Senator Alex Padilla on Confronting Presidential Corruption and ICE

After recent revelations that President Trump took in more that $2.2 billion during his first year back in the White House, we talk to Democratic Senator Alex Padilla about his new anti-corruption initiative to address Trump’s alleged self-dealing and its costs to taxpayers. We’ll also ask Padilla about the historically high number of deaths in ICE detention, calls for increased oversight and transparency and what he believes must change as immigration detention continues to expand.

Guest:

• Alex Padilla, U.S. Senator representing California

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.

Mina Kim: Welcome to Forum. I’m Mina Kim.

Nearly a million people lost money — billions of dollars in total — on President Trump’s meme coin, while the president took in more than $2 billion from his crypto and other business ventures in his first year in office, according to recent financial disclosures.

Joining me now is California Senator Alex Padilla to talk about his new anti-corruption initiative aimed at addressing concerns over Trump’s self-dealing and its cost to taxpayers. Among other issues important to Californians, including immigrant detentions, the topic that we’ll focus on later this hour.

Listeners, you can share questions now for the senator at our email address, [email protected], or on Discord, Bluesky, Facebook, or Instagram.

Senator Padilla, welcome to Forum.

Sen. Alex Padilla: Thank you, Mina. Thank you for having me.

Mina Kim: Help our listeners understand what the scale of the income the president took in last year means and why we need to be concerned.

Sen. Alex Padilla: Yeah, no, and I appreciate the question.

It’s been just over a year and a half now into the second Trump term in office. The whole country, and especially California, is all too familiar with the cost impact of his failed leadership: the cost of groceries, the cost of housing, the cost of health care, the cost of energy, et cetera.

California especially is all too familiar with the cruelty of the second administration, particularly as it pertains to their mass detention and mass deportation agenda.

But I think what has been lost on some is both the scale of corruption and the cost of corruption that we’re all paying. Because while Trump and his family and friends are making money left and right, the tariff war is probably the perfect example. He’s utilizing and abusing powers that he doesn’t have to enter the tariff wars that have raised costs for working families while his sons and his businesses are being paid by foreign entities as part of the negotiations to relieve tariffs.

So we do think it’s time to really put a spotlight on the corruption part of the Trump administration as people are getting ready to vote this November.

Mina Kim: But is it illegal? I mean, you mentioned the tariffs as one example of taxpayer income, but the president claims there’s nothing corrupt about what he’s doing because he’s doing it all openly.

Sen. Alex Padilla: Well, just because Donald Trump says it’s not illegal doesn’t mean it’s not illegal.

In fact, he knows very well the tariff powers he does not have. The courts have made that abundantly clear.

We raised concerns, for example, when the Qatari government gifted him, supposedly, a replacement for Air Force One. We knew it was problematic from the beginning because of the corruption piece of it. There were obviously security questions that Democrats raised publicly, some Republicans raised privately, that have come to roost when they’ve taken that plane out of commission for security concerns.

So Donald Trump — again, all you need to know is the chaos he’s created, the costs he’s making American families pay, and the ceaseless corruption. He’s laughing at Americans all the way to the bank. We can’t stand for it.

Mina Kim: Well, a listener writes on Discord, “How do you handle people’s propensity for hand-waving away the uniquely brazen levels of self-dealing when people simply react with something like, ‘Yeah, they all do it’?”

I know our listeners care about this issue, but do you get a sense that this is an issue that voters care about broadly? What can Democrats do better to show, as you’re trying to, that this may be at odds with key issues like affordability?

Sen. Alex Padilla: Yeah, no, I do get the sense that people see it for what it is, and they know that it’s not right.

That’s not a Democratic concern or a Republican concern. It’s an American concern, a working-family concern.

So what can we do? Well, the fact of the matter is Democrats are currently in the minority in Congress. We’re doing our best to shed light on the corruption. The best thing that we can do is make sure voters keep this in mind when we go vote in November.

And if we’re able to regain the majority in the House or the Senate, or ideally both, then we have the power of the gavel, the oversight responsibility and opportunity that the current Republican majority in Congress is too afraid to conduct.

And, by the way, it’s not just hearings in the capital of the United States. When we talk about oversight — we’ll talk more about immigration and ICE detention — observation and oversight at ICE facilities across the country is something that Democrats are willing to do. Republicans have not been willing to.

This administration has been anything but forthcoming and transparent. So the corruption is just so rampant throughout this administration.

Mina Kim: Before we get to ICE, we do have this question from a listener, also on Discord:

“Senator, thank you for the initiative. It’s overdue. How do we hold politicians accountable? How do we make the wealthy pay more taxes and get back valuable services the federal government provided before the Big Beautiful Bill was passed?”

Your proposal to address the cost of corruption, as you put it, is a working group to expose the president’s abuses, identify the harms, and develop reforms. But they would not rein in this president, correct? This is to affect the capacities of future presidents to do this.

