Democratic Rep. Juan Vargas joined NBC 7’s Joey Safchik on Politically Speaking Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, which the congressman boycotted. He explained his decision to sit out the speech, why he doesn’t think the demands to reform Immigrat ion and Customs Enforcement go far enough and how he is working to make California’s 52nd congressional district — the district he represents, which includes the South Bay region of San Diego County — more affordable. Relevant content: State of the Union 20 hours ago Fact-checking Trump's 2026 State of the Union address 19 hours ago Escondido veteran, 100, receives Medal of Honor at State of the Union address A transcript of the conversation is below. Safchik: It’s been a captivating week in the Capitol: a divisive State of the Union address, set against the backdrop of a showdown over Department of Homeland Security funding and ICE reforms. All that as competitive midterm elections impend. Some of the president’s strengths have morphed into vulnerabilities, and Democrats hope to capitalize upon those this campaign cycle. Joining us from D.C. to talk all that and more is Congressman Juan Vargas. Thank you so much for your time, Congressman. We appreciate you being here. Vargas: It’s a pleasure. Thank you. Safchik: Let’s start with the State of the Union address. You decided to boycott it. Why? Vargas: That’s right. I didn’t go there because I didn’t want to listen to his lies. You know, he wants us to sit there and applaud for the things that he says. But we all know what he says is not true. So we should be fighting his policies. We shouldn’t be applauding them. And that’s why I wasn’t there. I thought I’d be a hypocrite to be there. Safchik: How do you answer to constituents who say, ‘But you’re our elected official. You should be in that chamber representing us?” Vargas: No, I think my constituents were fine with me not being there, just to be frank. I don’t think my constituents like this president. They didn’t vote for him. They don’t like him. And so, again, I think I very much mirror my constituents when I say, you know, I didn’t want to dignify his speech with me being there because I knew he was going to lie, and he was going to say things that weren’t untrue. I knew he was going to attack the Democrats, and we weren’t going to be able to say anything other than an outburst, and I’m not in favor of the outburst, so I didn’t want to be there for that. Instead, I sit there and I did listen to it on TV, but again, I knew what he was going to say. He was going to say things that weren’t true. So I didn’t want to dignify it by being in the audience. Safchik: As you alluded to, the president called Democrats ‘crazy’ during his speech. What does that tell us about what the tenor of this upcoming election cycle is going to be? Vargas: I think it’s going to be rough and tumble this election cycle. I mean, one of the things for sure is that he’s not bringing us together. I mean, it is interesting. I’ve listened to a lot of State of the Unions. I’ve been here for a while. I went to school with Barack, so I listen very intensely, to President Obama’s I should say, to his speeches and others. And usually they try to bring people together or educate the American people on what we’re doing. That wasn’t the case at all. As we expected, it was just him fighting. And we’re going to fight back. I mean, I think that’s what we should do. That’s what I’m going to do. That’s what I think the constituents that I represent want us to do. And that’s what I’m doing. I mean, that’s what we should be doing. The Democrats should be fighting back. We’re losing democracy as we speak. You know, finally, finally, the Supreme Court, you know, got off their tush, said something and said, you can’t do this. It’s illegal. You’re the president. You’re not a king. So again, we have to continue to fight this guy. And I think that the midterms are going to go well for us because we’re on the right side of history. Safchik: You say the president didn’t use this as a unifying opportunity, but does boycotting the speech signify unity? Vargas: No. At the moment, this is not unity. It’s a fight. The truth is, we’re in a fight and we’re in a fight for democracy. We’re in a fight right now for the rights of people who are not billionaires. And so, no, we’re not looking for unity. We’re looking to win right now. And that’s what I think that all of us that believe in democracy should be doing, fighting to make sure that there’s no king. He thinks he’s a king. Finally, the Supreme Court got off their tush and did something and said, ‘You’re not a king. You know, you’re only the president. You can’t do these things.’ And the Congress should do the right thing and start asserting itself. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re asserting ourselves as we should be doing. Safchik: Let’s talk about immigration. Democrats are withholding funding from DHS. They want Republicans to make some pretty significant reforms to ICE. Do you feel like those demands go far enough? Vargas: No, I don’t think the demands that we’ve made go far enough. I think that they’re good. I think I support all the demands that we make, but I think we have to go further. Remember, this. ICE is not an agency. It’s not a department that we’ve had for a long time. Everyone thinks it’s like the FBI. It’s not. You know, this hasn’t been around for a very long time, and I think it’s been a failure. I think it’s been an absolute failure. I think we need to dismantle it and do it the right way. We do need law enforcement, there’s no doubt about this. We need an enforcement agency. But ICE is not it. It has done a terrible job. It’s murdered people, citizens of the United States, innocent people. So, no, I think that we have to go much further. Safchik: It almost sounds like you want to get rid of ICE altogether. Vargas: I do want to get rid of ICE altogether, but replace it with something else. I mean, we do need enforcement. You know, right now, if I tested Americans and I’d say, like in my district, OK, what’s the difference between Customs and Border Protection? What’s the difference, then, between Border Patrol or ICE? You know what they say. ‘I don’t know,’ because you know what? It’s very hard to distinguish who does what. The truth is, we do need enforcement. It’s not the case that we need ICE. I mean, again, we have so many different agencies that do enforcement. We