained orders of removal going back to twenty thirteen and twenty fifteen. A guy with twenty four criminal convictions, a guy was convicted of sodomizing.
A twelve year old girl.
So these are real criminals that are going after and unfortunately, when they don't get cooperation, it makes it less safe for everyone.
So what do you think of the contours of this debate. We've been spending time this week with a number of Republican Senators John Corden and Ted Cruz, Ted Budd largely opposed to what Democrats are offering, specifically when it comes to d masking.
That seems to be a real flashpoint here.
And I know that there are worries about officers being targeted, being docked, and so forth.
But when you look at this list, this is a lot.
More lengthy and a lot more detailed than I think a lot of Republicans saw coming.
We've been dealing with kind of four.
Buckets, masks, bodycams, warrants, and this goes a lot further when we talk about targeted enforcement. DHS cannot enter a private property without a judicial warrant, no masks, require ID, protect sensitive locations, stop racial profiling, uphold use of force standards. Are these controversial or could they end up in a piece of legislation.
I think a lot of them actually will hinder their ability to do their job, which is to actually get these individuals aside from the body cameras body cameras. I know a lot of Republicans are against them. I do support it, and I support it why because it tells the whole story. And we have them an NYPD, And I was a skeptic of them in the very beginning when this became a law on the state level, and I was a state legislator at the time. But the
unions even support them, and the officers support them. And why because it tells the full story. And that's important, right because most of the time, if not all the time, these officers are actually following the book. They're following the training manual how they're supposed to perform in certain situations. And if the camera tells the full story, it helps clear their names and can really put a lot to rest.
And so I think that that is one where I would disagree with some of the folks in my party, but some of the others. A judicial warrant is an issue simply because the time it's going to take to get a court order is going to be really hindering the operations. I mean, if you have a murderer, you know that you're trying to get or any type of convicted criminal who should not be in this country to have to go to court and get into war and do all these things I think could be a real
complication and hinder the operations the masks. You know, if these municipalities cooperated, we wouldn't have these raids where the agitators are are disrupting, and that could be avoided if there was just some more cooperation with these these sanctuary cities. So I think there's Look, I think there's going to be some type of compromise. There needs to be because you need those sixty votes in the Senate, and it's going to have to be a little bit of a
give and take. And I think that there's some common ground, maybe not necessarily with the enforcement, some stuff with the enforcement, but I would say, what about just regular immigration policy. I've been pushing the administration to approve the backlog of renewals for work authorization. This is a big issue, not just in my district, across the country. Employers who rely on these people for employees, they're filling an economic need,
They're contributing to our society. They don't have any work in criminal history, they're paying taxes, they're losing their status because of the lag and the time that it's taking to approve these work authorization renewals. They lose their job as a result, and the employer loses a good worker. So if we can just make some progress in some of that stuff, it shows compassion from the administration. It helps our economy, and it helps these people who are here trying to find a better lives.
Is a big deal for our audience as an issue.
Do you think we can avoid a shutdown next Friday? Does there need to be another cr before we move on to some other issues.
So there won't be a shutdown?
It's just the Home Security.
Yeah, Look, I hope not. I mean, I hope the Democrats recognize here that when they mess with the Department of Homeland Security, it's not just ICE. In fact, ICE has the resources from kind of the irony. Yeah, ICE has the resources. You're shutting down the TSA airport screening and flight security. You're shutting down counter terrorism, cybersecurity programs and coast Guard. You know, these are important operations that need you know, don't mess with our homeland security and
especially these legislative leaders. They're from New York. Schumer and Jeffrey should know better than to try to play politics with homeland security. So I do hope that there's some compromise here, we get to a resolution so there won't be a lapse in funding for all those other critical agencies under Department of Homeland Security.
FEMA is in that group, that's right.
I was shocked to see seventeen people have died in New York from freezing cold weather, and this has been one heck of a winter. Congresswoman, another cold front is coming this weekend. Though.
Is Mayor Mombani on top.
Of this, I hope he's, you know, it seems like he's doing some on the job training. I hope he's paying attention to how this first storm went, what happened there. That change in policy to not remove people who are homeless from the streets in these frigid weathers was obviously a deadly mistake. Mayors in the past have always proactively sought shelter for those individuals, and there's no reason why
we shouldn't be able to do that. Remember, we had all these migrants in luxury hotel rooms at taxpayer expense. There's no reason why you can't help these individuals. And a lot of them are mentally ill. They don't know, they can't make a decision for themselves in some cases to seek shelter, and so I think the mayor made a big mistake there, and not to mention the disaster that we're seeing in terms of garbage piling up all over the streets of New York City. That's not common.
You know, that's not common. You know, maybe some of his advocates are saying, well, it's a snowstorm, that's what happens. No, no, no, he needs to put resources back into the basic services that people deserve. He's cutting over time for our public safety officers. He's not putting the resources necessary to get the streets cleaned in a timely manner. And I think I hope he's learning for this, learning from this, and adjusting as we go along.
Well, in our remaining moment here, I had to note that he has now endorsed Kathy Hockel's reelection campaign with the Adrian Adams. What does Bruce Blakeman need to do to be the first Republican in about two decades to win that seat?
I think Bruce needs to remind everyone the radical positions that these two individuals have taken. Not only did they support the bail law that was disastrous and led to crime skyrocketing, but Adrian Adams in particular, I mean she voted for she was a co sponsor of non citizen voting, which is a law that we went to court and we stopped from taking effect, thankfully. But she also voted to defund the NYPD by a billion dollars, tie the hands of our NYPD officers, voted to increase the property
tax levy year after year. So I would say that but these are radical positions that are hurting the cost of living and making it much less affordable in New York City to live, particularly for our middle class. And they've made us less safe. Now we've seen some crime come down, it's a result of President Trump. People need to recognize that he's deported criminals, He's put pressure on these municipalities. That's why New York City is safer today than it was just a little over a year ago.
I know your new congressional map is due tomorrow.
Come back and talk to us next time about what's going to happen with your district.
We hope to keep our map as is, because this is a grab by the Democrats who try to take the only Republican voice in New York City.
Nicole Malia Takis from New York