MIKE GARCIA, The representative of the 27th district, His focus on safety and justice

Mike Garcia is the representative of the 27th congressional district. He was elected on November 30, 2020, and re-elected on November 8, 2022. Throughout Mike Garcia’s three years as a representative, he has supported multiple acts that have multiple benefits and has tackled multiple issues locally in his district and nationwide like the economy,transportation,and wildlife mitigation. He supported and stood with veterans and has honored them. He is quick to act and tackles most issues.

Mike Garcia focused on multiple issues in the past. Wildfire Mitigation was one of the main focuses in 2022. His act called “Fire Weather Development Act” the was passed bipartisan on July 23, 2023. It increased funding to help evolve fire weather forecasting and detection.
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The amount of attention he had on the issue was put on the forefront when he made comments like “I will continue to monitor these fires and push for max aerial support”. He said on X on July 25,2023 during the Aqua Fire, a bush fire that burned about 100 acres. Mike Garcia has made similar comments on other instances such as the Soldead fire that happened on July 5, 2020.

Mike Garcia brought much attention to the issues that came with the fires. This attention caused a tremendous push in favor of increased funding for fire control during the fire season and off-fire seasons.

Another one of their past focuses was to “Defend the police not defund the police” which was a comment he made in a post on X on February 20,2022. He has made multiple arguments on social media on why to raise police funding. Some arguments were made against Prop 47 which was a proposition passed on November 5,2014 that turned non-violent property crimes and simple drug possession offenses into misdemeanors. Prop 57 was also targeted in these arguments, which was a proposition which was approved on November 8, 2016 which changed policies on juvenile prosecution,parole consideration on non-violent felons. After being passed arguments like “Prop 47 and 57 turn felonies into misdemeanors and misdemeanors into slaps on the wrist “ and “California progressives defunded the police. Crime soared” were being used against the propositions.

These arguments brought up the fact that policies that have been recently passed had major effects on the police force and the safety of local communities all around the us. These statements are supported by an article published by the Public Policy Institute Of California states “We find the increase in larceny-theft is driving the immediate increase in the number of monthly property crimes after Prop 47” and “Despite fluctuations, since January 2013 the monthly rate of larceny thefts had been steadily drifting down to lows of about 125 per 100,000 residents. This number then increased about 10 percent (to around 140 thefts per 100,000 residents) in late 2014 and 2015, before returning to roughly pre-reform levels in 2016.”

Prop 47 caused a rise in property crimes even going back to the levels before Prop 47 was passed due to less serious punishments. Due to more crimes being committed, more 911 calls are being made, which increases the percentage risk of someone getting injured or killed which is shown due to more Police officers dying on duty. Mike Garcia makes it one of his top priorities to keep communities safe, support, and honor the men and women in the blue uniforms.

Mike Garcia’s focus shifted to a more national spectrum in early 2023. Border control was always a focus for Mike Garcia but he put more emphasis on the issue in 2023 due to the Fentanyl crisis and a rise in illegal border crossings “Border security is a national security” emphasizing the importance of solving the issue. In the month of august, the CBP (U.S Customs and Border Protection) released an update on August 22,2023 on the operational statistics of CBP. These statistics showed that “CBP has seized more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl”.

This issue would have been worse if Mike Garcia did not make a massive push in support of the “Secure Border Act”. Due to this support, the act was passed on May 11, 2023, which increased the number of border agents that stand at the border and restarted the building of the border wall. After the “Secure The Border Act” was passed in a Press release Mike Garcia commented, “I’m proud to have voted in support of the Secure The Border Act”. Emphasizing the importance and impact of the issue.

From the Securing the Border act to more funding for fire control, Mike Garcia is always focused on something and within reason, because of major issues that affect US citizens every day. Such as the fentanyl crisis, which is a drug crisis that has swept the United States and has a major effect in major cities. In an article published by usafacts.org, Fentanyl took 73,654 lives due to overdose in 2022 alone. Fentanyl also caused 70% of drug overdose deaths in 2022. These stats show the range and impact of the effects of fentanyl and why securing the border was such an important issue.

Fentanyl and many other issues have arisen over the two years Mike Garcia has been representative and most he has tackled and plans to tackle future issues as well. He will stay focused on important and impacting issues whether it’s locally or nationally.