do need some enforcement, and no doubt about it. I’m in favor of that. When I was on the San Diego City Council, I supported the police. I still support the police. Law enforcement is good, but we have to have good law enforcement. These guys are out of control, and we found out now the training is even bad. So the whole system is rotten there, and we need to redo it. We need to dismantle it and redo it in a way that works for the American people. Safchik: How do you justify the side effects of even this partial shutdown? And could this backfire? Is there shutdown fatigue amongst the American people? Vargas: There might be shutdown fatigue, but it’s interesting because we haven’t gotten a lot of complaints yet from the district itself saying, you know, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. People can fly. People are still doing all the things that they normally do because it’s not a shutdown that has closed down the whole government again. There’s 12 sections to the budget. This is only one of 12, and that’s why it hasn’t been a major shutdown. In fact, most people say, ‘Well, we can’t even feel it,’ you know, ‘We don’t even know what it means.’ Even at the airport, you know, you go there, you’re still going through the same lines. You’re still doing the same things. So there’s not a lot at the moment, disruption, but I think it’s bad that people don’t get paid. I mean, I think people should get paid, obviously, and that’s why I hope we get to some understanding very quickly. But again, we’re not hearing it from our constituents so much because it’s not really impacting the general public. Safchik: When it comes to immigration and detention facilities, how satisfied have you been with your oversight capabilities? Vargas: Oh, I’m not satisfied at all with the oversight capabilities. I have to say this, that previously, yeah, I was able to go, under the first Trump administration also, I was able to go to these detention facilities. They allowed me to go see everything that I wanted in no time. So I basically went everywhere. Every time that I went there, either announced or unannounced, they let me go through even the medical wards. I even was able to talk to the leading medical professionals there to ask, you know, what do they do? And I said, what about the food? They said, well, here’s where we stored. I said, I’d like to eat some of it. They let me do that. So again, previous to this, I was able to do all that. Now they won’t let me see anything. Things have changed, and I don’t know why. You know why they do this? Are they hiding something? I don’t know. Are they caging children again? I don’t know, the reason I don’t know is because they won’t let me in. So I don’t know what they’re doing. Safchik: During the State of the Union, we really saw the president dig his heels into his immigration strategy. What do Democrats make of that in the context of the upcoming elections? Vargas: Well, I think he really is misreading the public. You know, even today and a couple of the days we had people that were farmers in here, sugar beet farmers and other farmers saying, you know, we can’t find anybody to work in the fields. We literally don’t have anybody because everyone’s afraid to work. And I think that we have to have some reasonable immigration laws where, again, the people that are here to work, we allow them to work in a way that’s regulated, in a way that’s legal. People always say, ‘But they’re illegal.’ The only reason people are illegal is because we say so. There’s nothing wrong about a person working at a restaurant. It’s just because they don’t have papers. Well, we could give them papers. I mean, that’s what we do. We’re, we’re, we’re lawmakers. That’s what we’re supposed to do. And I think that’s what the public is understanding. No one’s in favor of murderers. No one’s in favor of rapists. You know, we, these people should be in prison. They shouldn’t be out in society. So, again, we’re not in favor of these people. Nobody is. But, you know what, I am in favor of the waiter that came and served my wife and myself on our anniversary. I’m in favor of that guy. He told me, ‘I don’t have documents. I’m so terrified. You know, I have to work because I have a wife and a child.’ You know what? If anyone, any American heard that, they said, well, ‘You know what? I’d like to help you, too.’ He was working hard. He’s running all over, doing his job. So again, I think the president is misreading the American people on this. Safchik: Very quickly, congressman, what have you done over the last year to make district 52 more affordable? Vargas: One of the things that I’ve done to make it more affordable is pass laws here with Republicans. Interestingly, for financing, giving people that don’t have a house yet the opportunity to buy one by making it easier to get that first house. And again, we worked across the aisle here. We passed the bill with Republicans and the president signed it. And we’re doing something. We passed the second bill. So we have done some things here bipartisanly, in spite of President Trump, who comes up with dumb ideas. But the Republicans here have some pretty good ideas. I mean, really first-time homeowner help is important. And that’s what we’ve done. And we need to do a lot more of it. Safchik: And last question, congressman, on the Tijuana sewage crisis, which so impacts your district. Why hasn’t a state of emergency been declared? Vargas: A state of emergency should be declared. I don’t know why it hasn’t been declared. I do have to say this though. I am very impressed. And again, I give. I give the administration kudos when they deserve it. The new International Boundary and Water Commission commissioner, the commission, the guy in charge, he and I have met here in Washington. He is trying very hard. The EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, again, someone I’ve known for a long time. We disagree on a lot of things, but we agree on this. He’s been working very hard. So again, they have to compress those timelines. They’ve got to do more, much more quickly. That’s what they want to do too. So I give them kudos for that. I give him praise for that. We’re working together on that. But again, we should have a state of emergency because it is an emergency. Safchik: Congressman, I know you have to get back to work. So thank you so much for your time today. Vargas: Thank you. I appreciate it. ...read more read less