Politics
A high school student's paper on the Mexican repatriation could lead to a new statue in L.A.
As her junior year of high school came to a close in 2023, Tamara Gisiger’s history teacher tasked the class with a research project of their choosing.
A then-17-year-old Gisiger narrowed in on what she called an “underground, hurtful and dark part of history that just isn’t talked about” — the Mexican repatriation that took place in the 1930s amid the Great Depression.
The repatriation involved deporting 1 million people with Mexican heritage, 60% of whom were American-born citizens, and was one of the largest deportations in American history, according to Gisiger, who lives in New York City.
The epicenter took place in Los Angeles, where up to 75,000 Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were deported by train — oftentimes at Union Station — in one year, Gisiger, now 19, said in a phone interview, reciting the dates and numbers off the top of her head.
Tamara Gisiger’s research paper on the Mexican repatriation could lead to a new statue in L.A.
(Tamara Gisiger)
Gisiger’s research has involved contact with descendants of those deported and eventually led to a panel at the United Nations’ Hispanic Leadership Summit last December. It could soon lead to a new law in California to create a statue memorializing a portion of history that politicians, academics and community leaders say is at risk of happening again.
“It’s so important that [the bill] is happening now,” said Gisiger, who is of Mexican and Swiss descent. “Next year will be the 95th anniversary of the start of the Mexican repatriation .…Hopefully, the statue and educating people can stop history from repeating itself.”
The bill, which faces a hearing Wednesday, is authored by Sens. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) and Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach), both of whom felt driven to commemorate the lives affected by the repatriation.
Becker said he met with Gisiger and her family and discovered upon reading her research paper how much he didn’t know about that time in history. He tagged in Gonzalez, who said she also did not learn much about the repatriation while attending public school in California.
Gonzalez, whose mother is a Mexican immigrant, said that the statue is important to combat “political rhetoric that basically is trying to bring back that history.”
Agricultural workers of Mexican descent await deportation in 1950 in California.
(Los Angeles Times)
“Let’s be very clear: [Former President] Trump has promised mass deportations in this election cycle, even mass deportations of people who have American children,” Gonzalez said. “He’s bringing back this generational trauma that so many of us have pushed aside.”
Trump has put fears about immigration at the center of his campaign and suggested using the National Guard to target between 15 million and 20 million people for deportation. He’s said he intends to launch “the largest mass deportation in the history of our country.”
Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey of Palmdale said that although he supports the bill, he felt it was a “very unfair characterization” to compare the repatriation with current day immigration.
“The issue of illegal immigration is a very emotional issue,” Lackey said. “I think that sending people back, and the way that they did it in that day, is much different. Those are people that did not break any rules or any laws by being here.”
Lackey described the memorial as an opportunity to show how “this country has made mistakes in its developments.”
“I think it’s very, very healthy to acknowledge poor decision making and things that were done that shouldn’t have been done so that we don’t repeat them,” he said.
The statue’s planning process would involve creating a nonprofit organization to oversee fundraising and development of a memorial in L.A., which supporters hope will be ready in time for either the 2026 World Cup or 2028 Olympics. The cost has not yet been determined, but supporters of the bill say it will be funded by private donations and not state dollars.
“The fact that there are some major events coming is important because, again, the whole goal of this is for people to learn about this part of history, acknowledge this part of our history, because that’s the only way we can try to make sure that it doesn’t happen again,” Becker said.
As for location, Gisiger envisions the memorial’s placement at either Union Station or a green space near Olvera Street. There’s no set design for the memorial, but Gisiger hopes it can be carved by a Mexican sculptor and show how families were separated due to the mass deportations by train.
“Through the statue, we need to be able to give respect, courage and honor to all the families of the Mexican Americans who need to hear that their family sacrifices were all worth it,” she said.
Efforts — and lawsuits — have been mounted in the past to address the repatriation’s impact in California. One of the most recent attempts came in 2005, when California issued a formal apology and required that a plaque be erected in L.A. The plaque was unveiled in February 2012 near the La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
The statue that would be created from Becker and Gonzalez’s bill, however, could result in a more robust tribute and become an act of restorative justice, according to Kevin Johnson, dean of UC Davis’ law school and professor of public interest law.
