Exploring the political fallout in the wake of DACA's termination, then a check in on how higher education will handle the end of DACA and how's Big Sur holding up?
DACA: CA's Republican lawmakers could feel the political fallout
The political fallout from Tuesday’s announcement regarding DACA continues in California. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have weighed in on President Trump's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which benefits more than 220,000 people in California.
California Democrats wasted little time condemning the announcement:
"President Trump and his advisers are nothing but cold, compassionless men." -Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de Leon
“The Trump Administration’s decision to rescind DACA is a cruel and devastating blow to the nearly 800,000 young Americans currently enrolled in the program. This indefensible action is an open attack on America’s immigrant communities and undermines our core values as a nation. By definition, DREAMers contribute to the economy and obey our laws. By ending the DACA program, President Trump betrays his true motives. This is not about the economy or crime; rather he only seeks to further his xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda, which continues to tear families apart." -Rep. Judy Chu (D–Monterey Park)
"The President’s decision to end the DACA program is a cruel and arbitrary attack on DREAMers, designed to placate a narrow constituency and erase the legacy of his predecessor."-Adam Schiff (D-Burbank)
Republican lawmakers, on the other hand, were less than unanimous in their position on the matter:
“When President Obama unilaterally created DACA, he unlawfully overstepped his executive authority and only put a temporary band-aid on a problem which prolonged uncertainty for many children brought here through no fault of their own." -Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista)
“President Obama was wrong to try and make immigration law by executive order like he did with DACA and DAPA. It is Congress’ role and responsibility to make immigration law, and I believe this is an issue that Congress needs to address.”-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield)
"I will do everything in my power to ensure those who were brought here, through no fault of their own, are not unjustly punished."
"We should be dedicating our resources to securing our borders and deporting the violent criminals preying on our communities, not going after individuals who were brought to America as children through no fault of their own." -Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock)
DACA's potential political ripple
Tuesday’s decision has also given rise to speculation about what this policy shift might mean for Democrats hoping to flip the House in 2018.
“I think this stands to be one of the bigger issues for both Democrats and Republicans in 2018,” says Marisa Lagos, California politics and government reporter for KQED. "It really depends on what Congress does."
Lagos joined Take Two to discuss the potential political ramifications of President Trump’s decision.
Press the blue play button above to hear more about the political fallout from President Trump's DACA decision.
What the end of DACA means for community college students in California
It's been 24 hours since the White House announced it was ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).
Emotions are running high among students on campuses across California's public school systems.
There are reportedly more than 70-thousand undocumented students are enrolled in the Cal State and UC school systems. Another 60-thousand are enrolled in California's community colleges.
Officials estimate that about half of these students have DACA status right now.
What will happen to tuition and financial aid? What about Federal-Work Study? Will these students have to drop out of school?
Those are just some questions on many people's minds.
We hear from the community of Pasadena City College as well as Eloy Ortiz Oakley about the future of DACA recipients in the California school system.
Click on the blue media player above to hear the full interview
Assessing the damage of the La Tuna Fire so far; brush clearance helped
The La Tuna fire burning in the Verdugo Mountains was 80 percent contained as of Wednesday, and evacuees have largely returned home.
The blaze has scorched more than 7,000 acres since erupting over Labor Day weekend, and it has destroyed homes and damaged the ecology. "It is certainly the largest fire in terms of acreage since the Bel Air fire of 1961 ... but luckily no fatalities and we've kept the damage to structure to a pretty low level," said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Peter Sanders, adding that five homes and some other out buildings burned.
Sanders said the damage was mitigated by good brush clearance by residents. "We believe it contributed to relatively small loss of structures there. I was up in Burbank when the fire was moving pretty strongly through there. The fire would come down the hill, and if your brush was cleared, it would run out of fuel and just stop. It is a really important thing."
To hear the rest of A Martinez's interview with LAFD's Peter Sanders, please click on the blue player above.
After almost a year of isolation...how is Big Sur holding up?
It all started back in February when CalTrans closed the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in Big Sur because of weather damage. Then came two landslides and even more road closures.
Once a bustling tourist destination, attracting throngs of people all year long, Big Sur has since become an isolated outpost.
Kirk Gafill is co-owner of the famous Big Sur restaurant Nepenthe and president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce. He spoke to A Martinez about how the community has fared so far this year, and what's to come.
To listen to the full segment, click the blue play button above.
K2 Sports Roundup: The fate of the Dodgers and the inspiring story of the blind football player
Not too long ago Dodgers fans were in a frenzy because the team was on an incredible run, with even Sports Illustrated declaring that the Dodgers might be the greatest team of all time.
But recently many have started to panic. In the past few weeks the team has lost nine of its last ten games. And while all teams go through rough patches, the playoffs are right around the corner and they're losing to teams they'll probably have to beat to get to the World Series.
