Full interview: Sen. Alex Padilla talks ICE, midterm election and polling

Welcome back to Fox Local San Francisco. Quick live look there at San Jose, the heart of Silicon Valley. She is cool and gray because rain is a big story of the day. All right, this is it. That live interview that I promised you is going to happen right now. Our Greg Lee is in the studio with California Senator Alex Padilla. The two are about to have a wide-ranging conversation on state and national politics. Let's just take it straight to Greg Lee here, live with the senator. Appreciate the time. Let's talk about where you just came from. You were stopped at an ICE holding center in Sacramento to pay a visit. You recently made an unannounced visit to a CBP facility here at SFO. Correct. Tell me what you saw and why it was important to stop there. Yeah, well, I think it's important to visit these facilities, whether it's their formal detention facilities or just what ICE refers to as holding facilities, where folks who are detained or arrested are first brought in to begin their intake processing process. Look, we've seen the craziness of how ICE conducted itself for more than a year now on the streets in communities across California and across the country. I think the lesser told story is what type of conditions that folks that are in detention are being held in or being detained in. And because the department, because the administration has been anything but forthcoming with information and data, It's incumbent upon members of Congress to conduct these visits, to see for ourselves and gather information that way. Sometimes it's scheduled in advance. Sometimes it's unannounced. As members of Congress, it's our duty to go in and observe. Sometimes we're let in. Sometimes we're not. Thankfully, they did let me in this morning. But we have to keep the pressure on to try to hold both the department and the administration accountable. Did you see anything today that raised your concern? Well, what's been raising my concern is for the last several weeks now, we started getting a big uptick in calls coming into my office that the numbers were up. There was more enforcement going on. And so when we go into facilities like this, if the numbers of people being detained are up and that sort of confirms what we're hearing on the streets. And let's understand the premise here. Number one, if all the administration was doing was targeting those truly dangerous, violent criminals, we wouldn't be having the debate that we're having. But the fact of the matter is, they're not. The vast majority of people, based on ICE's own data, are people who may be undocumented. We know that legal immigrants and citizens have been caught up in all this, too. But for those who are undocumented, they don't have dangerous criminal convictions. In fact, they're people who are hardworking, deemed essential by the federal government, but are subject to this treatment nonetheless. And second, you've got to question the timing of all this. We're less than two weeks from an election, and this is classic Donald Trump once again trying to create chaos, instill fear, and terrorize communities. And I think for a diverse state like California, probably discourage people from voting. On the topic, we saw major protests over this ICE enforcement in Los Angeles last year. This morning, you released a new video detailing a whistleblower disclosure alleging the president ordered the FBI to investigate those protesters in L.A. what is that whistleblower saying and what are you calling for yeah what the whistleblower is saying and you know people can go to my website and learn more is that when the instructions came down from up top to investigate the people in this video right it was video of people conducting a know your rights campaign and calling attention to activity in their community protected first amendment activity freedom of speech that uh well the president said he wanted them investigated and arrested if possible. And despite the legal questions, despite the constitutionality concerns that career professionals were raising, they were said, do it anyway. And so thank God for the courage of whistleblowers, not outsiders. These are federal government employees blowing the whistle on legally questionable activity. The White House has called the allegations false and said the First Amendment does not protect violent rioting. What can the minority in the Senate do if what you've called for the inspector general to investigate does not happen right so we're doing our job number one in raising these questions and the administration once again is trying to deflect and skirt accountability we're not talking about rioting the video is very clear these were folks who were simply protesting and raising awareness we're doing what we can while we're in the minority but guess what we have an election coming up and not if but when Democrats If we take the House, the Senate or possibly both, there will be an even stronger position to demand information and bring people forward, including administration officials and question them under oath. As you said, less than two weeks from Election Day, you and some of your Senate colleagues sent a letter to top tech executives, many of them here in the Bay Area, asking them to promote and protect election integrity. Why now? And have you seen things that are, in your words, backsliding in terms of those websites? Yeah, once again, right now, because we're on the verge of another election. And in California, voters receive their ballots already. People are filling them out and hopefully returning them sooner rather than later. And as people are making their decisions for how to vote or who to vote for, maybe, sometimes they turn to technology, whether it's websites or social media, for information. Misinformation campaigns and disinformation campaigns are nothing new. And to think that tech companies are moving backwards on protecting their platforms against misinformation and disinformation undermines our democracy. I worked with them when I was California Secretary of State to shield the impact of misinformation, disinformation. With technology continuing to innovate and become more powerful, we need more resources to protect the integrity of our democracy, not fewer. As you said, you served as former Secretary of State for California before you were a senator. DOJ recently sued California to set aside 20,000 ballots that they allege were sent to non-citizens. The state is punching back. What do you think the administration is trying to do right now? Again, the administration is trying to create chaos in this critical stage just before the election. This list of 20,000, where did it come from? You know, for starters, they will not explain their allegations that there's up to 20,000, you know, ineligible voters in the voter rolls in California. But they won't tell you what the source or methodology is. What do they have to hide? I think they have conceded two things. Number one, we're now down to questioning 28, which is all less than 20,000. And second, they have publicly said they know that there's probably citizens on that list. The data itself is unreliable. So 28 out of more than 23 million registered voters in California, clearly not the massive voter