Politics
Deep blue New Jersey amid ‘Lord of the Rings’ moment to ‘save the state’ from Democrats: Scott Presler
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New Jersey is in the midst of a “Lord of the Rings” moment as Republicans work to rally voters to flip the deep blue state red in a tight gubernatorial election that’s coming down to its final days, Republican activist Scott Presler told Fox News Digital in an exclusive Zoom interview.
“To anyone who thinks that New Jersey is not winnable this November, I want to remind you that in 2021, that election was decided by 84,000 votes,” Presler told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “Six hundred thousand Republicans did not vote in that election. That election was winnable. Did you know that there are 250,000 gun owners in New Jersey that are not registered to vote? If simply every Second Amendment supporter got registered and voted, we would flip New Jersey from blue to red.”
Presler is on a “flip it red” mission in the Garden State, registering voters and promoting GOP candidate Jack Ciaterelli’s campaign against Democrat candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, in an off-year election that could add to the Democratic Party’s mounting woes following 2024’s ballot box losses or preserve the party’s legacy in the longtime blue state.
Presler is the founder of Early Vote Action, a PAC he operates that focuses on voter registration and rallied support for President Donald Trump’s campaign and the GOP in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania during the 2024 election. The Republican activist spent months criss-crossing the Keystone State to rally support for the Trump–Vance ticket before the battleground ultimately threw its support behind the GOP on Election Day.
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Scott Presler registers new voters and hands out signs amid tailgaters in State College, Pennsylvania, in 2024. (Fox News Digital/Charlie Creitz)
Presler has since crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey, where he’s targeting the longtime blue state with conservative activism.
“We just won a landslide victory for Donald Trump, winning all seven swing states and winning the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with our work at Early Vote Action. In December of 2024, I announced that we were going to focus next on helping to flip the New Jersey governorship from blue to red. So we have currently, 14 full-time staff on the ground across New Jersey’s 21 counties. We have been working tirelessly all throughout 2025, helping to register voters. And our message is: leave no county untouched,” he said, explaining he and staff are not only focused on deep blue counties ahead of the election, but also on reinvigorating voters in rural and right-leaning counties.
New Jersey is in the midst of a “Lord of the Rings” or “Star Wars” moment, Presler said, saying voters have the chance to “save their state” and pointed to data showing how Republican support has increased in the state.
“This is their opportunity to save the state. This election in 2025 is gonna be seen as a referendum. The final opportunity, this is your ‘Lord of the Rings,’ This is your ‘Star Wars’ moment when people have the chance to save their state,” he said.
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New Jersey voted to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris as president nearly a year ago. Trump, however, made big inroads with Garden State voters, flipping five counties red, and improved on his 16-point loss in the state during the 2020 election to a six-point loss in 2024.
“Every month besides June, when that party switching was happening, Republicans have gained in an off-year election when the Democrats are spending more money than us and in a blue state. That shows me that I think the tide is changing, and I think that we have wind at our backs,” he said.
Republican activist Scott Presler rallied voter registration in the battleground state of Pennsylvania for the GOP during the 2024 election and is now focused on flipping New Jersey red during the 2025 off-year election. (Jeff Kowalsky/ Getty Images )
Presler rattled off that New Jersey voters have become increasingly incensed by the state’s notoriously high property taxes, its spiraling energy rates and even its ongoing ban on plastic bags at checkout lines that have spurred some residents to abandon Democrats in favor of the GOP ticket.
“Republicans, we must be that common-sense home, that common-sense party, that we are going to bring down property taxes, which is hurting New Jersey families — and that’s the number one issue that I hear about,” he said. “That we wanna bring down electricity prices, the number two issue that hear about from voters. And voters also want the third common-sense issue, which is law and order. They want us to deport and arrest criminal illegal aliens that are committing crimes against New Jersey voters. And from being on the ground this last year in 2025, I think you’re gonna see a huge amount of independent and Democrat voters vote for Jack because of those three common sense policies.”