So, is this just a bump on the road to glory or a sign that an iceberg has hit baseball's Team Titanic? We also talk about the incredible story of USC football player Jake Olson. Olson, who plays as a long snapper, lost sight in one eye when he was just a baby, and then his other eye when he was 12 years old due to a rare retinal cancer disease.
But this past weekend he realized a lifelong dream when he entered a game against Western Michigan and snapped for a successful extra point.
(click on the blue arrow above to hear the entire interview)
'Cuz': How LA's car theft spree and silence led to a man's death
Michael Allen, a young man from South L.A. who was convicted of carjacking at the age of 15, served more than a decade for the crime. And when he got out, he was murdered.
"Michael died in 2009, and it hurt," said Danielle Allen, Michael's cousin. "It hurt all of us just very profoundly."
"He was a beautiful person, he was a joyful person. He had this electric smile. That’s always the first thing that people said about it him."
In her memoir, Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A., Allen tries to come to grips with the course of Michael's life: his childhood, his 1995 arrest for attempted carjacking, his imprisonment and his death.
Allen spoke with Take Two host A Martínez about her book. The following is a transcript of their interview that has been edited for length and clarity. To listen to the full interview, use the blue media player above.
You start the book at the end of Michael's life. Why begin at the end?
For years I was just wrestling with these questions. Why did he die? Why was he in prison for so long? Why did he end up on this street corner when he was 15, holding a gun, trying to take somebody's car from them? And so, as I was just trying to understand what happened, at a certain point I decided I was going to try to write about this, try to tell Michael's story.
[O]ne day, it just came to me that the story that I needed to tell needed to be called "Cuz." And that it needed to be called that because that's what he called me. I was his "cuz," he's my "cuz," and because I want to understand. I wanted to say, why did it happen? 'Cuz! 'Cuz because of this, 'cuz of that. And so, I started just listing the "why" questions that I had. And the book kind of answers the "why" questions in the order that they were bugging me. Like the one that just hurt the most first was: Why was he dead? So that's where I started.
You asked, why was his prison sentence so long? And I think for that question to be answered, in the context of an African-American teenager in Los Angeles, don't you actually have to go back to kind of see where things are at in Los Angeles? How that history might've contributed to that?
He was arrested was just 18 months after the "three strikes, you're out" law had been passed. It was sort of the height of the moral panic in Los Angeles about carjacking, and people were scared for absolutely fair reason, and it makes sense that people were really wanting to address the problem of carjacking, no question about it.
But there were a lot of decisions made then that were really extreme in relationship to that fear that people had. And he got caught up in all of that.
One of the other things about the book that really struck me is the contrast between his life and yours. You mentioned how you grew up in Claremont college town, parents in academia. Michael growing up with a single mother, moving throughout his life. I mean, there's just light years of difference between both of you. So what did you come to understand about the differences between your lives by writing about it?
Partly what I was trying to say in that passage is that the difference is actually not as great as it seems. It's not actually light years. So adolescence is a hard time, and we're all risk takers in adolescence, and in that story, what you can see is, Mike and I had that same teenage urge. We wanted mobility. I wasn't allowed to ride in the cars of my friends. That was one of the rules my parents had. I sneaked around, and I took rides from my friends to go to my college classes as a high school student.
But that's benign. That's a safe risk.
Exactly. But that's luck. Right? The fact that the risk I took was safe was pure luck. And so, that's where I think what matters is to see the different degree of difficulty that's presented to different young people on the path that they've been set on. Michael and I both had that urge for mobility, but he lived in a world where what that meant was a completely different thing than what it meant for me. And the degree of difficulty confronting him, changing schools and so forth, trying to navigate rough neighborhoods in Los Angeles-- just totally different degrees of difficulty than what I confronted. So that's where the difference comes in.
When it comes to responsibility though, because here's the thing: Plenty of people grow up in rough neighborhoods with tough daily challenges to overcome, but they don't wind up in the penal system, so I'm wondering how much responsibility of what happened to Michael in his life do you put on Michael?
I absolutely put responsibility on Michael. He made the wrong choices and he knew that and he could write about it. And he took responsibility for his actions. But for me the other part of the responsibility that it's important to talk about I think we don't talk about enough actually is family responsibility. And by that I mean family responsibility for extended family is one of the most crushing parts of Michael's story is the fact that, as a family, we did not talk about what happened to Michael. And at the time that he was going through the challenges and being exposed to risky situations, we weren't talking among ourselves enough to see what was going on.
Yes, Michael made bad choices. He understands them. He understood them. He could take responsibly for them. But as a family, we could have done more. And our failure to do what we could have done was because we we didn't talk, and we didn't share the troubles.