“It also could help educate the community about what happened and how it affected people during a time about how they identified themselves,” Johnson said.
Martin Cabrera’s late grandfather Emilio Cabrera, who was born in Wilmington, didn’t dwell too much on the day he was deported in 1931 at about 12 years old. He was expelled via train, but was able to later return to the U.S.
Emilio Cabrera and his wife Maria Asuncion in 1934. Although a U.S. citizen, Cabrera was deported to Mexico at age 12, but later returned.
(Family photo)
“I couldn’t understand it as a person growing up — how can he be deported when he was born in the United States? But it was what was taking place at the time. There were a lot of comments that said Mexicans are taking all the jobs,” Cabrera said from his office in Chicago.
Emilio, who died in 2005, refrained from contemplating the past, because, for him, there was too much work to be done, his grandson said.
“It was something that happened, and you deal with it and you keep working,” Cabrera said. “And that’s the one thing he instilled in us: hard work ethic. There’s always challenges in life.”
Cabrera hopes the statue will contain an uplifting message, perhaps one that can pay homage to the resilience of the Latino community in light of his grandfather’s legacy.
“That’s what I think is the key message,” he said, “that there are no limits on what we can do.”
Politics
Warren tells Trump to ‘sign the damn bill’ as bipartisan housing package remains stalled in Washington
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., lashed out at President Donald Trump during a recent local television interview, labeling him a “man-child” throwing a “tantrum” over his refusal to sign a sweeping bipartisan housing package.
Appearing on WCVB’s “On the Record,” the left-wing senator did not hold back her frustration over the stalled legislation, delivering a blunt message to the president: “Sign the damn bill.”
“If he cared about the American people, he’d have already signed the damn thing,” Warren said during the interview, arguing that Trump “does not care about the economic survival of America’s working families.”
FILE – The Senate previously advanced the massive housing package geared toward lowering the costs of homes and supercharging the housing supply. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pitched it as legislation to prevent America from becoming a “nation of renters.” (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Protect Borrowers ; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act is an expansive bipartisan package that she said contains nearly 50 provisions designed to address the nationwide housing emergency.
Warren noted that decades of under-building have driven prices up, leaving the U.S. in need of millions of new units.
The primary focus of the bill is to lower the costs of construction and make it easier to build new homes.
FILE – President Donald Trump previously said lawmakers must first approve the SAVE America Act before he moves forward with the housing package. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg)
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The bill, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., also includes a secondary focus aimed at blocking corporate consolidation of the housing market.
Warren explained that the legislation is designed to keep private equity firms from buying up local neighborhoods and turning America “into a nation of renters.”
According to Warren, the legislation had widespread support from both sides of the aisle before it was stalled.
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She claimed the bill was “handed to the president on a silver platter” and that lawmakers from both parties were eagerly taking credit for the legislation.
“Republicans were all going online, saying, ‘well, I helped write that bill. This bill is terrific,’” Warren said. “So everybody’s out there saying, ‘my bill, I helped make this happen,’ right up until the man-child has a tantrum and announces he will not be signing it.”
FILE – Sen. Elizabeth Warren called President Donald Trump a “man-child” during the interview, describing his refusal to sign the bill as a “tantrum.” (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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Critics of the legislation claim it does not allocate fresh federal funding, directly address rising costs of homeownership, or go far enough to address permitting issues.
The president previously canceled a scheduled signing event, insisting lawmakers must first approve the unrelated SAVE America Act, a voting-focused measure, before he moves forward.
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Miller contributed to this report.
Veteran MS NOW anchor Alex Witt is leaving the news network, which is moving away from live evening programming on weekends.
The new weekend programming strategy announced Friday is a cost-saving measure that will give parent company Versant more resources for a new direct-to-consumer streaming offering that makes MS NOW available to consumers without a pay-TV subscription. The company is also looking to expand its live event business.
According to a memo from MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler, “The Weekend: Primetime,” a live discussion program launched last year, will have its final airing Saturday.
