This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

When Karen Bass was elected mayor of Los Angeles in 2022, she won in part because of a promise to address

the city's pervasive and very deep housing crisis. But now there's a different crisis at her

doorstep. Los Angeles is very much an immigrant city. According to the census, more than a third

of the city is foreign-born. The Trump administration has been targeting L.A. as part of what the president called

the largest mass deportation operation in history.

ICE raids have swept up immigrants who were in the U.S. legally, and in some cases, are American citizens.

In June, as protests against ICE developed, Trump sent a military

force of thousands of troops, National Guard and even Marines, into Los Angeles, very much against

the will of Mayor Bass and the governor, Gavin Newsom. Some have gone home, but some troops are deployed

in the city even now.

In Los Angeles, a battle has taken shape between a federal government that asserts an absolute mandate

and a local government that says, we represent our people and will take care of our issues.

I spoke recently with Mayor Karen Bass.

Mayor Bass, how are you?

Good. Good, good. I'm holding a good. You know, we haven't had any raids in a few days.

And so I'm doing just fine.

So that's what counts for being good, is not having any fires and not having any raids in a few days.

How distorted is that? And you know what?

And our men and women are going home. And that's very meaningful to me because to see the National Guard

misused. And I think that most people don't understand who the National Guard are. You know,

...