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Welcome everybody to the Dangerous Ones. I'm your host Nick Kudson and today we have a very special show for you. We are going to do a deep dive into the Republican sneak attack on our voting rights. And joining us to shed light on the GOP's plan is the guy who's in the Senate trying to stop them at every turn, California Senator Alex Padilla. A progressive problem solver, Alex Padilla is the first Latino elected to represent California in the US Senate. The son of Mexican immigrants, Padilla grew up in the San Fernando Valley and studied mechanical engineering at MIT. Drawn to politics in response to California's anti-immigrant Prop 187, Padilla was elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1999 and the state senate in 2006. Later, as California's Secretary of State, he oversaw a historic expansion of voting rights and voter participation in the state. Since being elected to the US Senate in 2022, Padilla has taken action to cut costs for families, combat the climate crisis, and help thousands of his California constituents secure millions of dollars owed to them by federal agencies. Padilla currently serves as the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, is the ranking member on the Rules Committee, and is a member of the committees on budget, environment, and homeland security. Senator Padilla lives in the San Fernando Valley with his wife Angela and their three sons, Roman, Alex, and Diego. Senator, welcome to the Dangerous Ones. Thank you for joining us. Oh, thanks for having me. Uh before we get Dodgers fan started, I just wanted to commend you. Uh Californians up and down the state must really love and respect you to elect you to the Senate despite the fact that you're a Dodgers fan. Yeah. Oh, I see you. Yeah, you're you're picking picking up what I'm putting down. Um, no, but no, it's uh on that note because I talked in in the last, you know, four plus years and getting to know my colleagues, particularly colleagues from states with multiple baseball teams, football teams, etc. You know, you kind of break us down into two camps. One, those that say, well, I represent the whole states to root for everybody. or you maybe get some diehard sports fans which kind of pin hopes on I'm gonna tell you who my favorite team is and at least hope you can respect my honesty. Uh love the sport baseball. Uh and of course I represent everybody in the state of California. But if I'm going to be honest, yes, I do have a favorite. Well, I I uh I won't hold that against you uh just because you you do such uh amazing work as a public servant uh for the people in the state of California. So, we'll just we'll just uh go past that. But go Giants. And but I will concede I will concede there's nothing close to garlic fries at Dodger Stadium. Garlic fries are the They are the best. Yep. Absolutely. Um okay. So, and good luck this year with your zillion dollar payroll. Um so, I have on the IIL right now, but that's a whole topic. That's true. That's true. I'm not uh not too sad about that. Um, so Background there's a lot of important issues to get get to. Uh, and I know we don't have that long, but I want to take a minute to just talk a little bit about your background and your biography, which is pretty unique, uh, for a US senator. And I'll I'll be honest, I wasn't aware of some of it. Uh, you're the son of Mexican immigrants. Uh, you studied mechanical engineering at MIT. uh and and you uh got into got drawn into a career in politics not from a sort of just pure ambition but through more like activism and advocacy. So how does your background which I think is pretty unique to the Senate sort of in uh impact the way that you do work in the body. Yeah, it's uh I appreciate the question because uh it is unique. Uh I grew up in a part of California known as the San Frernando Valley in Los Angeles. uh proud son of immigrants from Mexico. My father for 40 years worked as a short order cook and for the same 40 years my mom used to clean houses. So needless to say sort of a hard work ethic um and one where they really emphasized education. Uh their American dream was not just sort of having an opportunity to work hard and and build a family but to encourage their kids to get a good education and go on to college. Uh I have an older sister and a younger brother. All three of us were fortunate enough to be able to go off to college and earn our respective degrees and establish our careers. Uh something that I recognize is a little bit harder to do in this day and age. So keeping the American dream alive is certainly sort of at the core of that motivation. My parents inspiration uh and obviously my motivation now as a father of three. You know, I think of my wife Angela and our boys. That's my motivation to keep working to keep that American dream alive. Uh growing up I used to play little league baseball. So baseball has been in the blood for a long long time. Uh but uh enjoying math that was my favorite subject. Of course you get a lot of the teachers and counselors suggesting that you pursue engineering. Uh which I did. That's how I ended up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. uh knowing full well that upon graduation I was coming home trying to make a difference in the neighborhood where I grew up in Pqua, California, the northeast, San Frernando Valley, but never imagining I would find a