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Los Angeles Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Archbishop Gomez starts to stand up for L.A. right when the city needs him
For years in this columna, I have repeatedly posed a simple challenge to Archbishop José H. Gomez: Stand up for Los Angeles, because L.A. needs you. The head of the largest Catholic diocese in the United States has largely stood athwart the liberal city he's supposed to minister since he assumed his seat in 2011 but especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. He has railed against 'woke' culture and refused to meet with progressive Catholic groups. When the Dodgers in 2023 honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag troupe that wears nun's habits while raising funds for the marginalized, he led a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels that amounted to a public exorcism. Most perplexingly, the Mexico-born archbishop stayed largely quiet as the Herod that's Donald Trump promised to clamp down on legal immigration and deport people without legal status during his 2024 presidential run. As head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the end of last decade, Gomez wrote and spoke movingly about the need to treat all immigrants with dignity and fix this country's broken system once and for all. But his gradual turn to the right as archbishop has gone so far that the National Catholic Reporter, where I'm an occasional contributor, labeled him a 'failed culture warrior' when they anointed him their Newsmaker for that year. Gomez's devolution was especially dispiriting because L.A. Catholic leaders have taught their American peers how to embrace Latino immigrants ever since Archbishop John Cantwell helped refugees from Mexico's Cristero War resettle in the city in the 1920s. Clerical legends like Luis Olivares and Richard Estrada transformed La Placita Church near Olvera Street into a sanctuary for Central American immigrants during the 1980s and 1990s in the face of threats from the feds. Gomez's predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, long drew national attention for attacking anti-immigrant legislation during his sermons and marching alongside immigrant rights protesters, a cross to bear that Gomez never warmed up to. So when L.A. began to push back against Donald Trump's immigration raids earlier this month only to see an onerous federal crackdown, I expected Gomez to do little even as L.A.-area priests bore witness to what was happening. Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries appeared in a viral video proclaiming the righteous, if well-worn, message that no human being is illegal, but also that 'we stand with anybody who's demonized or left out, or excluded, or seen as disposable … it's kinda how we roll here.' His fellow Jesuit, Dolores Mission pastor Brendan Busse, was there with activists during a June 9 migra raid at a factory in the Garment District that saw SEIU California president David Huerta arrested for civil disobedience. I especially admired Father Peter O'Reilly, who was a priest in the L.A. Archdiocese for 44 years before retiring in 2005. The 90-year-old cleric was at Gloria Molina Grand Park on June 8, the day protesters torched Waymo cars, just blocks away from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. O'Reilly told a television station in his native Ireland afterward that it was important for him be there to let immigrants know 'we were with them and for them.' Gomez? The archbishop put out a weak-salsa statement around that time about how he was 'troubled' by the raids. His Instagram account urged people a few days later to light a candle and pray for peace. That same day, Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann and his auxiliary bishops posted a letter condemning the raids, which they maintained 'invoke our worst instincts' and 'spread crippling fear and anxieties upon the hard-working, everyday faithful among us.' You know things are upside-down in this world when O.C. is more down for immigrant rights than L.A. I wanted to blast Gomez last week but held back, praying that he might change for the better. So I'm happy to report he's starting to. On June 10, the same day he posted his Instagram call for prayer, the archbishop also attended an evening interfaith vigil along with Boyle, Busse and other faith leaders to tell a crowd of over 1,000 people, 'Immigration is about more than politics — it is about us, the kind of people we want to be.' Gomez asked all parishes in the L.A. Archdiocese the following day to hold special Masses with L.A.'s current immigration troubles in mind. He led the lunchtime one in the cathedral, telling parishioners during his homily, 'We want to go out and console our neighbors and strengthen their hearts and encourage them to keep the faith.' Gomez saved his most stinging remarks for this Tuesday in his regular column for Angelus News, the archdiocese's publication. While not able to resist a shot at the Biden administration, the soft-spoken prelate nevertheless said of Trump's raids: 'This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes.' Accompanying his thoughts was a photo of a young woman holding a sign that read, 'Jesus was an Immigrant' in front of California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear. 'For him to show up was meaningful,' Busse said. Since Trump's inauguration, Dolores Mission has hosted training for the rapid response networks that have alerted people about immigration raids. 'But I hope there's more. The diocese has a huge capacity for organizing, and I hope that his leadership can move people in a large way.' Busse said the first instinct of too many religious leaders is 'to step back into a place of safety' when controversy emerges. 