The activist pointed to one former Democrat voter and teacher he chatted with at a fair in Sussex County, New Jersey — a rural area of the state that borders both New York and Pennsylvania — who remarked Democrats had become so “extreme” in their views that he left the party and is considering casting a red vote.
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“They have become so extreme, so radical in their beliefs, even when it comes to things like allowing children to change their gender at such a young age. He says that he wants nothing to do with that party anymore,” Presler said of what the voter relayed to him. “And after a conversation I had with him, he’s even willing to give Jack Ciattarelli a closer look. And so that just shows me that Democrats are fleeing their former party. And they’re looking for a new home.”
Republican activist Scott Presler is the founder of Early Vote Action, a PAC that focuses on voter registration and is currently working to flip New Jersey red. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Gen Z, the youngest American generation that is able to vote, played a pivotal role in delivering Trump a victory in 2024, with Presler saying male Gen Zers, specifically, are moving more to the right in New Jersey’s gubernatorial election.
The GOP activist pointed to another resident he chatted with during the Monmouth County, New Jersey, Fair over the summer, an 18-year-old who was not yet registered to vote.
“When I am talking to a voter, I really want to get into the mind and the head of the voter. And I was just asking him some questions. ‘Hey, would you like to own a home one day?’ And he was saying, ‘Yeah I want to but gosh the property’ — he said this, not me — ‘the property taxes are so high here,’” Presler recounted.
“As I’m just talking to him, I’m really discerning most of his beliefs. I think all of them really are congruent with the Republican Party. And so I’m courting him, and I’m asking for his vote for Jack Ciattarelli, and I am asking him to register to vote. And it’s young men like that man that I think you’re going to see who carried Donald Trump to victory in 2024, a lot of those some voters are gonna come out this year,” he added.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) both launched gubernatorial bids for their respective states in the 2025 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
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Sherrill is in the midst of facing a campaign scandal after a report in September revealed that the United States Naval Academy blocked Sherrill from taking part in her graduation amid the cheating scandal. The Democrat House lawmaker slammed the release of the report and said she was banned from walking at her graduation because she declined to report classmates who were involved in the scandal.
“Mikie ‘Cheating Scandal’ Sherrill,” Presler called Sherrill. “She voted against (the Laken Riley Act). She has no plan to bring down property taxes. She has no plan to bring down electricity crisis prices. And she doesn’t know where she made her money, $7 million worth in stock trades. … In fact, I would argue that those are the reasons why Democrat turnout is gonna be depressed. Their candidate is uninspiring versus Jack Ciattarelli.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill’s campaign regarding Presler’s remarks but did not immediately receive a response.
On the flip side, Presler said, Trump-endorsed Ciattarelli is offering voters policies that would bring taxes and electricity prices down, ending New Jersey’s ban on plastic bags, opposing offshore wind to protect marine life, among other policies.
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“They want to make life affordable for New Jersey voters so they don’t have to move to Pennsylvania,” he said. “They don’t to move Florida. They want to stay in new Jersey. And so really Jack Ciattarelli is offering policies that the residents are responding to.”
The Trump administration this week instructed federal prosecutors to use terrorism statutes to target Mexican officials complicit in the narcotics trade, a significant escalation in its campaign against drug trafficking from Mexico, according to a U.S. official familiar with the remarks.
That new directive was announced Wednesday by Aakash Singh, an associate deputy attorney general, during an internal conference call with prosecutors in regional offices and represents an aggressive new tactic in the administration’s counternarcotics strategy that is almost certain to further strain its relationship with Mexico.
The initiative is the latest expansion of a hard-line policy that has defined President Trump’s agenda since his return to the White House last year, when he signed an executive order designating Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Within months, the U.S. military began blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing nearly 200 people the administration says are drug smugglers.
