Assembly Select Committee Racism Hate And Xenophobia Committee

Just very briefly, I think I want to thank Dr. Jackson for convening the Select Committee, for including me in the Select Committee. It is critically important for the people of my district, the 69th assembly district, which is one of the most diverse districts in the state of California. And this is more than simply pain, this is more than simply justice. This is impacting our economy in a massive way. This is impacting the ability of the State of California to go forward on so many of its endeavors. I spent the morning, as a matter of fact, going through an internal survey that we're doing through our budget committee on figuring out places either to add revenues or make cuts in such a difficult time. And so much of that stems from a true fight with the federal government on funding things that are lawfully funded to the State of California that have racial implications attached to them. Things like health and human services for our immigrant population, Latino population, things about loan programs for folks that are lower socioeconomic levels or black and brown people in our communities that have lasting impacts on our ability to move forward on these things. And so this is critically important, foundationally important for how our state progresses as a whole. So it's important that we address what's right in front of us. And I thank Dr. Jackson for convening.

Thank you, Assemblyman Lowenthal, and thank you for your unwavering efforts on these fights on issues of discrimination and hate. I want to now introduce our first panel and who will set the tone for us for the day. We have the LA County Human Rights Commission as well as the LA County Sheriff's Department. And we want to thank them so very much for their willingness to participate and their deep knowledge on these issues to share with us. And so first I will ask the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, please, Executive Director, please introduce yourself.

Okay? Yes.

Yes.

I'd like you to address very briefly. Is that attributable to an actual rise in hate or a rise in reporting?

And how much. What's the percentage of the African American population in LA County?

So they represent 9% of the population, but represents 51% of all the hate crimes.

I think it would be appropriate to go through it.

You say 80%?

Excuse me, what about social? Social media?

Yeah, I'm very interested, Mr. Chair, on the correlation between the rise in hate crimes and hate speech, which is protected, and specifically as it relates to social media. The correlation, potential causation.

you to follow up with my office on that because especially, you know, we are in the process. I also chair the Subcommittee on Human Services that has the California versus Hate funding and it is up for renewal. And it will be the perfect time to let us know the type of additional resources that may be necessary that the initial funding did not cover to be able to do the type of tracking in terms of social media and those type of things that might be helpful. And so please make sure you touch base with my office on that.

First of all, I thought your report is excellent. I just want to say thank you, appreciate it. I would love to stay in touch to gather data, very specific data for specific needs as we, as we move through the legislature. But I do have a question. Most of the data seems to be geared towards the victims. Are you also capturing data on the perpetrators who are committing these hate crimes? Do we see any patterns of change? Do we see a rise in crimes being perpetrated by one protected class towards another? What are you seeing on that front?

So.

Thank you very much. Let's move on to LA County Sheriff's Department. You want to introduce yourself?

department

Yes.

They're not documented as a hate crime unless it meets the statutory definition. If there were within a gang crime evidence that meets the statutory definition that it was motivated or there was evidence like the words used, some of the examples that Mr. Thoma gave, those are the type of evidence that you would need to, in addition to perhaps charging an assault by or against a gang member or somebody who's been identified as gang involved, you would need that additional evidence to also charge a hate crime.

So that's actually, you know, can be often the challenge we want people to report, but with also the understanding is that we do have, you know, a high statutory bar in some instances with regard to actually charging the hate crime. That doesn't mean the underlying crime, even if we could not prove or get the the district attorney to file charges on a hate crime that the crime itself couldn't be charged like an assault, like the road rage type incident that was described earlier. And obviously we work very hard within the department to educate our deputies. We have hate crime coordinators at all 28 of our patrol stations. We have two departments, department wide hate crime coordinators. Because this understanding what type of evidence you need to properly investigate these crimes and to get them filed as hate crimes requires us to do that kind of training and support of our deputies and our detectives so that they can gather the necessary evidence to effectively prosecute the crimes. But of course, even if we are unable to prosecute a case, we do train and work with our deputies to understand they still need to be responsive to the community, to provide resources and connections to LA versus Haight or all the other community based resources that exist so that even if it's a hate incident or a crime where we weren't able to identify a suspect, that victims and survivors of these crimes and incidents get the necessary support. Do you have any other questions for me? Yes.

Okay. Yes, well, certainly. And unfortunately I can't speak to that specific incident. I'm not familiar with it. So I hope you did get the information that you needed and I can certainly, if you have additional questions, be a conduit to help getting those answers. Yeah, it's that the events of last year, the presence of ICE and the immigration enforcement has had a significant impact on the community and on the way the department does business, we are seeing folks being reluctant or unwilling to report all kinds of crime, not just hate crimes or hate incidents. That is a concern. Just as we're spending. Sheriff Luna has made a commitment to increasing trust and being more focused on community policing and community oriented policing. We have this setback based on the immigration incidents enforcement. So it is a challenge. It's something that I think the department has tried to take head on by both the day to day interactions as well as using social media to explain the department's position, including posts explain what the department's uniform looks like. We have very specific policies about what people can wear and require that what they're wearing identifies them, their name or their name or badge number, as well as always having their identity as a member of the Los Angeles Community County Sheriff's Department. So that is. And that is consistent with state law and that is consistent with our policy. And that's something we take very seriously. So I think, you know, like all things when there's times of crisis and challenge in law enforcement, you need to have already had been building trust and relationships. Right. Because the time of crisis can be a very difficult time time to do that. And so the department's working hard to. Had been working hard before last year to increase that trust and that relationship and that transparency about what we do and how we do it and our commitment to that continues. And we know it's needed, to your point, needed even more now. So it's a priority for the sheriff and it's something that gets talked about regularly. And for example, we recently, the sheriff recently convened a leadership conference for all captains and above within the department. And one of the primary discussions, which included our county council as well as one of my colleagues, was specifically about immigration issues and enforcement to educate the leadership of our department about what the current state of California law is and what the sheriff expects in terms of our response to the communities we serve.

