Antelope Valley Press
By. Julie Drake

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Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, is reiterating his commitment to eradicate illegal marijuana grows in the Antelope Valley.

Garcia, who will be in Leona Valley, on Saturday morning, at a community forum on the topic with Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Sheriff Alex Villanueva, brought national attention to the hundreds of illegal marijuana cultivation sites in the Antelope Valley last year.

“We’ve done a good job of knocking them down,” Garcia said in a telephone phone call, Wednesday morning.

Garcia, who represents the 25th Congressional District, remains committed to ensuring the problem is eradicated. A massive, multi-agency law enforcement operation in the Antelope Valley last June resulted in more than 130 arrests and the seizure of marijuana with a street value of more than $1.19 billion, according to Villanueva.

“The big thing is we changed the risk vs. reward matrix a little bit for them,” Garcia said. “So there are now actually people going to jail; there actually are now people losing their water trucks. So there is a lot of risk now involved with this.”

Some of the people involved with the illegal cultivation sites have moved on to other areas, or to a different business plan. Moving the problem to another community is not the solution, however, Garcia acknowledged.

“One of the things that we need to do is make sure that the state has still a felony charge option for certain amounts of this stuff,” Garcia said.

Garcia is up for re-election this November. Under the new Congressional district maps approved by the state in December, Garcia will run to represent the new 27th District.

The new map combines nearly all of the Los Angeles County portion of the Antelope Valley. The existing District 25 map covers the southern half of the Valley and extends across the Santa Clarita and Simi valleys.

“The priority is constituent services and it always is that,” Garcia said. “I’m just super proud of my team and what we’ve been able to do for the citizens of the Antelope Valley.”

Since January 2021, Garcia’s office successfully helped more than 1,015 constituents with federal casework, held six town hall events, and responded to more than 8,700 calls, emails, and letters

“To be honest, that’s the best way to run for office,” Garcia said. “We always keep that in mind the best thing to do if we want to stay in this office is to do what’s right for our constituents.”

Garcia will continue to explain his rationale to his constituents for how he votes on controversial issues.

“It’s not a Republican vs. Democrat kind of conversation,” he said. “When you just explain your position, you actually get a lot more support; people understand it.”

From a legislative perspective, Garcia is focused on public safety and security. That includes national security,  such as bringing in national security programs to Air Force Plant 42 and Edwards Air Force Base, and fully funding the ones that we do have.

“That’s the backbone of our economy, and without that, we fail,” Garcia said.

Garcia is also focused on local security and safety such as with the illegal cultivation sites.

“That illegal grow issue may have been one of the only issues that we saw last year that wasn’t a political, partisan issue,” Garcia said. “When we talked to the citizens  they didn’t care what party we were affiliated with, they just wanted this problem solved.”

Another security issue has to do with wildfires. Garcia introduced the bipartisan PROTECT Act to allow for increased use of active federal forest management, and the bipartisan FIRE Act to allow NOAA to develop new tools to better detect, predict and react to wildfires.

“The PROTECT and FIRE acts allow the forest management personnel to actually manage their land and have to deal with less red tape,” Garcia said.

Garcia introduced the bipartisan Military Spouse Licensing Relief Act, which would allow military spouses that have a professional license to continue to utilize their license in a new state when moving on military orders.

“They come to California and California makes them re-qualify for their licenses,” Garcia said. “In some cases it takes years and several thousands dollars.”

Garcia introduced the bill based on a request from Brig. Gen. E. John “Dragon” Teichert, the former commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base.

The bill passed the House last year. The Senate has yet to take it up.

“It’s not good for the community because they’re losing professionals who would otherwise be able to work,” Garcia said. “It’s also not good for the local communities because now you’ve got households who are bringing in $80,000 a year instead of $150,000 a year.”

 That means less tax revenue for cities such as Lancaster and Palmdale due to less money available to be spent.

“We’ve got support from the Democrats on this one,”  Garcia said. “It passed the House; we just got to get it done in the Senate.”