The Justice Department directive, which has not been previously reported, comes two weeks after federal prosecutors in New York indicted the governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, who is also a member of the country’s governing party, and nine other current and former Mexican officials. Days earlier, the death of two Central Intelligence Agency officers in a car crash in Mexico revealed a covert element of the White House’s clampdown on cartels. The developments have sharply intensified cross-border tensions.
Mr. Singh’s role includes setting priorities for the 93 U.S. attorneys, and his marching orders for them on Wednesday were blunt and strikingly undiplomatic.
“We should be tripling the number of indictments of corrupt government officials in Mexico who are using their power and their positions to enable terrorists and monsters who traffic in misery and poison,” he told colleagues, according to the U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Prior U.S. indictments accusing Latin American officials of drug crimes have frayed bilateral relationships that include cooperation on many fronts. But Mr. Singh seemed to relish that prospect as he urged prosecutors to charge Mexican officials with providing material support to terrorist organizations, in addition to drug crimes.
“If that is an unwelcome development for Mexican government officials and they are offended that we’re doing that, I cannot think of a single thing I care about less,” he said. “If we are shaming and embarrassing them in the process, then that is the cherry on top for us.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has made clear she is not happy with the U.S. decision last month to charge a sitting Mexican governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, and other officials with collaborating with drug cartels. She has refused to arrest Mr. Rocha, criticizing U.S. officials for not providing sufficient evidence, and she has repeatedly framed the accusations against him as a potential affront to Mexican sovereignty.
Mr. Rocha, who has temporarily stepped down, has denied the charges, instead accusing the Trump administration of politically targeting him to undermine Ms. Sheinbaum’s political party.
On Friday, the Mexican government said that one of the other indicted officials, Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, the former state security chief in Sinaloa, turned himself in to U.S. authorities earlier this week, crossing the border into Arizona from Nogales, Mexico.
A second indicted official, Enrique Díaz, a former finance official in Sinaloa, was arrested in Europe, according to a Mexican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity without authorization to speak publicly.
Ms. Sheinbaum said on Friday that she had “had a cordial and excellent conversation with President Trump,” in which they “reaffirmed the work we’re doing on security and the talks on trade.”
While the Justice Department has not publicly signaled its intention to charge Mexican politicians with terrorism crimes, senior administration officials made clear in recent days that the indictment of Mr. Rocha and other officials would not be a one-off.
“They are just as much responsible for the death and destruction of record amounts of Americans by cooperating, by conspiring, by helping producing this poison to come across the border and come into our country,” Terrance C. Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. He added, “This is just the start.”
Taking a harder line against Mexican politicians is a shift in U.S. strategy, which has largely focused on prosecuting cartel leaders. Most recently, Mexico has sent more than 90 detained cartel operatives to the United States, including the notorious cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted of masterminding the murder of a D.E.A. agent more than 40 years ago.
Those transfers reflect stronger cooperation on security issues under the Trump and Sheinbaum administrations, particularly compared with the relationship under Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who pursued a less-lethal approach known as “hugs, not bullets.”
But the U.S. investigations into Mexican politicians have put Ms. Sheinbaum in a difficult political position. Many members of her dominant political party, Morena, have been deeply suspicious of the U.S. government, and several of the politicians who could be targeted belong to Morena.
Yet it seems likely that the cartel defendants Mexico sent to the United States could now help lead to such cases. Earlier this month, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that those drug traffickers had shared valuable intelligence.
“One consequence of having a lot of the leaders of some of these cartels brought here over the past year, in cooperation with the Mexican government, is some of them will likely want to cooperate,” Mr. Blanche said in an interview at a border security industry event. “That cooperation could lead to additional charges.”
By publicly signaling its intention to go after politicians who have helped cartels smuggle cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, the Trump administration may have a number of goals, analysts said.
At face value, the threat could have a chilling effect on government officials who actively or tacitly support the trade, and whose political campaigns can be bankrolled by kingpins. But it could also give U.S. officials leverage as they negotiate the future of a trade alliance that includes Canada, Mexico and the United States ahead of a July 1 deadline. Mr. Trump’s frequent threats to carry out unilateral military action against the cartels on Mexican soil also hang over those talks.
“Many people will see this as a heavy-handed move against Mexico, which under Sheinbaum has done much more than any of her predecessors on these issues,” said Roberta S. Jacobson, who served as ambassador to Mexico during the Obama administration.
Because many of the officials the Justice Department could charge are from Ms. Sheinbaum’s Morena Party, “it could put her in perhaps the worst possible position,” Ms. Jacobson said.
Top officials in Ms. Sheinbaum’s government are frustrated with how the Trump administration has handled the indictment of Mr. Rocha, the Sinaloa governor, according to the Mexican official who spoke about Mr. Díaz.
Her government has handed over virtually every criminal defendant the Trump administration has asked for, this person said, yet it has received little information from their interrogations, making it difficult to collaborate on investigations. At the same time, Ms. Sheinbaum has publicly complained that the United States has denied dozens of extradition requests from Mexico.
The United States has charged top officials in Latin America with drug crimes for decades. Such cases have often scrambled power structures and political dynamics across the region, but the drug trade remains a behemoth that generates billions in profits, driven by strong demand from Americans.
High-profile prosecutions the Justice Department has pursued in recent years include the cases of Nicolás Maduro, the former leader of Venezuela seized in Caracas during a brazen operation carried out by U.S. Special Operations forces in January, and of Genaro García Luna, a former top law enforcement official in Mexico. Mr. Maduro is awaiting trial alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, in New York. Mr. García Luna was sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2024, following his conviction at trial in New York.
Another prominent case, involving Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, had an unusual twist. A little more than a year after a judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison for his role in the trade of 400 tons of cocaine, Mr. Trump pardoned him, heeding a request from Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser, and other right-wing figures.
One American case against a senior Mexican official — Salvador Cienfuegos, a former defense minister who was arrested at the Los Angeles airport in 2020 and charged with having ties to the violent H-2 cartel — backfired badly. The Justice Department dropped its charges against Mr. Cienfuegos under pressure from the Mexican government, which threatened to expel U.S. agents and subsequently passed legislation that severely restricted bilateral security cooperation.
Going forward, Mr. Singh, a top aide to Mr. Blanche known for an abrasive style, said that the Justice Department intended to take a zero-leniency approach. In addition to charging politicians with drug and firearms felonies, which can lead to lengthy prison terms, prosecutors should seek to also charge them with material support for terrorist groups, he said.
Convictions can result in prison terms of up to 15 years, or life, if the underlying offense resulted in a death.
But so far, the Justice Department has used terrorism charges sparingly against cartels. A year ago, prosecutors charged two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel with material support for terrorism in connection with their alleged efforts to smuggle large amounts of drugs into the United States.
Mr. Singh said the department wanted to pursue more of those cases. “We need to be treating these people like the terrorists they are,” he said.
Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting.
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President Donald Trump returned from his high-stakes summit in China with President Xi Jinping touting trade progress and warmer ties, but several of the biggest pressure points in the U.S.-China relationship — from trade and Taiwan, to AI and human rights — appeared to end without firm public breakthroughs.
“We had a great stay. It was an amazing period of time. President Xi’s an incredible guy. We’ve made a lot of great trade deals,” Trump said Friday aboard Air Force One while returning to the White House.
The trip gave Trump several economic talking points, including potential Chinese purchases of Boeing aircraft, U.S. soybeans and American energy, but public readouts and Trump’s recent remarks show some major questions went unresolved.
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Trump said the summit produced “fantastic trade deals.” (Evan Vucci/Pool Reuters via AP)
Taiwan
During the summit, Xi warned that mishandling the Taiwan issue could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries.
Trump said “he heard [Xi] out” on Taiwan, adding, “He does not want to see a fight for independence because that would be a very strong confrontation.”
There was no pledge from Beijing to reduce military pressure or any visible easing of the core Taiwan dispute.
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after visiting the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)
Lawmakers have pressed Trump over Taiwan’s security and U.S. arms sales to the island, though Washington does not formally recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state and maintains a longstanding “One China” policy.
“We’ve had it for thousands of years. And then, at a certain period of time, they left that they were going to get it back. They had the Korean War. A lot of things happened and all this. But no, yeah — Taiwan, he feels very strongly. I made no commitment either way,” Trump said, referring to Xi’s view of Taiwan and Beijing’s historical claim to the island.
A White House official said Trump is expected to decide soon whether to move forward with a new Taiwan arms package, pointing to his December 2025 approval of $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan and arguing that his record remains consistent with decades of U.S. policy.
The official also noted that Trump approved more Taiwan arms sales during his first term than any previous president, and said his first-year total in the second term exceeded the full amount approved during former President Biden’s four years in office.
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Human Rights
The cases of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and detained house-church pastor Ezra Jin loomed over the summit, with Trump saying Xi is “giving very serious consideration” to releasing Pastor Jin, though Lai’s future may be less certain.
“That’s a tougher one. I did bring it up. It’s a tough one for him. It’s a tough one,” Trump said. “He said Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him to do. You know, he went through a lot — right and wrong, he went through a lot. So he told me that would be a tough one. He said he’s going to strongly consider the pastor.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Jin, also known as Ezra Jin Mingri, is a Chinese house church pastor whose family and advocates have urged Washington to press Beijing for his release. Lai is a British citizen, Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist who has been jailed under Hong Kong’s national security law.
The two are often linked in coverage focused on human rights, freedom of the press, and China’s crackdown on dissent.
Neither case appeared to produce a public release commitment before Trump departed Beijing.
Lai’s daughter, Claire, commended Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their “continuous commitment to freeing my father and securing his freedom” during an appearance on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Friday.
“Of course, the dream was that he would fly back with my father this time, but I am still extremely confident that he is the president and this is the administration that will secure my father’s freedom,” Lai said.
AI and Tech Race
China’s AI advances remain a major concern for U.S. policymakers and technology leaders as Washington weighs how to preserve its edge in advanced chips, computing power and export controls without accelerating Beijing’s push to build domestic alternatives.
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President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping greet children during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Trump said on Air Force One that discussions about chips did not come up.
U.S. officials said China continues to weigh whether to buy advanced U.S. chips or accelerate domestic alternatives, while Trump said the two sides discussed the possibility of AI guardrails.
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“As to whether the Chinese are going to buy [U.S. chips] or not, they’re making their own determinations,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday on Bloomberg TV.
“They’re very committed to domestic production. They often see U.S. high tech as a threat to them. If we’re ahead of the game on AI chips, sometimes they feel that can stop their own growth,” he added.
Trump said China may “want to try and develop their own” chips.
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President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Trade and tariffs
At the final meeting between the two leaders, Trump touted what he called “fantastic trade deals” during the summit.
Trump said China agreed to purchase 200 Boeing planes and expressed interest in buying as many as 750 once the first deliveries are completed.
While few details have been released regarding the specific agreements reached, Trump also said agricultural deals were pledged while at the same time stating tariffs were not discussed.
“The farmers are going to be very happy. They’re going to be buying billions of dollars of soybeans,” Trump said.
The president added during a gaggle on Air Force One during his trip home that he and Xi did not discuss tariffs during the meetings, even though such duties have served as one of Trump’s central tools for pressuring Beijing on trade.
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“We didn’t discuss tariffs – I mean they’re paying tariffs. They’re paying substantial tariffs,” he said at one point.
The talks come as Trump’s tariff agenda faced a setback after a Supreme Court ruling limited his use of emergency powers to impose duties, which cut directly into one of his preferred tools for pressuring Beijing.