Yeah, thought it was on. Okay. Yes, thank you for that question. And I do think it is critically important to. When there are places that repeatedly experience harassment because of what it stands for, in the case of houses of worship, that, you know, that should be considered about how we can do create protections that are going to be ongoing because I do think that, you know, in many cases we do collect hate incidents, as I mentioned, and we think that's really important. And we respond to that by making sure we mobilize people who are supportive of the communities being targeted. But I also know that you know, law enforcement has in times past, sometimes they set up patrol vehicles nearby or sent a presence to deter any kind of illegal activity. But I think in the end, I know that this is something that the Scientology Church has experienced as well and came to us, but the same idea of documenting it so that you can get restraining orders, that's something that we've assisted folks in doing. And so that you can't. You're not, you know, only limited to whether it's a criminal action and where you can get help from law enforcement. You can actually get civil restraining orders. And sometimes those are effective at deterring if there's a particular group of people who are repeatedly targeting a certain place. But I do think that those legislation that considers creating safe zones that already sort of allow, don't require people to go through court action in order to get a restraining order sometimes is needed to address repeated targeting and harassment of communities and particularly houses of worship. Let me just add one other thing to what you were raising earlier, because I just want to say that the other point I would make about how the federal immigration enforcement has affected the reporting of hate crime, I think that it's been terribly damaging to the ability for law enforcement to have a relationship with communities. It also underlines the importance of having non policing alternatives of reporting hate, because as you. As you're implying, you know, there isn't that necessarily recognition of the difference. And in this kind of situation, people don't want to take chances because if it's at all possible that they are working together, even if they're not carrying the same badge, people are shying away from it. And so in an effort to make sure we don't, we give options for people experiencing hate. It's really important to fund those centers of reporting that are not law enforcement identified. And that's why LA versus Haiti, I think, has been very successful because of that. That's what it represents.

Ms. Trembley, do you have any additional information you would like to share?

Well, certainly like to thank you for your participation and ensuring that. I want to thank the sheriff for ensuring that the department was represented. You know, this select committee has introduced three bills. One of them is in relation to our conversation with California's Commission on Hate that talks about how sometimes, well, we know that it's hate crimes is under reported, but also it indicates that there may be some need for additional training of law enforcement to know what questions

what things to look for. Would you. What is your assessment on that recommendation on identifying or improving law enforcement training?

Also, Mr. Thoma, the other thing that the Commission on Hate shared with us is the direct correlation between hate speech and dehumanizing speech of elected officials and other leaders or people who they see as leaders and their rhetoric and then the rise of hate crimes on that particular group that it may be focused on. Would you agree with that assessment?

I'm going to ask staff to write that recommendation down because I think, see now you just, you just started something. You about to get some legislators throwing around some bills.

Yeah, we actually, I'm not just talking about this theoretically. We actually have been working with the DA's office going back several years to create such a program. It was started one called reach that the DA's office started, that we have joined in to really try to build that into the most robust program it can be. I do think I recognize your point about the cost because there is a cost to It. But I do think that it's worth thinking about how we can look for ways of neutralizing or reducing that cost. Because it's just such a. It's such a miss, a big miss for our work.

Thank you so much for that. Because I'll tell you that a big part of what we have learned doing this work in LA vs Haight is that healing is a critical component. And sometimes if you don't heal, that person who was a victim becomes a perpetrator.

In seeking revenge for what occurred. But I also want to point out that we recognize the power of nonviolence. We're actually developing a training on nonviolent direct action for our partners, community partners, because we recognize that it is such an important method and approach to responding to what we're facing these days, many communities are facing. And I think that it's also a really important element of any kind of work with perpetrators of hate as well.

Thank you.

Next, we're going to bring up our next round of panelists from our local advocates. And so if you are on the second panel, please come on up. So this is the time where. This is the time where we ensure that we hear the voices of those who are affected by the data that we've seen. And it is our hope that as you are also talking about the needs and the pain of your own community, that you also take the time out to talk about the need for being allies at the same time. Right. This is an opportunity to ensure that we also remind all of us that what happens to one, they're usually practicing on one so they can do it to the rest of us. And we continue to see that throughout our history and certainly we have seen this throughout this federal administration. So first I would like to. The first one kicking it off will be the League of United Latin American Citizens. You want to introduce yourself?

Thank you very much. Next we'll hear from the Jewish Federation.

