Watch: Fired Up Salud Says ICE Intentionally "Creating Terror" with Military Assaults - Trump "Running Scared" on Epstein
Under attack from Administration and MAGA mob, Santa Barbara congressman recounts confrontation with immigration agents and says tide is turning on public disapproval of extremist policies
Soon after Rep. Salud Carbajal confronted federal agents as they staged a militarized raid on a Carpinteria cannabis facility last week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency posted this on their official government account on Twitter:
Nearly every word in that post is false, except for “the” and “at.”
“They’re fabricating lies,” an impassioned congressman Carbajal told Newsmakers on Wednesday. “What they’re trying to do is just create their own sense of reality, and trying to influence perception of what they’re doing, because everybody’s seeing the ridiculous, disproportionate, militarized response and operations they’re running, separating families, overkill.”
In his most extensive comments since the Trump government sent shock and outrage through the community with last week’s raid, the Santa Barbara Democrat in a Newsmakers TV interview recounted the episode in minute-by-minute detail. He described not only his on-the-ground efforts to oppose the wild west deportation actions being undertaken by ICE, but also the parallel universe experience of being viciously attacked online by the MAGA mob, in the wake of taxpayer-financed whoppers peddled by the right-wing regime.
“They’re no longer going after criminals,” he said. “They’re going after hardworking immigrants that are working in our agriculture, that are working in our construction, in our hospitality industries.”
“It’s creating terror,” he added.
How the deal went down. “I wanted to show up to bring national attention and understanding to what I witnessed, and what I saw,” Carbajal explained of why he went to the legal cannabis site, where he said protesters were loud but “peaceful.”
“And my office put out a statement of what I saw. And it was thereafter that we saw ICE and the right-wing media coalesce and target me with a bunch of fabricated distortions to try to (alter) public perception of what really transpired,” he said.
“But I know what I saw and I know what I wrote, and we’re going to continue to expose and characterize the reality of what transpired. And that’s why they wanted to try to discredit me,” Carbajal added.
Part of the reason for ICE’s macho, performative actions in recent weeks, the congressman said, was to distract from the negative, real-world impacts of Trump’s much-ballyhooed tax bill. More recently, he said, “the distractor in chief” is desperate to change the subject from the roiling controversy over the Administration’s refusal to release the legal files involving Jeffrey Epstein, pedophile procurer to the stars.
“Trump’s running scared,” he said. “Why would he not want to put these files forward? We all know why - there’s something in those files that likely has Trump written all over it. He’s running away from this issue as far as possible and he’s trying to distract.”
In the interview, Carbajal also:
Cast doubt on ICE claims about the raid, including allegations about breaking up a child labor ring at Glass House Farms in Carpinteria, saying that the agency has refused to provide the most basic information about the raid to his office, such as a copy of the warrant that allegedly formed the predicate for the incursion.
Called for an independent investigation of the matter by the Inspector General’s office in the Department of Justice, acknowledging at the same time the unlikelihood of it happening, given that Trump has fired a huge number of such independent watchdogs across the government.
Defended his failure last month to support a House resolution calling for Trump’s impeachment, dismissing it as “a message bill” while rejecting arguments that out-of-power Democrats should use every tool they have to fight the onslaught of an authoritarian government.
Shrugged off campaign finance records that show he has received $9,300 in contributions from Graham Farrar, co-founder and president of Glass House Brands, owner of the raided facility: “I received funds from thousands of people.”
Acknowledged that he underestimated the aggressiveness and scope with which Trump would carry out an attack on fundamentals of liberal democracy in the U.S., including the rule of law, due process and the separation of powers.
“I knew it was bad, but I was hopeful that it would recalibrate and it’s only gotten worse,” he said. “I’m concerned, I’m upset, I’m angry, I’m frustrated…
“Quite frankly, it’s a bunch of bullshit,” he added.
Check out our conversation with Rep. Salud Carbajal on YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. The podcast is on Apple, Spotify, and available here on Soundcloud. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m. at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.