'But there's also an invitation to be brave and courageous. What we need to do is step into the situation to bring the peace that we're praying for.' Joseph Tómas McKellar is executive director of PICO California, a faith-based community organizing network that co-sponsored the interfaith vigil last week where Gomez spoke. The nonprofit used to teach citizenship and English classes in the L.A. Archdiocese and McKellar remembered Gomez attending a gathering of social justice groups in Modesto in 2017 as an active participant 'in these small group conversations.' The PICO California head said Gomez's recent reemergence from his years in the political wilderness 'was deeply encouraging. … Our bishops and the leaders of our denominations have a special responsibility to exercise prophetic leadership. The prophets are the ones who denounce what is broken in this world, but also announce a different vision. I do see him more embracing more that call and that challenge to reflect.' An archdiocese spokesperson said Gomez was unavailable for comment because he was at a retreat for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Earlier this week , the group released a reflection declaring, 'No one can turn a deaf ear to the palpable cries of anxiety and fear heard in communities throughout the country in the wake of a surge in immigration enforcement activities.' I have no expectations that Archbishop Gomez's politics will ever fully reflect L.A.'s progressive soul. He remains the only American bishop affiliated with the orthodox Opus Dei movement and sits on the ecclesiastical advisory board for the Napa Institute, an organization of rich Catholics that has labored mightily over the past decade to tilt the church rightward. Its co-founder, Orange County-based multimillionaire developer Tim Busch, wrote earlier this year with no irony that Trump's administration 'is the most Christian I've ever seen' and told The Times in 2023 that Gomez 'is one of my closest advisors.' But I'm glad Gomez is moving in the right direction, right when the city needs him the most. I continue to pray his voice gets bolder and stronger and that the region's millions of Catholics — and all Angelenos, for that matter — follow the archbishop's call to action to help immigrants while pushing him to do more. I hope Gomez keeps in his heart what Busse told me near the end of our chat: 'If the faith community doesn't stand up when there's a moral issue to stand up for, then I don't know what happens.'
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Un-American' or 'necessary'? Voters divided on Trump's LA protest crackdown
US President Donald Trump has sent thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of US Marines to Los Angeles as protests take place against the administration's ramped-up immigration enforcement. While the president's allies cheer him on, both the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles say Trump is overstepping his authority and stoking tensions. Everyday Americans are no less divided over the issue. But do they feel it is the president or the protesters who have gone too far? Here's what six voters had to say about the news. This Indiana man worries about the precedent Trump is setting by sending the National Guard into Los Angeles. I've seen some different takes on the legality of it, but it feels to me like the federal government is being very, very heavy-handed on this, which is concerning to me since protest is a protected form of expression in this country. I'm concerned that this sets Americans against Americans, and specifically American military against American citizens. The Trump administration is going about [the ICE raids] in an interesting manner... While making unilateral raids like these, they're making a lot of mistakes and those mistakes are costing people their freedoms. [The Trump administration] is not admitting to their mistakes and they're not following due process. We have laws in this country for a reason. This Mexico-born Texas resident - a naturalised US citizen - supports the deployment of troops to put down "shameful" protests in California. It's a shame that people who have come to this country to set themselves up are doing this, the riots. I tend to think that many of the rioters are people with criminal histories. Violent protesters. People that want to be here to create a future and have a family in this generous country would not be doing that. Many are even waving Mexican flags. That's so shameful. I respect the president in so many ways. He is a guy who knows how to get things done. He's the law-and-order president. What was he supposed to do? Let them burn trash? Let them destroy Los Angeles?When I saw they called on the National Guard, I just started crying because he's weaponising everything he possibly can. There's no free speech, there's no dissent - it's Hitler's playbook all over again. It's heartbreaking, really. I just feel for the people he's targeting. It's wrong, it's so un-American. It's so against what this country was founded for. I'm just shocked. I probably shouldn't be, but I just can't believe it's happening. I can't believe the military and the National Guard are supporting this. How protests erupted after rumours of immigration raid Analysis: This is a political fight Trump is eager to have This Indiana man wants the violence to stop, but also worries about what deploying the military in response to protests means for the future. This goes far beyond just protest, in my view. This is an attack on our sovereignty and our civil society. We can debate immigration policy, but violence and chaos should not be tolerated. [But Trump is] the one who's going to push the envelope to the legal limit, and if he can get by with more, he will, I think. That's one of my concerns about this whole thing. I'm not 100% on board with it, but at the same time, I think something has to be done. It's not getting taken care of. My trepidation is about precedent...I feel like everything we do, when we set new precedents, it will become new norms and not the exception. This Nebraska woman says she's likely to get involved with protests happening in her town because she's upset with what she sees Trump doing in LA. When watching clips, I saw some mostly peaceful protests. It seems like Trump is just mad that they're happening, rather than trying to prevent them from being violent. More and more, he's become a president who uses his power to enforce his will [rather] than the will of the people. I wonder to what extent is he going to keep doing this. It's extremely valid that people are protesting ICE, because in all honesty there is very little proof of due process for people who have been taken by ICE and wrongfully detained. A 29-year veteran of the US Army who retired as a colonel, this Texan - from the overwhelmingly Latino Rio Grande City on the border - believes that it is the protests that have gone too far. When state and local governments fail to support federal law - in this case deportation orders - the military deployment is necessary to protect lives, property and the movement of commerce. The protesters are blocking major highways, disrupting commerce, destroying and burning police cars, and interfering with police orders to disperse in certain areas. Everyone has the right to protest, but you don't have the right to make me or others listen to you. Creating violence so I can have your attention comes with consequences. Everything we know about the demonstrations Trump's deportation drive is perfect storm in city of immigrants LA's chaotic weekend of protests in maps and pictures