Trump also suggested an energy deal was close, saying China could begin buying oil from Texas, Louisiana and Alaska.
“They’re going to go to Texas. We’re going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas and to Louisiana and to Alaska. And I think that was another thing that was agreed to. That’s a big thing,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
Iran was an area where Trump could point to a clearer diplomatic win, saying Xi told him China would not provide military equipment to Tehran and that both leaders agreed Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
But broader concerns remain over Beijing’s economic support for Iran through oil purchases, dual-use exports and intermediary networks.
China remains a major buyer of Iranian crude despite U.S. sanctions.
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Trump said that Xi and his wife will visit the U.S. in September.
A new report by the California Department of Justice found that conditions at immigrant detention facilities in the state have worsened as surging arrests under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign led to overcrowding and insufficient medical care.
For the report, which was released Friday, California Justice Department staff, along with correctional and healthcare experts, toured all seven facilities that existed in 2025 (an eighth facility, the Central Valley Annex in McFarland, began receiving detainees in April). The team analyzed internal documents and detainee records, and interviewed detention staff and 194 detainees.
“The Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign has led to a shocking increase in detainee populations — and facilities have been alarmingly unprepared to meet this new demand,” said Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in a statement. “During their inspections, my team found evidence of inadequate medical care and heard countless reports of disturbing, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions and a lack of basic necessities.”
Bonta was scheduled to discuss the report’s findings at a news conference Friday morning.
The inspections were possible because California enacted a law during the first Trump administration requiring state oversight and public reports detailing the conditions of immigrant detention facilities. This is the fifth report released by the California Department of Justice since 2019.
Such reports have taken on outsized significance as the Trump administration has whittled down the Department of Homeland Security’s own oversight mechanisms; for example, it has gutted staff at the offices of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Immigrant Detention Ombudsman.
According to the report, the detainee population in California grew 162%, from 2,300 to more than 6,000 detainees, between site visits in 2023 and those in 2025. Most detainees had no criminal history and were classified as low security.
Collectively, the facilities have capacity to hold up to nearly 8,200 detainees. Six people have died in ICE custody in California since the start of 2025.
Inspectors found that staffing levels failed to keep pace with the growing numbers of detainees, particularly at the California City and Adelanto facilities. The Trump administration has limited access to bond, including for vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and people with serious medical conditions.
The intake process for new detainees, which includes a medical and mental health screening, is supposed to take place within 12 hours of their arrival. But detainees at several facilities reported waiting days or weeks before receiving their classification, housing assignment and medical screening, the report says. While waiting, some slept on the floor without access to water and other basic necessities.
At the Adelanto facility, detainees said water coolers remained empty for hours. Justice Department staff saw murky drinking water come out of the tap in the women’s housing unit.
At the Golden State Annex in McFarland and at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, detainees said they spent at least $50 per week on commissary items so they wouldn’t go hungry. Across most facilities, detainees reported improperly cooked food, a lack of dietary or allergy accommodations and irregular mealtimes.
Detainees at all facilities reported delays in medical treatment, including emergency care, which led to preventable crises. At Mesa Verde, for example, the report says that “Medical care delays, including specialty care and referrals, were widespread and appeared to be caused by delays in approvals by ICE Health Service Corps and cancelled or dropped referrals due to transfers between facilities.”
Basic necessities are also an issue, according to the report. At the California City facility, detainees said they got so cold that they cut the ends off socks to make improvised sleeves and covered the air vents in their cells with sheets of paper.
According to the report, Otay Mesa is the only detention center in California with a policy requiring that detainees be strip searched after being visited by anyone other than their attorney. Detainees there have long said the practice is dehumanizing and invasive.
The state law requiring the detention facility inspections expires next year. A bill by State Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) would make the inspections permanent. Another state bill, by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), would prevent the excessive markup of products sold at detention center commissaries, where many items are sold at an inflated value.
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