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Congress, This Is America Calling: A Visit To California's 34th District

Emily Frost |
December 8, 2010 | 3:01 p.m. PST

Staff Reporter

Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard’s office isn’t a place you’d casually stop by. It’s located high up in a downtown L.A. skyscraper named after her father, former Congressman Edward Roybal, and it’s heavily guarded by security.

Fewer than a dozen people drop by on any given day, said Ana Figueroa, Roybal-Allard’s district chief of staff.

Lucille Roybal-Allard’s staff strives to be ‘that person on the other end of the line’ – ready with the right answer, the fix.

With a constituency that’s 80 percent Hispanic, the majority of calls the office gets are from people concerned about immigration. Each issue gets routed to one of the congresswoman’s caseworkers.

“If a constituent is working on a petition for a family member, for example, we’re able to inquire if something has gone wrong. We wade through the red tape and see whether things are happening the way they’re supposed to happen. We help with bureaucracy,” said Figueroa, Roybal-Allard’s district chief of staff.

The caseworkers are out and about the congresswoman’s 34th District. They stake out 10 different sites in the community throughout the month and get about five visitors each session.

Calling the office with opinions “is not something they [her constituents] do naturally,” said Figueroa.

Certain parts of the district, like Downey or Bellflower, are savvier: they’ll call up about bills they’re for or against. But most of the visitors come to Roybal-Allard’s branch office because they’ve heard that she helped a neighbor or a friend with immigration woes.

At mid-day on a recent Monday, the office was empty and the entire staff was in “meetings all day,” according to Monica Loera-Martinez, the office manger.

Down on the street outside Roybal-Allard’s office, there was a steady flow of pedestrians –  and many were deeply alarmed by the problems facing our country and Congress.

View from the Street

Donald Brandon, a senior citizen and Korean War veteran, has visited Roybal-Allard’s office for help several times. He’s still smarting from one encounter with her office staff, who he described as “childlike.” They treated him with indifference, Brandon said, and raised questions about his right to be there. Though he respects Roybal-Allard and her work, he didn’t like being talked down to.

Cynthia Parrish was downtown for a visit with the IRS she was dreading. She felt dispirited about Congress as well.

“They should stay away from cutting social security. Absolutely, stay away from it,” she scolded.

Would she go through the metal detector, ride the elevator up and deliver that message to Roybal-Allard?

“I don’t think it would make a difference. I just don’t. We’re not being listened to. Unless there’s a huge loud noise – like a revolution of some kind,” said Parrish.

John Edwards, a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and a veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, was working his way down the block, pushing his walker.

“Would I go talk to her? She don’t want to talk to me. I have nothing to really offer her other than seeing someone who has another problem that she may have to solve…I feel like a nobody, so I don’t know if she’d even listen to what I’d have to say. My problems are probably small in comparison to the decisions she has to make on a daily basis,” said Edwards.

Parrish also considers herself rejected.

“Once they get elected, they’re very distant from the public. They have people buffering them from the public that elected them. And that’s really unfair, really unfair. Because they don’t want to hear from the people in the streets anymore once they’re elected,” said Parrish.

Brandon, the older Korean War veteran, is focused on the effectiveness of our political system.

“Can you get a call through? That’s what really counts, can you get your call through to the right person who has the authority to apply to your complaint. And I think it’s wonderful when a man or woman knows exactly who they can go to to solve a complaint. And Americans just don’t seem like they have it,” said Brandon.

Help for Our Own

Edwards lives in homeless housing at the Weingart Center, just five blocks away from Roybal-Allard’s office.

“It’s like pulling teeth just trying to get situated. What little bit of assistance that you do get is still keeping you below the poverty line – so golly, give me a break, I could have been dead over there,” said Edwards.

Edwards is frustrated, but not ungrateful – despite also suffering from a pinched nerve in his back and the awful side effects of his pain medication.

The V.A.’s given him a 50-50 chance of full recovery after his upcoming surgery.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll start taking care of our own,” he shrugs.

That’s just what Roybal-Allard’s office says is its main mission.

Safety Amidst Sharks

“People are just falling through the net at the bottom. If you go down here on Sixth Street, past Los Angeles, you still got people living and sleeping on the street on cardboard boxes in a major city in the United States.” Edwards gestures away from the Roybal Federal Building.

Figueroa’s main concern for the constituents isn’t homelessness, but deportation. There are dishonest notary publics convincing people, “if you pay me I’ll make sure you’re next in line” for asylum or for a green card. In Latin America, Figueroa says, notary publics are likened to attorneys. Rather than help the immigrant, these cons will bring the case to the attention of immigration.

“People get a work permit and they have hope, but then they’re deported,” said Figueroa.

And though it’s a struggle getting up to Roybal-Allard’s office, once you’re there the staff tries to create a safe space. They assure people that everything shared is confidential. They’re part of the government, but they’re not ICE.

In a way, Donald Brandon is also hiding in plain sight. He hides behind his civic activity. You can see it in his concern over a spilled trashcan in his neighborhood. There’s vulnerability in his obsession and in the chase to find the right official to help him. Sometimes, indignation is a mask for fear.

“They can solve things, if the citizen would take more complaint letters to their Congressmen, like this one across the street over there,” said Brandon.

Edwards is raw from exposure too. He clings to his social security. He’s trying to save up, and he’s not living extravagantly, he claims, but daily life can be brutal.

“If I’m not wearing my uniform, they don’t know. I’m just a regular guy — going through a drama of what a regular guy would feel on the street if he’s pushing a walker around” he said.

Appropriations

Roybal-Allard’s constituents are also worried about the economy. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, the congresswoman’s been in a better position to earmark money for her district. But with news of the moratorium on earmarks, Roybal-Allard will have to reconsider how she’s going to secure funding for her community.

This November, her margin for reelection was the highest it has ever been; she won 77.2 percent of the vote. Her popularity has been increasing with every election. But she’s not sponsoring any bills directly related to the economy in the upcoming sessions. There are huge challenges ahead, but at least from a recent visit to her office, not a lot of answers.

Cynthia Parrish had one idea for fixing the economy.

“Congress should cut their own salaries!” she chuckled.

Members of Congress earn $174,000 a year.

Reach Emily Frost here. Follow her on Twitter here.



 

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