Raddatz reviews Los Angeles mayor’s claims about Trump’s effective border strategies

ABC News Correspondent Questions LA Mayor on Trump’s Immigration Policies

On Sunday, ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz challenged Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass regarding the effectiveness of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. After airing their interview, Raddatz took issue with Bass’s assertion that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement had failed.

During the interview, Raddatz had asked Bass about immigration enforcement measures implemented by Trump, aimed at controlling illegal immigration in major Californian cities.

Bass remarked on the city’s diverse population, stating, “Los Angeles is an immigrant city, with approximately 50% of its 3.8 million residents being Latino. When the raids began, fear spread—like a virus—throughout the entire county.”

Raddatz then pressed further, asking, “Has the administration done anything positive regarding border issues in the last six months?”

Bass responded by acknowledging some actions taken to address local crises, mentioning efforts related to wildfire management early in 2025. However, she hesitated when discussing the immigration policy, saying, “If you ask me whether they’ve done anything beneficial for immigration, I’m not sure. It feels more punitive. The idea seemed to be to make it as difficult as possible to deter people from coming.”

In contrast, Raddatz asserted that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown had led to significant changes at the southern border. “We’re seeing numbers that are markedly different from this time last year,” she pointed out.

Interestingly, data released earlier this month revealed the lowest recorded number of encounters at the southern border in U.S. history, with only 25,228 reported by Customs and Border Protection. This included a historic low of 8,024 encounters, which cover both legal entries and incidents of unlawful crossings.

In the meantime, the Biden administration experienced a surge in illegal border crossings, with December 2023 labeled as “the worst month for unacceptable alien encounters at the southern borders” with over 251,000 recorded, according to Simon Hankinson, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation.