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BXBKPP118B_2026-01-18-12-59-01

Welcome back to Power in Politics. I'm Amanda Fossert. With the start of a new legislative session in Albany comes new committee assignments, and a Bronx senator is making history in his new position. I spoke with State Senator Luis Sepulveda about his priorities now chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Luis Sepulveda, great to have you with us and especially on the heels of a very big week for you. You were announced as the new chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so congratulations on that appointment and the first Latino in that position. What does it mean to you to have that role and how does your background, your history guide the work you plan to do in it? First of all, thank you for, for having me on the program. Uh, I really enjoyed being on your program. Uh, in fact, I'd like to be on there more often if you let me, but certainly, thank you so much for the invitation. Um, you know, this is a very proud moment for me and, and for the Latino community. Uh, we've never had a chair of the Judiciary Committee in the Senate in the history of the state. And what that tells us that, uh, even though I represent the enti, basically the entire state and my district, You know, I have a large non-Latino community as well, and I represent all of them, but, uh, this is a, a a personal source of pride for, you know, where I come from, um, the Latino community, and we're all very proud. I've received calls from many judges or Latino judges or otherwise expressing their, their sense of pride, and, you know, to some that may not mean a lot. Because it, it may be more common, but to our community, and when you consider what's going on in this country and the treatment of Latinos, uh, this is something that, that many, many people are proud of and something that I'm extremely proud of, but, with pride and, and this comes with large responsibility. And, and I'm looking forward to working, uh, on this job. And I also wanna thank, uh, The Senate leader Andrew Stewart Cousins, who herself was a trailblazer, first woman and the first African American leader of the Senate, and to be in that category and to have someone like that appoint me is an additional source of pride. Certainly a trailblazer in your own right in this position. I want to get to those responsibilities and what you really intend to take on in the Judiciary Committee this session. Any specific priorities for you personally? Well, you know, I, I've worked on, on the chair because I've been a member of the committee. I was in the chair, um, for many years, and, and a lot of the things that we do is we try to improve the, the court system. Uh, we try to improve the, uh, actual procedure of, of litigation in, in the state. Uh, you know, one of the things that I've worked on over the years is to make it more accessible to the common person. Uh, many times people that don't understand how the law works or they have issues with, uh, the language, uh, English may not be their first language. Uh, to me, it's very important that these individuals get a fair shake, and I've worked on that for many years. Um, also, decreasing the cost of litigation is something that's important to us. Uh, there'll be important legislation that impacts the state, you know, we're looking at, at some of the, the issues that are happening with the immigrant community, and one of the, one of the, you know, main parts of the agenda is to create legislation, uh, in the judiciary Committee that's gonna protect the rights of immigrant communities. And when we see what's happening with the complete. Inhumane and disregard for the United States Constitution. T Uh, when it comes to immigrants, especially those of color, uh, we in the state are going to fight back against that. And so that's going to be part of our agenda, you know, our leader, Andrew Su Cousin has told us that. She wants to help the immigrant community from the incursions of ICE and the treatment of ICE, and that's something that we're going to take seriously, but, you know, that's part of the agenda that I have. But, you know, one of the big ones has always been to make it more accessible to the common person. Yeah, accessibility is so key, especially in the area that you represent and of course statewide at large. I want to talk a little bit more about immigration enforcement. I know that the governor definitely touched on how New York is going to respond to that in her State of the State this past week. One of her proposals was allowing New Yorkers to be able to sue federal officers for violation of constitutional rights. That's something that I would imagine the Judiciary Committee is going to be working on. How do you make that go from proposal to policy? Uh, well, you know, you, you, you try to make it, uh, in a way that, that doesn't violate the Constitution because, you know, unlike others, we actually in the Democratic conference respect the Constitution. Uh, you see how we can impact the most, uh, uh, number of people. Uh, you know, one of the things that we're gonna do is to make sure that there is no cooperation between state officials, state law enforcement, and ICE, uh, enforcement. Uh, we're gonna, we're gonna work towards that, uh, because we wanna make sure that, uh, And as you can see on videos, the treatment that ICE has given to people, to immigrants, and just complete disregard for the constitution. And we want to make sure that that the state is not enabling that or helping that in any way. So, you know, there are some bills that are proposed to combat this, to make sure that there's no cooperation, and we're going to be working on that as well. Yeah, those videos are really gripping the attention of not just here in the city, but the nation at large right now. Oh, absolutely. A lot of attention also paid locally to public safety. And when you talk about crime, the courts are so closely linked to that. A lot of attention also paid on spikes in youth crime across New York City. And then some think about Raise the age, which was implemented back in 2018. In terms of reforms that you might revisit this session, do you expect that to be something that comes up again? Um, I don't, I don't believe so because it seems like every other. The year when there's a slight spike that becomes a, a battle cry for those that oppose raise the age. Look, there is no empirical data otherwise to suggest that raise the age has, uh, since its implementation in 2017, that overall youth crime is going up. In fact, there's some data that suggests the opposite, and I encourage everyone to look at a study by uh CUNY. Uh, uh, I believe it was Kinney Law School, um, that essentially determined that the opposite is the fact that youth crime, overall crime has gone down since 2017. You know, the problem is that, uh, you get people who, I mean, rightfully so, maybe there's a spike here or there, and they wanna completely eviscerate a program that essentially hast been successful. Uh, you know, we gotta also remember that New York State is, I would hope, a state where humanity always governs, and we were one of two states that, that allowed 16 and 17 year olds to be treated like adults in the criminal justice system. And, you know, that says something when 48 other states didn't allow it. That says something about, uh, progress as an, as a civilization and the way we treat young people.