Assembly member Dr. Jackson, assembly members Bohr. Assemblymember Lowenthalm. We appreciate being included at the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles in today's excuse me, important hearing. I'm Joanna Mendelsohn. I'm the Senior Vice President of community engagement for the federation where we work to build meaningful relationships between the Los Angeles Jewish community and our neighbors to uplift this city. We appreciate the Committee's attention on the challenges facing our community. The data points and Paints a deeply troubling picture According to the FBI's 2024 Hate Crimes Report, Jews remain the most targeted religious group in the United states, accounting for 69% of all religiously based hate crimes. Here in California, where Jews comprise just 3% of our state's population, we are victims of 15% of reported hate crimes statewide, according to the California Department of Justice. And as Robin Thoma pointed out even more Starkly, here in LA County, Jews accounted for approximately 80% of all religiously motivated hate crimes. These figures are not abstract. They reflect a lived reality that has intensified significantly year over year following October 7, 2023, when the terrorist organization Hamas carried out a horrific and unprovoked attack against Israel. As we see every time there's a crisis in the Middle east, we witnessed here in Los Angeles and throughout California and the nation a sharp and at times lethal rise in anti Semitism. Sadly, you look just last week in Michigan where a terrorist drove a car packed with explosives into one of the largest reformed synagogues in the country. Inside that building was 106 children. It's a miracle that other than the perpetrator, no one else was killed. But without the robust security measures in place, this could have resulted in yet another devastating mass casualty attack here in Los Angeles, home to the second largest Jewish community in the nation. The reports coming into our community security initiative just last year went up 74%, and most of them were primarily motivated by hate, as assembly members Bohr referenced. In December 2025, an event at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple bringing together Korean Americans and Jewish American communities was disrupted by protesters. Attendees who were present were harassed, anti Semitic slurs shouted, smoke bombs ignited and property damaged. And a similar incident happened at adas Torah just 18 months prior. So in response to the rise of incidents, Jewish institutions have been forced to take an extraordinary security to take on extraordinary security measures across the country, Jewish organizations spend more than $765 million annually on security expenses and unprecedented unsung sustainable burden. Synagogues by necessity are installing metal detectors, bulletproof glass bollards to defend against vehicle rammings and must hire armed guards. No community should have to bear the burden simply to gather safely at the time Anti at the at the same time anti Semitism is rising in our educational spaces, in K through 12 schools and on college campuses. Jewish students are facing harassment, exclusion and bias, sometimes from both peers and educators, and too often, often institutional systems fail to adequate adequately address these incidents. We need meaningful legislative solutions grounded in multi pronged approaches, including establishing the safe worship zones while protecting free speech. Just today it was posted Assemblymember BAUER Cahan's bill AB 2664 increasing funding for nonprofit security grants, enabling communities to protect themselves without diverting resources from their core missions strengthening Holocaust and genocide education while ensuring the teachers are equipped to teach these subjects effectively implementing AB 715, a crucial measure addressing antisemitism in our K12 schools and thanks to the courageous and effective leadership of assembly members Bohr and Addis, as well as the Legislators Josh Caucus who unanimously passed it. While the Jewish community is vibrant here in Los Angeles, it represents only 2.4% of the United States population, underscoring the disproportionate vulnerability many feel today. We continue to be grateful for our allies here and across California, including our elected leaders. But we implore you as you've done and we encourage you to continue. Continue to speak it out immediately, clearly and unequivocally when anti Semitism and all forms of hate emerge. Help lower the proverbial tension and temperature and contribute to healing our strained political discourse. This includes using thoughtful, responsible language and actions, not trigger words that cause and fuel harmful narratives or intensify an already heightened climate of antisemitism. And continue as you're doing to lead decisively to combat hate in all its forms. We remain committed to working alongside you to ensure that every community here in California can live openly and freely, safely from fear and hatred. Thank you for your serious consideration of these matters and for your commitment to ensuring the safety and vitality of the Jewish community.

Oh, you looked at me. My name is Darrell Good. Today I'm here representing California State Conference. I'm also the Santa Monica Venice Branch President, which is your area and my wife is a judge. And people in general say I should be nice at this presentation, but we have to be truthful in terms of the way things are impacting our communities. So that in 1908 there was a something called massacre, somebody's called a slaughter, a riot. Hundreds of black folks were killed in Springfield, Illinois. Were killed in Springfield, Illinois. The genesis of 1909 was the NAACP in New York. And as some of you may know and those that don't, it was a multicultural board. African Americans, Native Italians. It was a collective group to address the atrocities they were going at the time, rape of black men and women, children and Native Americans and others. And being hung because you're Jewish. That was common at the time. So that we came as a coalition. So you fast forward. And we still are in a position in community organizations. We have 55 branches in the state of California. We've got 15 branches in Los Angeles County. I'm the area director for LA county. And we deal with issues and the language is important. Even though I'm speaking to you in the language of colonizers, I'm sure you know what that means. So and so that we have to. Because of cultural. From our culture and the language of colonizers. And that's not just unique here. If I travel, I travel all around. If you're in Indonesia, they speak about the colonizers wherever you go, Africa. So we still have that language. So it's very important to us. So that. And we look forward to working with all the groups. A lot of things that we've done have helped other groups in their social justice movement in the late 60s. I'm going to date myself when there's an issue between the Jewish community and the African American community. B' Nai B' Rith is an organization that reached out to help repair those challenges. However, you know, language and perception, what America gives us, perception of African Americans is a challenge. We met with the Consul general at Israel about a year and a half, two years ago. We had a great meeting. And we had expressed to this individual, although they had intelligence, you know, those of you who know that you don't really know who you're speaking to because we were there as the branch president of Santa Monica and Venice. And I said, you've never seen a representation of us that's legitimate. And it bothered him. So as we were leaving, he said, I've thought of one. And I said, what is that? And he said, blackish. That would be like me saying married, children. So there is some perspective. Those issues that are very germane that come up in Santa Monica. We've got an issue because this gentleman is 105 years old. He brought a park, Virginia Parks in Santa Monica. The White Strokes at the time did not want that community was black and brown to have a park.

George Blanco's name is Judge. He died in a plane accident a few years ago. He brought to us. It's a man who brought a construct to the community. Now we're in fight with some of the Latinos in the community. That field of the park should not be named After a black person. We didn't support it because he's black. We supported it. He brought it to the community as a person. And those are the challenges we're still having with the city. My point is given all that our organization has still been forefront with San Monica Police Department when we were encouraging them to be open to getting reports from our Latino residents so they can report crimes so they're not victimized. Our organization has still been in that forefront, you know and perceptions are important. When Australia I don't know why they reach out to naacp. They should be going to our State Department Australian consulate reached out and they wanted to talk to us and what can we help you do? They didn't realize we knew about the aborigines. Tell us how we can help you deal with them. So to the point Reverend Jesse Jackson several years ago indicated because of the legacy of our organization and all the historic 1619 forward that legacy since the 1970s is cost 350 plus black lives in the streets of the United States. You know, not to discount the contra thing when they're using drug sales in our communities to fund Operation CIA. Those legacies continue today. So there's a reason I've got a violence We've talked to Sheriff Luna and we talked to why we're focused on Compton Watts, you know community Santa Monica is much different than those communities but those communities live in fear because the prevalence that we're used to living with this and will outlive our pain and I get assistance isn't challenging. When the community sees a reparations bill go to ends up in spoke it doesn't signal illegitimacy in terms of you know and at state conference level and here on LA, you know, LA counties are very political. We are very less forgiving our state conference. So those are the kind of things that are real. We develop. You know Anna, I just met her but we have a relationship with Jim Robert Luna. We have to have these relationships so that when things come we have problems. And I know there's a systemic culture as you saw probably in the time today about LAC lost another lawsuit because they don't interrupt the culture. We've got to do things. The way I look today when I look and I address a police officer, I walk up to them sometimes they assume because I'm older and I'm retired law enforcement. So I get them to speak and I and I as we're talking, I tell them, you know, who I am or what I represent but I want the dialogue. I'm not going to share with the chief or anything else, but we need to understand the culture that is providing. So you have migrants. One of our issues, we have migrants. I don't know. When Africans first came to this country, they didn't want to talk to African Americans because they were told that we were not as good as they were. What they didn't tell these new people coming in, they didn't tell the white people here. They were different. So when they would start getting pulled over by police and all the other things, now we see each other say, hey, what's going on? Because they understand. And so we even. Although we've had another issue in Santa Monica, it's got a culture gauge of the culture and three faculty members who happen to be African American male had challenges with a person that has said they're lgbt. They felt pressured or disrespected because they're African male. A couple years ago we went in, intervened because that chair during the pandemic had given away his. And when you have a certificate program, you guarantee your hours. So during the pandemic, this person gave his hours away to part time with white folk so they didn't lose their benefits. At the end of that period, he owed $134,000 and a year away from retirement. We went in, we showed it. You don't want us to get into this battle with you between LGBT and nacp. Having said that, because we understand challenges, we have a committee, LGBT in NAACP now because we're open. No matter what challenges we get from the different cultures we know, at the end of the day, we've all got to come together as human beings. The ncp, the movement was not about being black. It's being respected as human beings, as men and women, and not have someone try to take your culture away. And in our culture, blacks scared the hell out of white America. James Brown Then after that, all the great movies we had in the 60s went away. We had black exploitation. Language of the colonizers is a flip what that means. So if you think about someone says black man or black woman, you don't know what that is. If you say a man or a woman, you know, and I'm not acknowledging the other definition we have today, but just in general, your humanity is taken away. So our positions at naacp, you look at our mission statement, we've made it really short now, but we're open to everyone we have. But the challenge to the African American community, the black community, is still the same. We've got unions who African Americans are in the unions don't feel they're being represented because they're black. As in even LA county, we have professional psychologists that are complaining down to the people who are making maintenance. And then it comes down to cultural or African American or Latino. We're talking about hate. Those things start to permeate those things, create violence if it's not interrupted. And that's one of the things that we, as the naacp, we're on top of the national association of Advancement of Colored People. In the day, colored meant plural. You know, it's automatic. Assume it's black people because we were called colored at the time we were called colored and worse, you know, however, colored people means plural. And that's where we are. So what we would hope to do, assembly and other state organizations and local organizations works with the AACP to help us in our mission to make it a better community and safer. And so that African Americans are a part of the equation and that we interrupt the language of hate and resistance and dismissiveness in our culture. And that's. And that kind of says it all so that we can move forward because we cannot let other human beings be. You know, we went to a meeting in Watts that not long ago, after the observation of the six years since the Watts riot, the city councilman, everybody wanted to get up after dark. It's not conscionable.

we as an organization, we're a long way from this being resolved, of course, but we are looking for support from local and state until we get another re election, maybe federal at some point. But I appreciate being here and we are open to working with everyone at this point. Table because we've had issues and we've come together, but together we can make sure this is a better place. Thank you.

Good morning, chair, members of the committee and staff. My name is Joey Hernandez and I use they and he pronouns. I proudly serve as the director of policy and community building for at the Los Angeles LGBT LGBT center, which is the largest LGBTQ organization in the world. I am also a non binary, queer Latina child of immigrants who has seen firsthand the harsh realities too many of our community members face. Over the course of my life and in the last 20 years of advocating on behalf of this beautiful community. The reality is this, our community is under unprecedented attack, both politically and physically. First, we are facing extreme and escalating attacks from this federal administration, including efforts to dismantle civil rights protections, ban survivors fleeing violence from entering this country, target LGBTQ families and erase transgender people from public life. These actions have a chilling effect on safety, health, access and community trust, especially for youth, immigrants and trans people of color. As a social service provider with over 500,000 visits a year, we feel the impact every day increased fear, increased violence and increased demand for services. Second, we are facing a crisis of hate violence. As our colleague from the Human Rights Commission referenced, the most recent LA county hate crime report shows deeply disturbing trends. Anti transgender hate crimes saw the largest rise of any group and almost all all were violent. Transgender women were the majority of victims and more than half of these attacks occurred in public spaces. Nationally, one in five reported hate crimes targeted LGBTQ people. These numbers are about real people, our neighbors, our staff, our clients being attacked simply for existing. We need allies to put the values of liberation, courage and integrity into action. California must continue to be a bulwark against these attacks. And as I've heard from many of you, our laws and budgets are a reflection of our values. We need the state to be proactive, protective and bold because rhetoric becomes policy and policy becomes violence. LGBTQ safety is a shared responsibility and our liberation is inseparable from racial justice, immigrant rights, reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy. There are concrete steps the legislature can take right now in this session. First, we urge you to pass the $26 million funding proposal for Gender Affirming Care. The state only Medi Cal program will address the demand for these services that far exceeds capacity. Gender Affirming Care funding supports life saving health care at a time when the federal government is working to dismantle that infrastructure of clinics across the country, including Children's Hospital of Los Angeles that closed their doors to hundreds of transgender patients. Second, we urge you to pass the $35 million funding proposal for the LGBTQ Community Center Fund. LGBTQ centers across the state are serving more people with fewer resources as federal grants and funds are increasingly attacked, rescinded or politically targeted. At the Los Angeles LGBT center alone, we have had millions of dollars in federal grants terminated or threatened to be termina needed. While we have brought a lawsuit challenging these attacks in court, the federal administration is unrelenting. This fund would ensure stability for essential services such as housing support, mental health care, youth programs and violence prevention while federal protections remain under assault. Third, we urge you to reauthorize the California versus Hate program. This program is one of the most effective statewide tools for community based prevention, response and healing at the center. These funds directly support survivors of hate violence and help rebuild trust in systems that have historically harmed LGBTQ people. In closing, despite the challenges we face, California has always been a beacon of hope for LGBTQ people across the country and the world. With your partnership, we can continue building a state where trans and queer people are not only safe, but are healthy, equal and complete. Thank you.

