Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told Katie Couric on Tuesday that people will begin noticing the impact of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids once there’s “nobody to do childcare” or tend to their gardens.

Since riots broke out in her city last week, Bass has largely blamed President Donald Trump for provoking the unrest by conducting immigration enforcement operations to arrest illegal immigrants. She claimed that this action was what inspired the anti-ICE protests that escalated into violent altercations and vandalism.

Speaking with Couric on the reporter’s YouTube channel, Bass revealed her biggest concern is the impact of illegal immigrants being arrested or too afraid to go to work. 

“My biggest fear is the impact that all Angelenos will begin to feel when the labor of immigrants is absent,” Bass said. “We’ll feel it in the construction industry. We’ll feel it in hospitality. We’ll feel it at grocery stores. People will begin to notice.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass expressed support and concern for immigrant communities while speaking with Katie Couric. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

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She continued, “You think about the mothers who have nannies and housekeepers. They will feel it when there’s nobody to do childcare and there’s nobody to take their kids to school. You know, you will feel it when your gardener goes away, and you don’t know where he or she is. So Angelenos will feel the absence of immigrant labor.”

Bass claimed to have spoken to someone who said their local grocery store had empty shelves because “there was nobody to stock” them. She added the raids cause unnecessary “trauma” for families with parents unwilling to go to work or send their kids to school out of fear.

“[T]o have parents who are not sure they could go to work, or to be fearful of letting their kids go to school, it disrupts families. It creates unbelievable pressure and tension. You can imagine the mental health impacts on the children, especially the children that are old enough to remember the last Trump administration or were old enough to remember COVID,” Bass said.

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The administration has signaled that it will continue ICE raids in Los Angeles despite the mayor’s response and ongoing riots. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Despite Bass’ condemnation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has signaled that it plans to continue arrests of criminal illegal immigrants.

“Secretary Noem has a message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law and arrest criminal illegal aliens,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Wednesday.

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