Congressman Raul Ruiz hosts town hall in Imperial County
Karina Bazarte
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – Congressman Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) hosted a town hall in Imperial County after he hosted a series of them throughout California.
More than 300 locals voiced their concerns at the Congressman Ruiz’s town hall meeting. However, the main concern is the actions by the Trump administration.
“My goal is to ensure that every single person in our district has a voice and that their concerns are heard in Washington D.C,” said Ruiz.
Before the meeting, I caught up with the California lawmaker who explained some of the concerns he’s hearing.
“The Imperial Valley communities…communities of the working class who are struggling day in and day out to make their paycheck last month to month, and so any increase of cost for what the tariffs are going to do is very concerning for them,” said Ruiz.
Besides tariff concerns, one local says many people in Imperial County have Medicaid or Medicare, or both. She says many programs also help locals with their health.
“It appears that all of these programs are helping our most vulnerable population but are now at a tremendous risk of being eliminated or cut to the point of coming ineffective and you have mention that as well…so when are you going to get ready to impeach Trump?” said the local.
However, the congressman says it will be hard for an impeachment to happen due to the lack of representatives being on the same page.
“Many of them agree with what he is doing and those that don’t and I’ve spoken with them are afraid,” said Ruiz.
Ruiz says his staff will be in attendance to help out with other concerns.
“If any individuals have any difficulties with Medicare, Social Security…The VA, [the] IRS or Small Businesses Administration, those are federal agencies they can come and meet with my staff who can start advocating for them through case work,” said Ruiz.
At the end of the meeting, some locals voiced their discontent of where they feel the congressman stand with certain issues.
Ruiz had this to say about their discontent.
“I am not for pro any Israel…Gaza war. I want peace, I want the war to end,” said Ruiz.
He also talked about the next step.
“Based on what I hear, I’ll take that with me to Washington D.C. and I’ll advocate for the ideas that have been brought up,” Ruiz expressed.