career uh in sort of community service, giving back to others. But the environment I came back to, the political climate in California in the early 90s was a lot different than it is today. Yeah. long before California was considered the land of resistance, you know, we were electing Republican governors and other statewide officials. And on the ballot when I was fresh home from college was a measure known as Proposition 187. Everybody in my generation knows what Proposition 187 was and what it represented. for people who aren't as familiar uh particularly young people today I say think of Donald Trump and what he's been how he talks about immigration immigrants and that was California in 1994 and so uh the engineering degree certainly still looks nice on the wall but I knew then that I had to jump in with both feet if I wanted to impact the trajectory of my community and of California and so uh everything from trying to register from friends and neighbors to vote and volunteering on campaigns. You know, just a few years later, I found myself running for office and uh the rest, as they say, is history. Well, The Save Act it's it's certainly a unique path and uh and I think Californians are lucky to lucky to have you uh sit sitting in the Senate and and working on their on their behalf. Um so, uh but let's get down to the meat of the conversation here. Um you were also the um secretary of state in the great state of California. You used to oversee elections uh in the most populous state in America. Uh so you know a thing or two about voting and um the Republicans in the House recently passed a bill called the Save Act which is a sneak attack on our voting rights. um can you know given your expertise in this area uh can you tell us what this bill is all about and what the sort of state of play is with it now? Sure. Sure. And uh just let me quickly sort of share with you why I chose to to run for secretary of state and serve as Secretary of State prior to my time here in the Senate. uh you know I was uh serving in my second term in the state senate uh when in the year 2013 the Supreme Court issued what a decision that we refer to as Shelby v Holder. Shelby County, Texas was suing Eric Holder then the attorney general uh wanting to get out of these uh requirements under the federal voting rights act. Mhm. Surprise, surprise. Supreme Court ruled against uh Eric Holder and the Obama administration, sort of eliminating some of the protections that we enjoyed for almost 50 years up until that point. Yeah. Immediately after that decision, so many states across the country started adopting voter ID laws or purging voter rules or those sorts of things. And so I decided to run for Secretary of State in California, not because I feared that California would go in that direction, but because California, as we do, prides itself in serving as the better example. And so how can we modernize our elections in California that yes is secure, yes, maintains integrity, but affords voters more options for when, where, and how to register to vote, when, where, and how to cast your ballot. Right? We all learn in high school that our democracy works best when as many eligible people participate. That's what we should be fostering, right? So that's what I did in California, Secretary of State. I bring that experience to the Senate and as soon as Trump is elected for a second term, we see both the Save Act uh introduced in the House of Representatives that would do the opposite, change how people register to vote. That actually makes it harder. And Donald Trump, of course, not waiting for Congress to act, issues an executive order to adopt a lot of this unlawfully uh just because he wants. Uh and so what are some of the measures in the SAVE act? Uh it would require not just like proof of citizenship when you register to vote and as it is when you register to vote, you do so under penalty of perjury, right? And the number the rates of uh illegal people registering to vote are extremely extremely low. you know, what they're really doing is scapegoating immigrants once again, but this time with the goal of making it, you know, influencing the elections. I'll give you a couple of examples. Uh when u a woman gets married and maybe chooses to change her last name, uh all of a sudden she's going to end up with an ID that doesn't match her birth certificate, right? And so if the Save Act passes, extra hurdles that they're going to have to go through to register to vote to update their registration unnecessarily. Uh or when a high school senior, you know, is graduating, turning 18, looking forward to registering to vote in the next election, they're going to have to go through extra hoops just to be able to exercise their constitutional right to vote. members of the military who, you know, have have to to change their residence regularly depending on their deployment. They shouldn't have to go through these extra unnecessary hoops simply to register and participate in our democracy. But that's what the Save Act would have you do. On the voter registration side, on the voting side, they want to eliminate things like vote by mail. They want to eliminate things like in-person early voting. all the things that we've done to improve the security of our elections and actually make it easier for people to participate. So, that's what we're up against. The fight is on, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that