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CPS CEO Martinez nears exit after firing: How we got here
CHICAGO (WGN) — Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez returned to his high school alma mater for an 8th grade graduation ceremony on Tuesday, the same place where four years earlier Mayor Lori Lightfoot named him to the post. The Mexico-born immigrant will soon depart the district after a nearly four-year battle with current Mayor Brandon Johnson. Towards the end of Martinez's tenure, he and Johnson were at odds over money, with the mayor pushing for massive borrowing to shore up school finances. Martinez refused, prompting the mayor to call for his resignation. 'The experience of a lifetime': Ousted CPS CEO bids farewell in final Board of Education meeting Weeks after Martinez declined to step aside, the entire Chicago Board of Education resigned, giving Johnson an opportunity to appoint a new board before Chicagoans began choosing elected members at the ballot box. But before elected members took their seats, the Johnson-appointed board voted to fire Martinez. Martinez sued. 'The last time I even remember an affiliate agency where someone didn't leave easily was in 1986, when Harold Washington, after three years in office, was able to get rid of Ed Kelly as head of the park district,' political analyst Dick Simpson told WGN. 'It's probably been 40 or 50 years since we've had a similar situation.' In a goodbye letter to the CPS community, Martinez referenced taking over the district in 2021 when COVID 19 fears still lingered, saying he's proud of efforts to keep people healthy and the investments made thanks to federal relief dollars. Also in that letter, Martinez boasted that he's 'proud' of the decisions his administration made to change the way schools are funded, writing, 'I'm proud that the resources a CPS school receives no longer depends on its number of students.' But Martinez leaves having presented a budget for next school year that assumed $600 million in money that may or may not come to fruition. The Chicago Principals & Administrators Association called the budget 'magical.' But the structural issues are no longer Martinez's problem. A new job awaits him. Martinez is set to become Education Commissioner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The school board will soon name an interim CEO. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hindustan Times
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Carry passports': Retired LA professor warns Hispanic stepchildren after ICE raids
Peter Arenella, a retired professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has sounded alarm over the state of things in Los Angeles, where protests against Trump administration's immigration raids have taken a violent turn. Arenella is now based in Mexico with his Mexico-born wife Mia. His three adult stepchildren, however, are still in the United States. In a post shared on the social media platform X, the retired professor of law said he has urged his stepchildren to carry their passports with them at all times after one of them witnessed an ICE raid where people with 'brown skin' were taken into custody. While initially peaceful, the stand-off against the police took a violent turn over the next few days, with police officers firing tear gas and flash grenades at the crowd of protestors. Amid escalating tensions, Waymo self-driving cars have been burnt down, riots have broken out in several parts of the city and an effigy of Donald Trump was violently beaten with sticks by protestors. Arenella, 77, had a long and distinguished career as a law professor at UCLA. After retiring from active teaching in 2012, he and his wife Mia moved to Mexico to live out their retirement years. 'One of the many reasons I moved from California to my wife's tiny rural village in Mexico was the desire to experience a peaceful and safe environment,' he once revealed. In his earlier posts, Arenella has mentioned that his wife moved to the United States with her four children after escaping an abusive marriage. She is today a legal American citizen with a US passport, but the recent climate of anti-immigration sentiments and fear of ICE has made her wary of travelling to the United States. Her adult children, meanwhile, are still based in the United States. One of them witnessed an ICE raid in Los Angeles while shopping at a Home Depot. 'My wife's son was shopping at a Home Depot Sunday when ICE agents engaged in a massive sweep of the store where they detained many customers with brown skins,' Peter Arenella wrote on X. 'I have urged Mia's three adult children to carry their drivers licenses and passports with them at all times,' Arenella said in his X post. 'The fear and hysteria in LA has become so widespread that black and brown Latinos who always shop at public swap meets to purchase bargain items have become 'ghost' spaces because of the fear of ICE detention,' added the Harvard-educated retired UCLA professor. Arenella said that the Latino and Hispanic communities in Los Angeles are living in fear because ICE agents focus on the colour of their skin while taking them into detention, not their legal status. He ended his post with a criticism of US President Donald Trump and his policies - which Arenella says are a threat to freedom of speech. 'Such fascist terror tactics should enrage all Americans who care about their civil liberties and trigger large protests across the nation. 'My generation did so to protest the Vietnam war. However, Trump has discouraged such lawful and constitutionally protected conduct by instilling fear in the targeted communities,' wrote Arenella.
