When asked what\u2019s being done to fight Trump\u2019s anti-immigrant policies, Jacobs said there isn\u2019t much Democrats can do legislatively, being the minority in Congress. But she said she and her colleagues have been making oversight visits to immigrant detention facilities, including the Otay Mesa Detention Center, that she believes have helped put pressure on the Trump administration to make changes.<\/p>\n
Tensions at the town hall boiled over when it came time to answer a question about Gaza, and whether the Israeli government\u2019s military offensive there amounts to genocide. Roughly a dozen people protested outside the town hall building, demanding that Jacobs and other elected leaders recognize the situation as genocide.<\/p>\n
![\"Pro-Palestinian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-town-hall-002.jpg\")
Pro-Palestinian protestors chant outside before Rep. Sara Jacobs\u2019 town hall at Madison High School on Wednesday, July 30, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The town hall was disrupted when one protester inside the hall started yelling at Jacobs. Then some audience members yelled at the protester. Jacobs addressed the protester and thanked him for his passion because she said this is \u201csomething that all of our consciences \u2026 should be worried about.\u201d Police eventually escorted the man out after he continued yelling.<\/p>\n
Jacobs said she is \u201cvery concerned\u201d that there might be genocide of Palestinians, but said that is a legal determination that she cannot make, since she isn\u2019t a lawyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve clearly seen serious atrocities. I think we\u2019ve likely seen war crimes, and we\u2019ve definitely seen forced displacement that could \u2026 amount to ethnic cleansing,\u201d said Jacobs, who is Jewish and has family in Israel. She added that she believes there should be a free Palestinian state.<\/p>\n
In June, Jacobs co-introduced the Block the Bombs Act, which she said would halt U.S. deliveries of offensive weapons to Israel and demand Israel\u2019s compliance with U.S. and international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-defense cannot be justification for killing tens of thousands of people, imposing a humanitarian blockade, or forcing the displacement of a population. And yet, this is exactly what the Netanyahu government has done for more than a year in Gaza,\u201d Jacobs said in a June press release about the bill.<\/p>\n
But Jacobs\u2019 answer was not enough to satisfy the demonstrators. Sarah Miller, a member of Oceanside-based Osiders 4 Palestine group, said she thought Jacobs\u2019 answer was weak, and the U.S. must stop sending any weapons or money to Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe refuse to sit quiet while babies are being starved to death with our tax dollars,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n
Jacobs addressed audience questions about other issues, including election integrity, free speech and tax breaks for the rich.<\/p>\n
A high school social studies teacher who works at a school located in Rep. Darrell Issa\u2019s district asked Jacobs\u2019 advice on what he should be teaching students in this political climate. Jacobs suggested he have his students brainstorm and design what they think a better democracy would look like.<\/p>\n
A man who said he is autistic said he is disturbed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.\u2019s plans for autism research, which include a plan to mine people\u2019s information from medical records, insurance claims and consumer wearables into a central database.<\/p>\n
Jacobs said she thinks the secretary\u2019s actions are \u201chorrible on many realms\u201d and she is trying to figure out how to protect Medicaid and other program funding to support people with autism.<\/p>\n
![\"Attendees](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SUT-L-town-hall-010.jpg\")
Attendees listen to Rep. Sara Jacobs speak during a town hall at Madison High School on Wednesday, July 30, 2025 in San Diego, CA. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
A retiree said he struggled for hours to get information about his Social Security benefits on a confusing online platform, and he is concerned that the Trump administration will close local Social Security Administration offices whose employees can help retirees like him access their benefits.<\/p>\n
Jacobs said she is aware of only one regional office in Oceanside that may be at risk of closing, which she said she and Democrat colleagues are fighting.<\/p>\n
An independent voter asked whether there was any action at all by Trump that Jacobs agrees with him about. After pausing to think, Jacobs named two: she thinks Trump has made good moves to increase fertility access \u2014 for women who want children, Jacobs said. And she agrees with his policy toward Syria, which included lifting sanctions on the country with faith that the new Syrian government can help stabilize the region.<\/p>\n
A bartender said it feels like the Democratic Party is directionless and doesn\u2019t know where it\u2019s going. \u201cWhen are we going to go, \u2018Fight, fight, fight!\u2019\u201d he asked Jacobs.<\/p>\n
Jacobs said she thinks people often ask this question because they\u2019re hoping for a savior, someone like Barack Obama in 2008. But she discourages people from pinning their hopes on one showing up, saying that one person or one election will not fix the country\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no messiahs,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cLet\u2019s stop asking for a savior and let\u2019s start being the one we feel like our community needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 31, 2025 at 3:32 AM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diegans brought questions and anxieties about the Trump administration to Rep. Sara Jacobs\u2019 latest in-person town hall…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-108973","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114950862912593485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}