06 12 25 Congressman Gabe Evans discusses using the National Guard and Marines in LA

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. Protests in Los Angeles continue.
President Trump called up the California National Guard and the
Marines to support immigration and customs enforcement.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans served in the US Army the
Colorado Army National Guard as well, and he joins US
now to discuss this and his recent bipartisan resolution condemning
the Boulder attack. Congressman, welcome back to Colorado's Morning News.
I want to begin with the protest that took place
here and are going on in Los Angeles. At least
your first initial thoughts and reaction to those.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
We'll always good to be on with you. And let's
remember how we got here. Ice was out arresting people
with known convictions for horrible things. I'll read you some
of these things. Here. You got a guy from the
Philippines sexual assault, assault with intent to commit rape, and
burglary in California. You got another guy conviction for assault
with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury in Los Angeles.

(00:48):
Third individual a known gang member with convictions for sexual battery,
receiving stolen property and theft in Los Angeles. All of
these folks were illegally present in the country. This is
who Ice was going out to get. These guys didn't
want to go quietly, got some riots going, and now
we're at a point where where you got cars getting
lit on fire, you got civil unrest, and we've got

(01:09):
to get back to rule of law. We've got to
have control in our streets. And that's the situation that's
going on in Los Angeles right now with the wee.
We need governor who won't do it, so the president's
having to step in.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
How are other fellow events who are also Republicans responding
to this? Are you seeing any sort of reaction from them?
In Washington?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
I think everybody is sick and tired of seeing cars
on fire and cities in unrest and outright violence. We
saw this in twenty twenty. We're not going to let
it happen again in twenty twenty five because it's absolutely unacceptable,
not only for the nation, for the state, for the cities,
but for the people that are trying to live and
work and have a business and conduct their lives in
these places. They deserve to be free from the fear

(01:53):
of having their cars torst or their businesses smashed.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Congressmen. I think everybody agrees you want the bad people
off the streets and toward but some say, and I
want to get your reaction that they say ICE is
doing it heavy handedly and ham handedly. And you know
reports of going to the home deepo where there's people
that are trying to get worked that necessarily on criminals
or bad or being rounded up. So is there is
there an issue with ICE going too far and not

(02:17):
really getting the people we think they're getting and they're
just casting a way wider net.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Well, so I read you the list of the folks
that are the targets of all of these operations, and
it's very similar to what I did as a police officer.
You encounter somebody else that's got a low level of violation,
entered the country illegally, hasn't done anything else bad. They're
honestly treated basically the same way that I would treat
any American citizen when I as a police officer, which

(02:42):
is they are they're detained to get a good identification,
so that's typically fingerprints, photographs, you give them a court date,
and you release them. That's that's the exact same thing
I would do to an American citizen if I encountered
somebody that had committed a low level crime. And so
I think that what we have to keep in mind
here is that last ICE released numbers six hundred and
sixty seven thousand individuals in the United States illegally with

(03:05):
known criminal convictions, thirteen thousand of those known murderers. They're
going to be going after those folks. And if they
encounter people along the way that haven't risen to that
level of criminal behavior but are still illegally present in
the United States, look, they still got to do a job.
And for those lower level again folks maybe illegally present
but nothing else. That means fingerprints, photographs, and then released

(03:27):
back into the community the same way I would do
with any American citizen if I encountered them committing some
low level infraction as a police officer.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Do you think it needs and maybe warrants the response
that we're seeing from the Trump administration deploying troops on
US soil.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
Well, look at the judge that denied California's restraining order.
California said that was going too far in a federal
judge refused to grant the restraining order. So I think
it's pretty obvious that when even the federal judiciary doesn't
see the merit of the argument that California is trying
to make sure that we have a problem, and the
problem is restoring order in our communities, in our cities

(04:07):
and making sure that we need sanctuary city and state
mayors and governors aren't allowed to let their cities and
states burn.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
And I want to quickly follow up with you, Congressman,
because I wasn't sure if you answered it the first
time when Keenan asked it. But does it trouble you
as somebody, as a guardsman, as a vet who served,
that we have American troops on American soil with this
when again, whatever you feel about the governor, the governor
said we don't need them, don't want them. It's not
like they asked for them. They said they don't need them.

Speaker 3 (04:35):
This is the same governor again that allowed California and
Los Angeles to suffer tremendous damage in twenty twenty. We're
not going to have a repeat of that. As a
National guardsman, I've been mobilized multiple times for operations here
in the United States. There's a long history of using
the National Guard to be able to support law enforcement

(04:55):
when law enforcements resources are overextended or perhaps insufficient to
handle what's at hand. And again, we have recent history
of what happens when these things are allowed to get
out of hand, going back just to twenty twenty, it's
not going to happen again. And if the governor is
not going to do something about it, then again, the
President's going to step in and do it now.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Kind of switching gears back closer to home here in Colorado.
Your bipartisan resolution condemning the Boulder attack past the House,
what exactly does that do?

Speaker 3 (05:24):
Yeah, so a resolution is non binding. It doesn't pass,
you know, like a law or anything like that. A
resolution is just a formal thing that the House can
pass that says we strongly condemned this. You know, I
was very honored to have seventy five of my Democrat
colleagues join me in condemning this attack. I was a

(05:45):
little bit disappointed than one hundred and thirteen excuse me,
seventy five Democrat colleagues, all the Republicans. I was a
little disappointed that one hundred and thirteen Democrats chose not
to support the resolution. But you know, the overwhelming message
is by a large bipartisan and margin. The House of
Representatives condemns the anti Semitic attack that occurs in bolder

(06:05):
and acknowledges that we have to take a closer look
at why things like this keep happening and we have
to have actual action oriented solutions because you know, thoughts
and condolences are important, but they're absolutely not enough.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Colorado Congressman Gabe Evans, thanks for your time.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
Always enjoy being Honochu