even though it passes the House, it will not see the light of day in the Senate. I want people to know that together with my Senate Democratic colleagues, I'll do whatever it takes to kill this bill, to stop it from passing, to keep it even from coming up if we can. Because we owe it to our constituents to fight every executive order that undermines our democracy and to keep demanding answers on the firing of federal workers entrusted with safeguarding our elections. And it does seem to me that, you know, the Save Act is really a a solution in search of a problem. Like there um the non-citizen voting isn't really an issue. Uh 2024 Republican Georgia uh Secretary of State Brad Raffensburgger found 20 non-citizens uh on Georgia's voter roles out of 8.4 million registered voters. That's 0.0024% of the state's voter list. And all 20 of those were removed before they had the opportunity to vote. So exactly the great way of putting it, a solution in search of a problem. Even the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation in their own report, in their own research found, you know, a minuscule number of unlawful votes over the course of decades of elections. So uh to me that means the laws are working. Uh and again, it's already unlawful for non-citizens to vote in our election. So, uh this is scapegoating. It's voter suppression. Uh it's unnecessary and unamerican. Maxine Dexter in the House uh tried to introduce an amendment that the Republicans rebuffed to protect eligible women from being kicked off the voter roles. Uh Republicans blocked it. So, I think I feel like they really showed their showed their true intentions there uh in in that process. But for that's everything you need to know. But yeah, exactly. But but four Democrats in the House actually did vote for this bill. Uh including Jared Golden from Maine who basically said, "Hey, you know, this is common sense. Only people who are able to prove their citizenship should be able to vote in the United States." Right? So why is Jared Golden? Well, I mean, I think it's uh from a practical standpoint, I don't know about you, I don't make it a habit of walking around with my birth certificate in my pockets. I do not register to vote and you're, you know, digging for your birth certificate. You know, good luck if you remember, you know, where you've kept it. Uh or some people say, "Well, you don't need your birth certificate. Simply showing a passport suffices." Well, I think half of Americans don't have a current valid passport. Uh because not everybody gets to travel around the world on a regular basis. So absolutely again if hasn't been a problem existing laws and protections are in place this solution in search of a problem the effect would be making it harder for eligible people particularly women uh members of the military uh and lower inome communities from being able to vote. So what is the actual state of State of Play play? So it p this bill passed the house. It's in it's it's over to the senate now. Um, what are you doing? What are Senate Democrats doing to make sure that this bill doesn't pass the Senate? Yeah. So, as it stands, you're right, the the measure has come out of the House where everything's a simple majority vote. Uh, it's now in the Senate where whether you like it or not, we still have the filibuster in place. Uh, so even though we're in the minority, Democrats keep the bill from coming up for consideration if we simply hang together. uh Republicans have a 5347 uh majority in the Senate, but given the rules, it takes 60 votes to come up for a vote and to pass. And so, as long as Democrats stay united against the Save Act, uh we we can keep it from coming up for a vote, which is my mission, my priority. I've talked to my colleagues about it already. Uh leader Schumer has pledged his support to, you know, keep our caucus united against the Safe Act. uh we just need to keep the pressure on and our eyes on the ball. Is there anything that our viewers or our listeners can do to help you in that process? Absolutely. Anybody and everybody communicate first and foremost to your senators. Let them know that the Save Act is uh is on your radar and why they should be a no vote and stay a no vote. Uh if you live in a state that has Republican representatives, contact in their office, too, and let them know how you we can't let them off the hook. Right. Right. We want to make sure that we uh know that Democrats are aware and united against the Save Act, but let's also not let Republicans off the hook, making it an easy vote for them uh to make it harder for eligible people uh to register and to vote. So, uh call Republicans, senators, and let give them a piece of your mind. and and what is the you mentioned the Trump executive order on this on this topic. Um what's the status of that? Is that sort of facing all kinds of legal challenges hopefully? Yeah. So good question. With so many of the executive orders that Trump has issued over the last 100 days, it's uh tough to keep track. This is one of so many that has been challenged. Courts has initially said, "Wait, wait, wait a minute. Uh some of this stuff just it's not constitutional. It's not allowable." So no, do not implement. Uh if they want to push the issue and actually have a whole uh uh trial on this stuff, we will. But I think so far the courts have uh held up the rule of law uh and we hope that continues to be respected. And finally on this topic, Federal vs State you know, I think Republicans in in sort in red states, quote unquote, red states across the country have been uh trying to andor are trying to pass similar bills at the state level. Have we learned anything from implementation of these laws in in some states in the in in the US that could give us sort of a picture of what uh what life would be like for the rest of us if this passes at the federal level? Absolutely. And just that dynamic of federal versus state is an important one. You know, for the the prior four years, uh I was working with colleagues in the Senate to advance reforms on how we can improve elections by by things like expanding vote by mail or in-person early voting, automatic registration, which has been so helpful and successful in states that have adopted it. And the number one argument from Republicans was, you know, the Constitution says states run elections. we shouldn't federalize election. This is the nose under the tent. Uh but all of a sudden when Trump has suggestions how he wants to change elections, they're just silent, right? Except for one, believe it or not, even Mitch McConnell has come out against the this effort uh under that argument of federal versus state jurisdiction. Interesting. Uh now that being said uh yes some states have continued to push the envelope uh not without legal challenges but in the state where it was implemented I think it was Kansas that in particular their the Republican secretary of state saw that has seen the difficulties that it presented both for elections administrators and for members of the military trying to register update their registration and cast their ballot. So he's they've spoken how this causes many many more problems. Yeah. And it's really not that necessary. So there's been bipartisan uh push back from secretaries of state uh you know for for these uh measures. Good. That's Immigration good to hear. Um because of your background in getting into politics as a response to California's anti-immigrant Prop 187 as you mentioned and your parents are immigrants and you're you're a first generation American. Um, and also you're, if I'm not mistaken, you're the ranking member on the state judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship, and border safety. So, with all that is context, obviously immigr immigration is a is a major issue right now in the US. Um, ICE is out there snatching up and deporting immigrants without due process. Uh, legal immigrants and even American citizens are getting uh are getting rounded up among them. So give us your inside take on sort of what the Trump administration's doing in terms of unlawful actions on immigration and what if anything you or we can do about it. Yeah. No, it's uh almost hard to decide where where to begin, right? I think the best position to begin with is what Trump said during the course of the campaign. Uh ad nauseium he'd say, "We're gonna deport violent criminals. We're going to focus on violent criminals and this will be the strongest deportation effort in our nation's history. I don't think anybody disagrees with uh violent criminals who are here unlawfully being deported. But what we've seen over the last 100 days is anything but that. This has been, you know, all the federal agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Border Patrol, others under the Trump administration, under their new policies, under their their new priorities, rounding up a whole lot of people who are not violent criminals. Yeah. Fathers going to work providing for their families, uh, mothers, children, as you mentioned, even children who are here lawfully being deported without due process. You know, it's it's at the core of what our democracy is about. You know, some people will see in movies, you're innocent until proven guilty and you have a right to an attorney, right? Even undocumented immigrants have due process rights, access to counsel uh before they sign paperwork or be people are getting deported without any of that. This administration is ignoring due process and courts are finding that people have been unlawfully removed from the United States. We're in unprecedented territory whether the US government paying another country, El Salvador, uh to house people in their prisons. I mean, Donald Trump has not been shy about saying he would even send United States citizens to prisons abroad. That's crazy talk. Yeah. uh or places like Guantanamo Bay uh because of the money that was being spent through the Department of Defense, not ICE, not Homeland Security, the Department of Defense to house un lowrisk, non-dangerous undocumented immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. They were not forthcoming with the policies they were going by, how much it was costing. a group of Democratic senators had to travel there personally to get answers to some of these questions. So, uh it's very extreme. It's cruel. It's created fear uh and beyond anxiety in so many immigrant communities across the country. And here's the real shame. You know, if we want to stop and look at what who this immigrant population is, like I said, there's no disagreement on deporting violent criminals. Nope. But the vast majority of undoc undocumented immigrants in the United States a have been here for a long long time uh on average more than 18 years. So you're talking about a lot of people who have been