assembly members Lowenthal and assembly members of Burr. My name is Jeanette Sripatin. I am the Policy and Advocacy Director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. I oversee all of cheerle's local, state and federal policy work, as well as our impactless litigation team. Thank you for the invitation to be here alongside these incredible colleagues that have been doing tremendous work for all of our communities here in Los Angeles County. I'm here to speak about what is happening right now with our communities. As many of my colleagues have mentioned, immigrants right now are living a moment of fear and violence and terror as we are seeing unprecedented immigration enforcement in many places. On our streets, in our churches, in places of businesses. And so not only are California's immigrants being targeted for immigration enforcement, but obviously also targeted for hate crimes, hate speech and hate acts. And just for reference, hate act is a term to refer to any event motivated by bias or prejudice, whether explicit or implicit, against a person or group's actual or perceived identity that inflicts individual or community harm. So as you can see, the rhetoric surrounding immigration has really fueled the fire here in many places like California. Conversations around border enforcement and drawing clear lines of who belongs in our country have all served to increase all three of these categories of hate targeting, especially for immigrants from various communities, including are brothers and sisters from the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, Muslim community, African immigrants, and members from the LGBT community as well. And for Latinos, there's multiple intersections of those communities as well. Additionally, just some quick stats. In 2024, we saw the largest number of reported hate crimes that were motivated by race, ethnicity or national origin. They accounted for over 48% of all hate crimes. For anti Latino crimes, 38% contained anti immigrant language and anti immigrant slurs. Things like wet bag or go back to your country were used in many of these instances. Of these, 66% targeted Latinos. And of those 65 specifically were anti Mexican, 15% targeted Asians. UCLA center for Health and Policy Research, which does this health survey every year called the California Health interview survey or KISS. The 2024 report found that 1 in 11 Californians directly experience hate. In the past year, 1 in 7 Californians witnessed that hate act and adolescents were nearly twice as likely as adults to directly experience hate in the past year as well. One of the biggest concerns that we have not only coming out of from the rhetoric coming out of the White House that, as I mentioned, serves to fuel hate in our society and really causes deep harm to not only the individuals that are targeted, but also their families and our communities. These acts sow division and fear for many communities across California. Immigrants are reluctant to report hate incidents due to fear of law enforcement and our government as well as concerns about language accessibility and fear about their own family members immigration, their own or their family members immigration status. Underreporting of hate crimes is still a concern for most individuals and many prefer to seek help from other family members or trusted allies within their social circle or others. Continue to live and fear live to continue to live in fear, in silence and never before, never report these incidents to anyone. This is why funding from the State of California and local entities are so crucial to continue to raise awareness, leverage resources and create systems of reporting that are trusted within California's immigrant communities across the state. It is critically important to continue to fund programs like Stop Hate and Stop AAPI Hate because these programs are directly addressing the needs of the community but also changing the landscape of trust to access services and support. Chirla has been fortunate enough to get some of this funding from CDSS and as part of our initiative we have been able to work with different coalitions in places like the Inland Empire to work not only develop strategic alliances in these regions but really build networks of community based organizations including LULAC and NAACP and the Civil Rights Institute of England and Southern California and Family Assistance Program where we connect community members directly with local officials and law enforcement to build community trust and ensure community safety is as centered in this fight against hate. We also conduct anti hate forums. We are able to organize these forums throughout the Inland Empire, Claremont, Pomona, San Bernardino areas as well to ensure that we are able to feature representatives from community organizations again, local elected officials and law enforcement to continue to build trust and collaboration and stand up against hate. I just wanted to give you a flavor of sort of also the work that Cherla does. We do have an immigration assistance line where folks are able to report hate incidents. We had one caller back in 2024 reach out to this line because her sister was in the middle of an eviction process and the landlord threatened to call immigration on her. This young woman was very afraid and called her brother for advice and one of the things that we were able to do is through that call. She also asked for help with her immigration case and wanted to get the advice of an immigration provider as well. So even though this call came from Northern California, it was actually from Oakland and from the Bay Area. Shout out to the Bay Area. Through our network, we're able to still connect this caller to the anti hate network that we have here in California and provide her with all the referrals that she needed on that day. So as you can see, the work that California has done, the amount of infrastructure that we have already built into our state, it's really important to continue to fund these program, these programs. I do want to just uplift one other thing really quickly. One of the things that is really important in the intersectional nature of hate crimes is also just understanding the immigration needs of individuals as well. Folks who are crime victims are eligible for either a U visa, if you're a trafficking victim, a T visa, or maybe maybe eligible for other protections under the Violence Against Women's Act. And so it's really important that we, as we look at hate crimes, that we're also looking at policies that we are uplifting for community members and letting them know what their rights are as well. And to that end, we do have a bill that, that Assemblymember Alvarez is moving this year. It's AB 1944, which would require law enforcement to provide information for individuals who are victims of crimes and give them this information within 14 days of submitting or filing a police report. But we also urge all of you here to continue to fund programs here in the state of California that ensure that these networks remain in place in the face of unprecedented number of attacks. Make this a priority in our budget fight this year. We realize that this is a really tough budget year for Californians, but again, this is critically important to ensure that we have this infrastructure in place and that we don't lose it. We want to specifically request support for the Stop Hate budget proposal which is requesting $100 million and funding over the course of the next three years. And then just lastly, I'll just close. You know, really want to thank you for holding this hearing today. Many of our communities are facing multiple crises. Here in la, it's not only about immigration enforcement. We are facing an economic crisis as well. And some members of our community are also victims of the wildfires. And so in the wake of this landscape, the more than we could build upon the infrastructure that we have in la, the quicker that we're able to not only provide those wraparound services but also provide really comprehensive services to individuals that are in really vulnerable situations at this given moment in time. And the better equipped we are to provide, provide those resources in a timely fashion. Thank you.