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BXBKPP118C_2026-01-18-13-05-43

Welcome back to Power in Politics here on News 12 as we return to our conversation with the newly named chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Luis Sepulveda about whether bail reform could come up as a topic in the upcoming budget negotiations. I think also when people are thinking about some of the recent reforms that they want to revisit, bail reform also is part of that conversation. Do you expect any conversations about that in the upcoming year ahead? And are you seeing some of the impacts like you are with Raise the age with regards to bail reform already? You know, again, every other year, it, it, it seems to be under attack, but, you know, I'm a, I'm a data person. If there's data suggesting that there's a problem, I'd be the first to uh ask for reforms to improve it. But again, the data suggests the opposite, and people find it difficult to accept because it's almost counterintuitive. But when you look at the data, it shows that, that in fact, uh, those that have been released from the bill reform do not have a higher rate of recidivism. Um, many of them go back to work, keep their jobs, uh, are able to support their families, you know, maybe they made a mistake. Uh, but the reality is that, that bail reform has not, has not created any significant rise in crime. In fact, none at all. Uh, so, uh, you know, I, I get concerned when people have these semi knee jerk reactions. But what I suggest to everyone is, is look at the data, look at the research, and then make a decision. Goes back to this idea that we hear often about perception versus. And then Senator, we've talked about immigration, we've talked about crime, courts, and public safety. What aren't we talking about that is something that you really hope to achieve in this new role? Well, you know, it's, to me is, is, uh, create a judicial system where anyone can, can, can defend themselves without paying exorbitant fees for attorneys. Uh, you know, I've been an attorney for 33 years, a practitioner. I still practice, uh even though I'm a senator because 6 months of the year I'm You know, I, I'm, I'm not in the Senate in Albany, so, um, and to me, it's, it's really to facilitate the process to the extent where, where Uh, you don't need as many lawyers. You don't need to pay so many fees. Uh, you can do stuff for yourselves and feel comfortable. Um, that's, you know, that's something that, that I think would be, if I can accomplish it at the end of the day, that I would be very proud of.

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Rep. Ritchie Torres and state Sen. Luis Sepulveda join the show this week. 

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