living here for a long time working paying taxes raising families buying homes strengthening communities in our country. That's who they're targeting now. Uh the plurality, the biggest group of undocumented immigrants are people who came here lawfully. Whether it's through temporary protected status, that's a lawful program and President Trump has just taken away TPS protections and making people eligible for deportation where people came lawfully under a visa and just let let that visa expire. That was wrong. But again, 20 years later, a life built here later. what's both the morally right thing to do for that person and their family and what's in our country's best interest. Yeah, we're talking about a lot of workers in the construction industry, in child care, in hospitality, certainly in agriculture, food processing, etc. All these industries are now feeling the pressure of a reduced workforce, a workforce that is living in fear on top of the damage being done by these unnecessary tariff wars that the Trump administration has gotten us into. So, uh, our country is feeling it economically, not just, you know, sort of morally because of the contributions of immigrant communities across the country. And and again, same What can we do kind of question. What can our viewers and listeners do um you know to to help sort of um stem these these deportations uh advocate on behalf of immigrants? What what can we do? Right. As with all these other issues, but this, you know, immigration, deportation especially, speak up. We can't be afraid to speak up. Uh, educate your neighbors, talk to your friends, and everybody chime in with their congressional representatives. We can't let them off the hook uh for not uh trying to hold this administration accountable. That's number one. Number two, never too early to start organizing for the next election. You know, the midterms are going to be here before we know it. Let's not wait until we're 30 days from election day to start uh organizing and mobilizing. We need to be starting now. Right. Folks, you can also support, you know, some local events, whether it's a a town hall by your local representative. You know, make a contribution, even a modest one, to some of these immigrant rights groups, uh, or civil liberty groups, uh, because we got to keep the pressure on. And and I'll also throw in there for for our viewers and listeners. Um you know there are stories floating around about both both undocumented imig immigrants but also documented immigrants and even American citizens who are being caught up in all this. Um use your social media reach and make sure that those stories are being shared across all social media platforms. Um Americans need to get more outraged about all of this and that's definitely this is where people get their news now. So definitely take advantage of emphasize again. Don't let my Republican colleagues off the hook. I can't tell you how many times I've met with uh members who behind closed doors tell me the right thing. Oh, Alex, my heart goes out to to farm workers. Where would our our nation's food supply be without them? Or dreamers especially, right? They were brought here as kids through no fault of their own. They've grown up. They're graduating from high school, graduating from college, you know, establishing careers, but living in constant fear and uncertainty. they deserve better, but they don't have the backbone to say it publicly or to vote accordingly because of Trump. So, we need to again not make it easy for them. Got to keep the pressure on. Make them do the right thing. Well, and that's really interesting and and we'll we'll close here because I know your time is short, but um like what do you say to them in those instances where they come up to you like in the back rooms and are like, I actually care about this, but I'm a wimp. Yeah. What do you say? For the first four years I was here, they they would tell me that uh but the they'd come up with some sort of excuse or reason why the time wasn't right yet. They would point fingers at uh uh President Biden. Uh but now under Trump, they're just not even willing to engage in the conversation saying, "Well, may maybe once uh uh the political climate changes, they can change the political climate." Right. Right. You have agency support. It's not at the ballot box and it's not in the United States Senate. Right. You want to make it, you want to see change, you got to make the change, right? Well, thank you for making change, Senator Padilla, and thank you for coming on the Dangerous Ones. It's been a pleasure to have you. Uh this is a great conversation. We'll make sure that uh that this the clips from this episode get uh get shared out all over social media so people can hear your uh wise rundown about the SAVE Act and about these issues around immigration. All right. Thank you, Nick. Keep keep hope alive and keep up the fight. All right, thank you and thank you all for watching and listening to the show. Please head over to YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you're enjoying the show. Give us a fivestar review, hit that like button, hit the subscribe button. It really helps us a lot. And please head over to www.tealandorreport.com and subscribe to our Substack. And if you're able, become a paid subscriber. That really helps us a lot. Thank you so much and we'll see you soon.

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