Thank you to Chairman Jackson and distinguished members of the Select Committee on Racism, Hate and Xenophobia for allowing CARE California to submit a statement. The Council on American Islamic Relations is the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country. And we are grateful for this committee's work and the opportunity to place our community's concerns into the official record of this body. We unfortunately cannot attend the hearing in person as it coincides with today's Eid Al Fitar holiday, a celebration marking the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan. So for those of us observing today, Eid Mu Barak, today's remarks are grounded in data. Real numbers documenting real harm to real Californians. CARE's 2025 Annual Civil Rights Report documented a record high of 8,683 complaints nationwide, the highest in the N.A. the organization's 30 year history. These are not hypothetical concerns. They are documented incidences, incidents of discrimination, harassment and government overreach affecting Muslim communities in workplaces, schools, government agencies and public space spaces across this country, including right here in California. The nature of the discrimination has also shifted in a disturbing direction. For the second consecutive year, employment discrimination was the single most reported category, surpassing hate crimes, government overreach and all other forms of bias. Muslims are being fired, disciplined, passed over and harassed at work not for misconduct, but for their faith, their ethnicity and increasingly for their political speech. The report found that in 2025, the narrative that Islamic religions principles are inherently threatening and anti American became a driver of workplace discrimination targeting Muslim livelihoods. Let me say that plainly for the record. People are losing their jobs in California because of how they pray and what they believe. They that is not a free society. That is not the California we are supposed to be. Our research also documented something more systemic than individual incidences coordinated efforts by political actors and institutions to redefine the boundaries of protected religious and civic participation, advancing the idea that Muslim identity in pro Palestinian political speech place people outside the normal protections of religious liberty and equal citizenship. As CARE's report concludes, 2025 became a climate in which Muslim civic participation carried heightened risk not seen since 9 11. The targeting has been explicit at the state level in other parts of this country, as we watch with alarm. Texas and Florida governors have publicly claimed to ban Sharia targeting Islamic centers, proposed mosques, Muslim burial practices, Islamic schools, and civil rights organizations like CAIR itself. And in Congress, five bills aimed at banning Islam were introduced by sitting federal officials. Just last week, Tennessee Representative Andy Ogles posted on X Muslims don't belong in American society, unquote. These are not fringe positions. They are policy proposals from people with real power. Here in California we see the downstream effects as this hearing takes place in LA. In 2025, we received 140 intakes from people based in Los Angeles county alone. Of these intakes, 18% were related to employment discrimination, 14 were related to education discrimination, and 11% were related to hate crimes and incidents. One concrete California example is of a nurse at Marin Health Medical center in Northern California who was forced to resign after she wore a Free Palestine badge reel. Her colleagues displayed Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ pins without incident, she was singled out. CARE California filed a formal complaint with the Civil Rights Department. In a similar case, a registered nurse at the Outpatient Surgery center of El La Jolla was terminated for displaying pro Palestinian stickers on her water bottle, a clear violation of California labor codes protecting employees from retaliation for political activities. These are not isolated incidents. They are a pattern, and the threat reaches beyond workplaces into the fundamental rights of civic participation. Mustafa Zeiden, a Palestinian American community organizer in LA, was placed on the FBI's no fly list with no notice, no due process and no explanation. Shortly after, he began organizing peaceful protests for Gaza. CARE California Final filed suit against the FBI in August 24th. This is happening here in our communities, to our neighbors, the government using surveillance infrastructure to punish people for exercising their First Amendment rights. We address this committee not only to name the problems, but to call to action for those who stand alongside us. California has historically led the nation on civil rights. This is a moment to lead again. First, strengthen hate crimes and bias incident reporting infrastructure and disaggregate data by religion, ethnicity and national origin. California needs granular, reliable data, the kind CARE has been forced to collect ourselves because government systems failed to capture the full Picture A state that cannot see the harm cannot address it. AB 91, known as the Mena Inclusion act, was enacted just this past January, but already faces serious efforts to roll back this hard fought win. We urge this body to support the full implementation of AB 91 as it was originally passed. Second, invest in community based Civil Rights Education Fund organizations like CARE to conduct know your rights trainings in communities, schools and workplaces. When people know their rights, they are better equipped to defend them, in better position to report violations that inform policy. Third, enact and enforce rapid, robust workplace anti discrimination protections that explicitly protect employees against retaliation for religious expression and political speech on matters of international concern. The pattern documented in CARE's report is clear. Muslims are being economically punished for their faith and their views. The law must close that gap. Fourth, prohibit California, state and local enforcement from sharing surveillance data with federal authorities for purposes of immigration enforcement or political profiling without judicial authorization. Surveillance without oversight erodes the trust of our communities that sorry erodes the trust our communities need to participate safely in civic life. Fifth, ensure meaningful representation. Appoint Muslim Californians to boards, commissions and task Force. In 2025, Care Track 38 electoral victories of Muslim candidates nationally, including a Muslim mayor elected in New York City and a Muslim lieutenant governor in Virginia. Our communities are ready to lead. This legislature should ensure we have seats at every table where decisions about our lives are made. The current federal administration poses a profound threat to civil liberties by institutional sorry, institutionalizing Islamophobia through the reinstatement of the Muslim ban, the use of immigrant immigration enforcement to suppress political speech, and the rollback of vital civil rights protections. Furthermore, the administration's use of national security rhetoric to justify the religious and ethnic targeting of Muslim communities, including a new war with Iran, shifts the burden to states like California to defend these vulnerable populations. In closing, the data is clear. The record high of 8,683 civil rights complaints documented by CARE in 2025 is a measure of real harm to real people, employees, students, families, worshipers and advocates in communities like ours across California. CARE California thanks this committee for creating space for our voices. We ask that this hearing be the beginning of a sustained legislative commitment, one backed by data, by resources, and by political courage. Thank you.