fraud that Donald Trump has been claiming for more than a decade now. So I think the I trust the professionalism of state and local elections workers in California to administer elections. That's both fair and free, as well as being safe and secure. It is already a crime for anybody who's not eligible to cast a ballot in elections. But I want to make sure that we're not preventing eligible Americans from being able to cast their ballot and have their votes be counted. When you hear those allegations about the voter rolls and having sort of in that position, what do you tell people about audits or ways that those voter rolls are monitored to ensure that widespread fraud doesn't happen or that non-citizens don't receive ballots? Yeah, no, I appreciate the question and the opportunity for voters to know the integrity of the system. You know, we determine on the front end that somebody who first registers to vote, they're either signing a form under penalty of perjury of their citizenship and eligibility, or if they're going through the DMV for voter registration. When we all first went to the DMV for a driver's license or an ID, we showed up with either a birth certificate or a passport. So the checks and safeguards are built into the system. And when we cast our ballots, every vote is counted. And before election results are certified, there are recounts, there are audits to verify the accuracy and the integrity of the results. That's why there is no massive voter fraud, not in California, not across the country. And despite Donald Trump's claims of that, they've offered zero proof, zero evidence. Senator, I want to ask you something a little more personal. A number of California lawmakers, yourself included, received suspicious letters, white powder inside. former Speaker Pelosi received one this week. What is your reaction to that? And how concerning is that to you that in our body politics, we're seeing that kind of action? Yeah, again, sadly, I think it's a reflection of the political climate that we're living in, the divisiveness, those, whoever's behind this activity, trying to either instill fear or once again, create chaos. My kudos to the professionals of the Postal Service, the rank and file workers who first identified these letters and packages. Most of them were intercepted prior to their arrival to elections offices or members of Congress. A couple did get delivered, but thankfully it's non-hazardous materials and look forward to the results of the investigation. Senator, as you said at the beginning of this interview, this is an incredibly consequential midterm. You have said that you're confident Democrats taking back the House, the Senate, or both. Where do you think will be sitting on november 4th the day after on november 4th the day after i think the most the results of most races across the country are going to be clear but i want to make sure we give a time if it takes another couple of days to finish counting the ballots to get the ultimate results uh correct uh we've got to be a little bit patient around that uh and you know with majorities potentially changing i'm eager for the work that will begin in january uh when democrats to wield more power to hold this administration accountable. And you're confident in this party and that this election will steer in your party's favor? Look, I think so. It's not just because the polls, all the other indicators that are there, but everywhere I go, what I hear from people is absolutely clear. Their frustration, their disillusionment with this administration and the Republican majority that's gone along with it. You know, prices are up. We have another war in the world that is raising prices, which is by extension raising the cost of almost everything else. This is a president and a Republican majority that has gut healthcare coverage investments. So everybody's premiums going up or maybe they've lost their health care coverage all to give tax breaks to billionaires. And of course, we've seen the cruelty of indiscriminate immigration enforcement in our communities. It's not just terrorizing communities. It, too, is having an economic impact, not for the better, but for the worse. The people see right through it, and I think we're about to hold the Republican Party and Donald Trump accountable. Senator, you mentioned the poll. The newest poll from The New York Times shows the president has the lowest approval rating before a midterm election since the start of modern polling, which is certainly positive news for Democrats like yourself. But in the same poll, it shows that 28 percent of voters are satisfied with the Democratic Party compared with 36 percent for Republicans. What is your reaction to that, and why do you think that is? Yeah, so what I think is, look, there's clearly an opening. People are disillusioned with the Republican Party and Donald Trump at the moment. And while they may vote Democrat this particular election, the onus is on the Democratic Party to respond to the needs, the real challenges that are impacting people, beginning with the cost of living. So it's an opening. It's an opportunity. And now it's incumbent upon us to do the work to address those issues and earn people's ongoing support and ongoing votes, not just this one election. Senator, you've been really gracious with your time. I want to give you an opportunity if there's anything you want to say to your constituents across the state here on Fox Local San Francisco, on Fox Local Los Angeles, any message you'd like to give them, especially as we approach this critical midterm. Yeah, look, that's in two weeks before not just Election Day, but November 3rd is the last day to vote. So I'm encouraging people to do it early if and how they can. You've received your ballot in the mail. Mail it back the sooner the better. Or you can choose to drop it off at a drop box anywhere in your county, walking into any vote center that's opening soon. in your county uh however you choose to vote make your plan and get it done and bring every eligible friend family member neighbor co-worker with you uh we have a lot coming at us in california uh from the white house the best way to respond is through our participation our vote is our voice let's use it senator can't thank you enough for the time sir thank you really appreciate it thanks for being here of course all right great now we got to see a live interview here from uh our very own greg lee speaking one-on-one live with california senator alex Padilla. Just got to listen to, you know, 15 plus minutes here of the senator speaking on issues starting from his tour this morning in Sacramento there of an ICE holding facility. He also called for an investigation into whistleblower claims over the Los Angeles protest we saw earlier this year. He urged tech companies to protect election integrity, spoke about the suspicious letter that he received and other lawmakers had the same here. So again, we promised a wide ranging in-depth conversation. That's exactly what our Gregg Lee delivered here. We'll kind of keep digging through the reaction to the senator's words that we saw right here on Fox Local San Francisco as the day progresses. For right now, though, we're going to take a short break. We'll come back with this and more news of the day.