Regardless of persevering with threats from the Trump administration and federal immigration enforcement officers, metropolis leaders are dedicated to retaining San Jose’s standing as a “welcoming city” whereas avoiding the politically charged “sanctuary” moniker.
Forward of a proper vote by the Metropolis Council on a decision targeted on the rights and security of immigrant communities subsequent week, Metropolis Supervisor Jennifer Maguire, Mayor Matt Mahan and San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph launched a press release reaffirming that police would proceed to give attention to imposing native — not federal — legal guidelines no matter an individual’s immigration standing.
“The city of San Jose will continue to serve all people regardless of immigration status and explore ways to further the aspirations of those who call San Jose home, including, but not limited to, people of color, women, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the assertion learn. “We aim to prioritize the safety, well-being and dignity of everyone who lives and works in San Jose.”
In 2022, San Jose obtained the “certified welcoming” standing from Welcoming America, which meant that town carried out practices and insurance policies reflecting a dedication to immigrant inclusion. As of 2024, 24 cities and counties throughout the U.S. had obtained the standing.
Whereas there is no such thing as a official definition of a sanctuary metropolis, it usually refers to jurisdictions that place limits on how they cooperate with completely different federal businesses’ immigration enforcement efforts.
California can be one in all 11 states within the U.S. to turn into a sanctuary state after a invoice was handed in 2017 that included provisions reminiscent of prohibiting regulation enforcement officers from inquiring about immigration standing and holding undocumented people till they may very well be transferred into federal custody.
A welcoming metropolis is just not essentially the identical as a sanctuary metropolis, or vice-versa.
San Jose has lengthy valued the contributions of immigrants as town’s variety is constructed on immigration, with greater than 40% of Santa Clara County residents born in a foreign country, in response to U.S. Census information, and a big portion of companies are minority-owned.
The town has maintained a coverage that it’s going to not get entangled in immigration enforcement since 2007, when the Metropolis Council handed a decision in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps within the Bay Space and helped co-found the Fast Response Community, a group protection challenge that protects immigrants from deportation threats, throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period in workplace. The coverage, nonetheless, doesn’t comprise the phrase “sanctuary,” which officers have mentioned may carry a stigma or misrepresent town’s actions.
Very similar to Trump’s first time period, tensions are rising inside the immigrant group, with Trump promising that federal immigration officers would conduct huge deportation operations.
Fearing the potential impacts of Trump’s insurance policies, a coalition of nonprofit teams and Metropolis Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas, Pamela Campos and David Cohen referred to as on San Jose to extend protections and help for the immigrant group, together with passing the decision that can be heard Tuesday.
“This city is obligated to ensure that all of its residents, regardless of their country of origin, the color of their skin or their legal status, can thrive in safety and dignity within its boundaries,” Ortiz mentioned. “… False sightings of ICE are spreading on social media, sparking terror in our communities, especially on the Eastside. The incoming administration has proposed a variety of harmful policies, threatening mass deportation, family separation, and, of course, cruel detention. That fear risks decreased cooperation with law enforcement, which is so vital, withdrawal from schools and refraining from seeking healthcare with reverberating consequences for our entire community and, of course, our city.”
This week alone, federal businesses have arrested or lodged detainers for hundreds of undocumented people across the nation, together with conducting a lot smaller enforcement operations in San Jose.
Deportations will not be the one threats the native governments might have to reply to, as members of Congress have warned them from hindering federal immigration enforcement efforts.
The Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform referred to as on leaders from 4 cities — Chicago, New York, Denver and Boston — to testify at a public listening to in February after initiating an investigation into their sanctuary metropolis insurance policies.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan mentioned native regulation enforcement officers got a courtesy notification of ICE’s focused enforcement operation in East San Jose final Sunday however didn’t take part.
In interviews with nationwide media shops, Mahan didn’t take subject with the operations concentrating on criminals, noting it could result in improved public security.
“My general view is if you are in our city or country and you’re undocumented, and you’re committing serious or violent crimes, you should be deported — and I don’t think that’s very controversial,” Mahan instructed CNN’s Erin Burnett. “I don’t think it’s particularly controversial to say we want to have a secure border or know who or what’s coming in and out of the country.”
Mahan, nonetheless, expressed hope that immigration officers would restrict their operations to criminals and never the law-abiding immigrants, together with those that had lengthy been members of the group.
Mahan as an alternative blamed the federal authorities for failing to offer an avenue for them to remain and people seeking to obtain the American dream.
“For decades, we have had thousands of families in San Jose, who are otherwise law-abiding, hard-working, raising their children here (and) contributing to society,” Mahan mentioned within the CNN interview. “We need a way of rationalizing people’s existence here, bringing people out of the shadows, whether it’s a pathway to citizenship, it’s a work permit (or) it is some way of getting into a formal process and paying your dues, paying a fine (or) whatever it is.”