So one thing I think we should do just overall, kind of see this through the lens of law enforcement. Right. And thinking through how to engender that trust. And I think one thing we could do is look at the ways in which law enforcement is cooperating with immigration enforcement at this moment. Right. We do have SB54 that clearly states law enforcement cannot cooperate with the federal government when the sole focus of the federal operation is immigration enforcement. But there are other gaps where we see that local law enforcement is cooperating or helping federal enforcement to either suppress things like political speech, speech, suppress our First Amendment rights. And so, really thinking through from that lens, where are the gaps that exist in law that we could delineate and ensure? Because I think the state has a state interest, right, in ensuring that state residents can go to our local police and trust them to report crimes, to serve as witnesses, or to help in the collaboration of any investigation. And at this moment in time with immigration enforcement, our communities are seeing all law enforcement as one and the same. And so I think that's a more heightened state interest that we have overall. And instead of looking at these policies as just an immigration issue, or this is just about immigration and federal enforcement, it is really an issue about how we need to use our own state policing powers to engender the term trust of our community so that we can create public safety for everyone. Because what's currently happening is it's eroding trust and it's compromising all of our public safety. If I, as an immigrant, can't serve as a witness, my neighbor is going to be in trouble, right? Could, could, could, could seriously be harmed. And so we really need to start thinking about this more globally as a state, as a. As opposed to just an immigrant only issue.

Yes, Prop 36. We would love if the state legislatures could provide funding for alternative sentencing. Prop 36 to the African Latino community has the potential of being three strikes on steroids. And at the end of the day, the funding will put in the prison system will far exceed rehabilitative things we can do now. So I know there's a lack of funding. It's leaving the judges in the quagmire that we've talked to, we talked to the law enforcement and we're trying to get them. At least the leadership is supporting constitutional policing. But, you know, given culture, you know, our citizens still end up in that system, so we still need a way for them and permanently, you know, once you get all these felonies and whatnot like property strikes, it's challenging. So in their funding, we asking that you look at this for the alternative sentencing so that we can do better things. Sheriff Luna, we brought an issue to him. They weren't getting buses. He ordered 20 new buses to get people to the courthouse so that they could have a fair hearing and not rush through the process. But with this, we want funding. If you have, if you have the opportunity to. Alternative sentencing is critical because, you know, we have judges, you know, they're turning over. They've got public defenders becoming judges now. I mean, so we're in an opportunity to maybe intervene rather than having this tremendous cost of prison conversation that affects us. Thank you.

Thank you. And I, I share some of the same sentiments as my colleagues here, especially with Prop 36 and the injustices that could come from that. Unfortunately, my recommendations do come with funding primarily. I want to shed light that the federal government had cut the critical resources, such as in the Department of Justice, there is a community relations division and the Civil Rights Division. These community relations agents have been cut, fired wrongfully, and that leads a void that, you know, of resources that we help address some of these hate crimes. So, you know, at this point, the state might have to step in and make up for some of those shortfalls. I think funding towards those types of programs might be critical in order to ensure that the state is being able to be a stronger partner with communities and organizations that want to prevent hate crimes and xenophobia and racism.

I think this, I think this forum is a great example of how we could all show up as allies. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And I think solidarity, especially when there is an attack, has lasting impacts. And not just when we face an attack, but also have roundtable conversations before any incidents come. So we have those relationships built upon in anticipation for what might ultimately will happen in this day and age.

I think the. While allyship in this moment necessitates labor of some form, actively participating in dismantling bias in some way. And yes, that does come with a dollar amount at times, but it also just requires us to get uncomfortable to do the type of self reflection that is necessary to acknowledge our own biases and then be able to dismantle them actively. I think in relation to the nonviolent resistance that was mentioned earlier in thinking about Gandhi's concept of satyagraha and nonviolent resistance, I think it's really necessary to have self reflection in a way that also is nonviolent to others. How can you continue to dismantle your own biases while still participating in community and also in civic engagement? How do we engage in that process through the micro, the meso and the macro, with nonviolence, but with explicit truth telling of what's happening?