San Francisco Chronicle
31-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
These Bay Area communities are most vulnerable to Trump's immigration crackdowns
With the Trump administration clamping down on immigration, experts say some Bay Area immigrants may pursue one of the surest ways to protect their ability to remain in the country: becoming a citizen. That is, if they want to — or even can. Just 25% of Bay Area residents born in Guatemala, excluding children of American parents, are citizens. The same was true for 35% of Mexico-born residents. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of residents born in China and Nicaragua are naturalized. Still, overall more than half of the Bay Area's foreign-born population has already won citizenship, 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey shows, similar to the national figure. That means many of the region's immigrants are likely protected from deportation and scrutiny from border officials, said Bill Hing, a professor of law and migration studies at the University of San Francisco — though there have been some exceptions. As President Donald Trump continues to restrict immigration, more people who are eligible for naturalization will likely pursue that option, Hing said. It might not be the first time — naturalizations rose during Trump's first term. Naturalized citizens are less likely than lawfully present immigrants to report fearing detention or deportation, though about 1 in 4 say they are worried for themselves or a family member, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Hing expects a particularly large surge in people born in Mexico, Central America and South America to seek U.S. citizenship, hoping to avoid getting caught in Trump's mass deportation plans. Many immigrants from those countries who can pursue citizenship often don't, due to a variety of factors. Deportation fears could change that for some immigrants. 'The kind of enforcement that's going on right now is racially profiling those groups,' Hing said. The reasons some groups have relatively low naturalization rates vary, said Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Many immigrants from Honduras, for example, arrived in the past two decades, meaning they've had less time to seek citizenship. Even among groups for whom naturalization is more common, such as China- and India-born immigrants, few of those who came to the U.S. in the past two decades are citizens. Indian immigrants in particular can face long wait times for permanent legal status — the longest of any nationality, according to some research. Naturalization applicants must have a green card for at least five years or be married to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for at least three years, with exceptions for members of the military. Even with those hurdles cleared, there are often others, including language barriers. And undocumented immigrants are, of course, completely ineligible to become citizens. That likely explains why so few people among certain foreign-born groups, such as those born in Guatemala, are naturalized, McGhee said. While the Trump administration has targeted immigrants who are in the U.S. lawfully, such as by targeting international students, the crackdown will undoubtedly affect undocumented immigrants the most. 'There's a lot in flux and in play, but there's no question that the flexibility and range of options for the Trump administration are greater on the undocumented side,' McGhee said. There are additional reasons immigrants from some countries might be more likely to be citizens than others. Bay Area nonprofits previously encouraged Chinese-born residents to become citizens so they could gain the right to vote and become a political force, Hing said. The effort, made possible by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943, was a success. More than 90% of Bay Area Chinese-born residents who immigrated to the U.S. from 1970 to 1990 are citizens. Whether immigrants seek to become citizens also depends on the situation in their home country, Hing said. For example, Taiwan's political upheaval in the 20th century, and now its tensions with China, may give immigrants born there more of an incentive to seek naturalization. But those factors may matter less for immigrants from wealthy, stable countries like Japan, Singapore and Australia, especially for those who plan to travel often (or ultimately return) to their birth country. But anti-immigrant sentiment can also lead to an increase in naturalization, as Hing predicts will happen again. After California Proposition 187 was passed in 1994, cutting undocumented immigrants' access to social services, the state saw a surge in naturalization applications.
