Talking with my friend Yemi about the nightclub raid and his values

BY WARREN EPSTEIN/SPECIAL TO THE BULLETIN
Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade and I have been friends since he helped open The Wild Goose Meeting House.
When Yemi told me he was running for mayor, I asked him which side of the country’s political divide he falls on.
“Neither,” he told me. “I’m independent. I’m in the middle.”
“Hogwash,” I said. Well, actually, what I said wasn’t fit for a family newspaper. “There is no middle. Who won the last presidential election?”
Without a pause, he said, “Biden.”
“OK, Great,” I said with a relieved sigh. “Let me know if I can help.”
I had great hopes for Yemi. Well, actually, I doubted he would win in such a red city. But I knew he was smart, likable and seemed to know how to play the political game. I was thrilled when the big-grinned, big-hearted businessman from Nigeria became Colorado Springs’ first black mayor.
But then the raid happened on April 27. More than 300 feds in tactical gear stormed into an underground Latino nightclub. It was a dramatic made-for-TV blitz that netted drugs, guns and people accused of human trafficking.
Attorney General Pam Bondi declared that all of them were “illegals.”
I worry about how many of them will get due process and how many will just disappear into a foreign gulag.
I also worry about my friend Yemi.
There he was in the New York Times. The headline read: “When Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Came to an Immigrant Mayor’s City.”
And there was Mayor Yemi Mobolade, the guy who was trying to play the ever-vanishing middle, sounding totally MAGA:
“This immigrant mayor says if you’re here illegally and you’re committing a crime, there should be consequences,” Yemi told The Times. “You should be deported.”
He was in the national media outlet NewsNation Now, seeming to crow about the raid, saying, “I anticipate there will be more arrests. I hope to see more raids happen in my city.”
“I can actually appreciate what the president and his team are doing,” he said. “The No. 1 role of government at all levels, whether it’s federal, state or local. In my case, it’s the safety of our community. If you don’t have a safe community, you have nothing. I have often said that a great city is a safe city … a safe city is a great city.”
During a recent conference in Washington, DC, Yemi had reached out to a White House liaison and said he had a “big ask.”
“Consider Colorado Springs one of the top partners when they need feedback,” he told them, “in connecting to cities like ours or they’re testing thing [sic] out.”
It sounded like he wanted the Springs to be a guinea pig for whatever schemes Trump was planning.
Was the big raid in Colorado Springs part of that scheme?
During a phone interview I had with the Mayor on Tuesday, he said that wasn’t what the “big ask” was about.
“I need to have a good relationship with our federal partners,” he said, detailing the millions in federal grants that depend on that relationship.
He said that ask was about resources and communication, and he’s had as fruitful a relationship with President Trump as he had with President Biden.
As for the raid, he said it was about fighting crime, not immigration.
He said Springs city officials and our local law enforcement have been working with the DEA on raids like this (though generally not as big) for decades.
But there’s been one significant difference.
“This had some PR stunt attached to it that we are not in control of,” he said.
Sorry, Yemi, but this is more than public relations. This raid was part of Trump’s reign of terror, a parade of high-profile police actions meant to rile up his base, especially as his approval ratings crater.
I see the delicate dance Yemi is doing here. He is committed to fighting crime in the Springs. He also doesn’t want to bite the federal hand that’s been feeding him.
But some of this doesn’t sit well with him.
“Frankly, as an immigrant, I’m offended that the immigration issue is tied to crime,” he told me.
He believes the data that shows that undocumented immigrants cause much less crime than the general population, and he believes they significantly contribute to our communities and economy. Unlike Trump, he doesn’t believe they should all be deported.
The middle that Yemi walks is a tightwire.
But I don’t think his more moderate views here are well known, especially after he led the charge to declare Colorado Springs a non-sanctuary city.
He says that was about protecting the local economy and infrastructure, which can’t handle an influx of too many new immigrants.
This pragmatic conservative talk sounds like “Yemi The Mayor,” not my old friend Yemi.
The Yemi I’ve known is a committed Christian, not the kind that just goes to church, but the kind that struggles every day with what is right.
That Yemi would welcome all, regardless of resources. He would reach out to the faith community. He’d reach out to the liberals and conservatives who put him in office. He’d somehow round up all the loaves and fishes we’d need.
That’s the Yemi I know.