I believe as organization and as leaders, we have to sometimes step outside of our culture, a culture that reinforces our biases, our prejudices and racism and so that we have an opportunity within our own cultures to combat that. And so we can come together. And there's a concept of love and hate. Hate is really interesting because it can never be satiated Once you trigger it, it just keeps going. Love is satisfying, you know, it's fulfilling. It goes forward and so lacking that in the damage of it. And I know my colleagues in Japan would be surprised. I'm speaking this way because we trained mercenaries. You can't be successful at violence because it does not end and you create a situation. If your child is killed by a drunk driver, you may be law abiding, but you may do something very because the hate drives you to something that's not reasonable. So as organizations and as leaders, we've got to come together and put that aside and then make sure we teach our community or people we're representing that we've got to change, we've got to do it differently. And aacp, we keep coming to the table and fortunately the leadership probably isn't as aggressive as people my age would have been. But you still have to come to the table and be willing to work and say we're all human beings and if you've had a conflict, let's come together and let's move the ball forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Chair Jackson. So first of all, I just want to thank you all for being here today. It's important that you've taken time to help educate those of us in the legislature and the community about really the unique challenges that each of your communities face and the commonality in what you're facing as well. Each of you represent communities that are facing unique forms of hate, but forms of hate that affect all of your communities. You know, I look at you. Mr. Good. And recognize that, you know, that the community is facing long standing institutions, institutionalized forms of racism that we, you know, need to continue working on addressing in institutionalized ways in our communities. And then of course, a federal government that has given up on prioritizing civil rights enforcement and meeting the social service needs of our communities. That's no different from folks in the immigrant and Latino communities, obviously. But we see a horrendous focus in the targeting not only the black community, but Latinos and immigrants as we have federal agents for the first time in our history, coming into our communities and targeting people and ripping them out, away from their families and their schools. And so you're coming to us with recommendations and raising those voices is particularly important. And I just want to thank you. And then, of course, Joey. Mr. Hernandez, we've worked together for many years. We have, you know, similar to the. To the issues that immigrants are facing in our country, we actually have a. The fact that the LGBTQ community and transgender people and transgender kids in particular are the. Have become a wedge issue with this federal administration, and that has resulted in real harm to those communities with, as you referenced, the closure of Children's Hospital. I mean, I can't tell you how many families have come to us because they have lost the gender affirming care that they were entitled to. And of course, we have the whole issue of what's happening to these kids in schools and using LGBTQ and transgender kids in particular as a wedge issue in order for this federal administration to achieve political. Political gains. And then, of course, our Jewish community, which, you know, I think is the unique part there, is that the anti Semitism is rampant. And I mean, it's. I can't even say it's growing because it's just so rampant. And I think the unique thing about the. What's happening with the Jewish community is the anti Semitism is coming from both the land left and the right. And that is something that I find very troubling. And have been in rooms where what we all understand is the cultural competency that every community deserves in looking and centering the voices of that community, that. That respect is not given to the Jewish community, that folks will lecture them and tell members of the Jewish community community what is and isn't anti Semitism and will not listen to them and sort of the experience that they've had for millennia in one of the oldest hates that exists. So I just want to thank you all for being here today. I want to thank Chair Jackson for convening this group. He. I am particularly grateful for his allyship with the Jewish community because it's. It's one of the largest portions of my district. And he has just been a steadfast ally to the community. Want to thank him for that and thank you all for being here today. It sort of breaks my heart that we have to have this kind of convening today under the circumstances that we're facing with what's happening and coming out of the federal government. What we all know and what your voices are raising is that what's happening is causing real fear, real harm and real violence to each of the communities that you're advocating for. And so I just want to thank you because an important part of addressing what's happening in this country is actually raising the voices, making sure that people and we articulate and voice what's happening so that we can actually embrace it and actually come back with ways of combating it. So I just want to thank you all for being here today and want to thank the chair for convening us.

My name is Craig Ali. I'm in Santa Monica, part of the NAACP in Santa Monica. And as I grew up in South Los Angeles, I'm aware of a lot of the hate that went on. And when I see racism, I see it as an institutional thing. Anybody can call me the N word, but when the sheriff calls me that, I have a problem because he affects my life. So I say, in essence, in answer to your first question, recognize the power you have as an institution to more or less address my humanity, as well as folks who are not othered, who are othered to recognize essentially that if indeed you don't, then you don't give me much of a choice, you know,

basically try and defend myself. The 14th and 15th amendment are real to me. And if indeed that is curtailed, then what choices do I therefore have? Because I look to you as my protector within that. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Jackson Committee and Staff. My name is Romeo Hebron, Executive Director with the Filipino Migrant center based in Long beach, assembly member Lowenthal's district. We are also a member of the Stop the Hate Coalition and the California vs. Hate grantee. Through this funding we've been able to support hundreds of community members and families through intergenerational programs and services including direct case management and prevention services. One story to highlight from this work is the case of the Roques, a Filipino immigrant family who had anti Asian slurs directed at them in a fast food drive through which led to a physical altercation including the mother getting choked on the ground and the father receiving a broken rib at the hands of someone much larger than the in them. This resulted in a 15 month trial and campaign with close to 20 court appearances. In addition to the connecting the family with pro bono legal services, we conducted wide scale community education and outreach focused on multiracial solidarity and provided leadership development and organizing training including an average of 75 to 100 people at each court appearance in Van Nuys, with the largest being over 200 people in one court appearance. During this campaign we helped to produce the youth led documentary film Liwanag or Light featuring the Roque's story which was screened across California, Oregon, Washington, Chicago, New York, Texas and Hawaii. Three of the four filmmakers are also the children of our past service recipients, including a human trafficking survivor. The Roque family are still involved in a variety of community organizations and organizing efforts to this day, continuing to share their story and inspire others while they also continue to heal from their own experience with hate. So in closing, the Stop the Hate funding has been crucial for our programs and our services and the Roques are an example of how the most impacted and vulnerable in our community can flourish as leaders with the proper support support. Community organizations like Mine and Others and the Stop the Hate Coalition are calling for renewed funding so we can continue expanding on this work that's needed at such a crucial time. Thank you.

Thank you. Name and affiliation, please.

Thank you very much. Seeing no other folks lining up for public comment against, I want to thank all of those who have come to listen, provide public comment or to be a part of the panel. I want to thank Suleiman Zabur for allowing us to be in his hood and conduct this in this fantastic facility. And I want to thank Assemblymember Lowenthal for his participation. I want to thank staff who made all of this happen. I want to thank Latifah Alexander who is here staffing the committee, as well as Darrell and Gabby in my district office who came all this way. Now they know what I have to go through. I want to thank dco, as always, from the Los Angeles office for being able to staff us and provide all the technology that we need as well. So with that, thank you all very much and we will have our next select committee hearing in Sacramento. We are now adjourned.