One of the program’s co-hosts, Antonia Hylton, will take over Witt’s midday shifts later this year. Hylton’s co-hosts Ayman Mohyeldin, Catherine Rampell and Elise Jordan will remain with MS NOW and continue to appear on other programs.
Kutler said job losses from the moves are minimal and encouraged staffers who lose their current roles to apply for 40 current job openings at the company with more on the way. MS NOW has been staffing up its news operation since separating from NBC News last year.
MS NOW changed its name from MSNBC in November. The network, along with other Comcast-owned cable channels, were spun off into Versant in January.
Weekends have long been a ratings weak spot for MS NOW, which while a distant second to Fox News, has seen audience growth in 2026 and remains ahead of CNN. The network has started to rely on podcasts such as “Pod Save America,” from Crooked Media, to fill some hours. The episodes have performed strongly enough for MS NOW to try similar deals with outside podcast producers.
“Throughout the summer, we will expand our taped strategy and announce new content partnerships,” Kutler said in her memo.
With the changes, MS NOW will still have 20 hours of live programming each weekend and will be staffed to handle breaking news.
Witt joined the network formerly known as MSNBC in 1999, long before it began its strong tilt toward progressive political commentary. Over the years, Witt’s weekend newscast became one of the few programs on the network that delivered straight news without opinion.
Kutler called Witt “a beloved longtime member of our MS NOW family” and “a continued, trusted, and steady presence for our audiences.”
While Witt works through the summer, Hylton will anchor the 11 a.m. weekday time period, which will eventually be handled by former NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander.
Politics
McCarthy says Trump will use ‘everything he can’ to force Senate action on SAVE America Act
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As infighting over the SAVE America Act throws congressional Republicans into disarray, President Donald Trump’s bid to get the stalled election bill across the finish line gained one notable ally.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told Fox News Digital that he supports the election integrity measure and indicated that Trump should continue to use every available tool to pressure the Senate to pass it.
“He’s going to try everything he can to make sure he passes that through,” McCarthy said in a brief interview outside the U.S. Capitol.
The ex-speaker’s comments came after Trump abruptly called off a signing ceremony Wednesday for a bipartisan housing bill to pressure the Republican-controlled Senate to act on the SAVE America Act.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One as he departs Reading Regional Airport in Reading, Pa., on June 23, 2026. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
IRATE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE TRUMP OF HANDING DEMOCRATS A WIN AFTER BLOWING UP HOUSING PACKAGE
The move surprised Republican lawmakers, some of whom were praising the bill’s passage at a press conference when Trump’s Truth Social post broke.
But Trump has repeatedly cast the election measure — requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and voter identification requirements — as his top legislative priority.
The legislation’s momentum, however, has slowed in the upper chamber, where Republican leadership insists the votes aren’t there amid widespread Democratic opposition. Senate Republicans have also been unwilling to eliminate the legislative filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold to pass the legislation.
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy speaks during a ceremony honoring President Ronald Reagan on the 115th anniversary of his birthday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Feb. 6, 2026. (Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group)
TRUMP CALLS MAIL IN VOTING CORRUPT AS SENATE BEGINS DEBATE ON SAVE ACT REQUIRING VOTER ID
Amid the SAVE standoff, a group of conservative lawmakers effectively shut down the House floor in an effort to force Senate action on the election bill.
But the Senate recessed Wednesday for two weeks over the July 4 holiday, leaving the measure in limbo until lawmakers return.
The conservative-led blockade sparked fierce backlash, with several members inside the GOP conference telling Fox News Digital the move risked torpedoing their own legislative agenda.
Meanwhile, the House has also yet to pass a version of the legislation incorporating several of the president’s priorities, including a mail-in voting crackdown and provisions banning men from competing in women’s sports and child sex change procedures.
Trump has not indicated whether he will sign the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, despite the likely existence of a veto-proof majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Thursday that the housing bill had been transmitted to the White House for Trump’s signature following a meeting with the president.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters in the U.S. Capitol on June 10, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Trump now has 10 days to sign the package or veto it. If he does nothing, the legislation automatically becomes law at the end of the 10-day period.
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