Sen. Alex Padilla: Well, after this year, some of those measures could go into effect.

Again, it begins with regaining the majority in Congress because Republicans have failed. They’ve abdicated their oversight and accountability responsibilities.

One of the other statistics I will point out is the more than 21,000 stock trades that Donald Trump and his eight companies — or eight platforms — have been involved with. If you do the math, that’s dozens and dozens of trades per day. That’s a huge number for somebody who claims to be focused on American families and the American economy.

Clearly, he’s not. He’s lining his own pockets and dismissing the needs and the struggles of so many families across California and across the country.

Mina Kim: Senator, as you know, we’ll be talking about ICE detentions later in the hour, and actually about conditions at ICE’s largest detention center, Camp East Montana in Texas, where three people have died since December.

Senator, six people have died at California ICE facilities — Adelanto and Imperial — since September. You’ve visited the state’s largest center in California City. What is happening in these places?

Sen. Alex Padilla: Yeah, I can tell you, having seen firsthand when I have been able to enter facilities — that’s a whole other problem, many members of Congress being denied the ability to enter detention facilities to conduct our responsibility of oversight of how this administration is doing its job.

What I saw in California City — you can debate the quality of the food. You cannot debate the lack of access to clean water for the detainees. And, granted, words matter. They are detainees, not criminals. This is civilian detention while they’re awaiting their day in court.

What was most appalling and most horrific was medical negligence. I can’t put it any other way.

Not people with minor conditions like a headache or sore shoulders or what have you. People with chronic conditions, people with injuries sustained from when they were taken into custody because of how they were taken into custody, and not being able to receive medical attention for weeks and weeks, if not months at a time.

So the sheer neglect that has led to a record number of deaths of people in ICE detention is appalling, and it’s unacceptable. And again, something that will change when Democrats regain the majority.

Mina Kim: You’ve introduced legislation to end the use of privately owned detention facilities.

Related to the private ownership of them, I have to get your reaction to the recent news that the federal government has purchased outright two of California’s centers, Otay Mesa and California City, which experts say will make it even harder for California inspections. They cite California’s legislative push to make it harder for private prisons to operate as a key reason they bought them.

What is your reaction to that?

Sen. Alex Padilla: Well, not surprised, because it goes back to the cruelty of this administration.

Let’s go back to corruption for a second. The privately run detention facility — every detention facility, first of all, is a real estate deal. It’s a property that’s being purchased or leased. Somebody’s making money on that transaction. Then there’s the retrofit, rehab to make it a detention facility, so there’s a contract for a contractor that’s awarded. Then there’s the operations contract. And we know it’s huge donors to Donald Trump and the Republican Party at every step of the way.

So it’s a money-making operation at the expense of immigrants.

Based on ICE’s own data, well more than 70% of folks in detention do not have a violent criminal history. They may be undocumented. Many people have work authorization or different forms of legal status in the United States, but they’re being detained nonetheless because it’s a money-making operation for Trump and his cronies.

Because cities and states like California have found unique ways of cracking down — whether it’s through certificates of occupancy requirements, business licensing requirements, even taxation proposals — the federal government has figured out that, to keep this going, they should be official federal facilities, not privately run detention centers.

So I think this is just their latest corrupt move to shield themselves from oversight, shield themselves from liability, and let the cruelty continue.

We’re going to have to pivot our efforts to push back on that. But remind people: keep this in mind as well when you go vote this November.

Mina Kim: Yes, you are citing the need for Democratic wins in the midterm elections for meaningful change to the issues that we’re discussing here.

You’re a ranking member of the Senate Rules Committee, with oversight over federal elections. How concerned are you about federal agents at voting centers and other effects on the midterm elections? How will you address this?

Sen. Alex Padilla: Look, I’ve been saying all year long we have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

I put nothing past Donald Trump in his efforts to tip the scales in this election. He knows that his record is not just unpopular, but it’s been so damaging to so many people. His only hope at staying in power and keeping Republican majorities is to rig the elections, whether it’s purging people from voter rolls — that’s their whole point on the SAVE Act — whether it’s the redistricting battles that he instigated beginning with Texas, his fixation on banning vote by mail, even though he votes by mail. He doesn’t want us to vote by mail, even though it is safe, secure, convenient, and popular.

So this notion of maybe sending federal agents to the polls to intimidate voters, I don’t put it past them.

But it’s one of the reasons that we’ve convened, at least in the Senate, an election protection task force. Democratic members of the Senate are working in conjunction with voting rights advocates, attorneys, and others to envision what possible threats to the election — because they’re no longer hypothetical — and let’s make sure we have plans and we’re ready to protect our fundamental rights.

Mina Kim: California Senator Alex Padilla, thank you very much for talking with us.

This is Forum. I’m Mina Kim.