It’s the most recent act of resistance towards the Trump administration from a county the place greater than 40% of residents are foreign-born and one in 5 immigrants are undocumented, based on county estimates.
Since Trump took workplace in January, the county — and its largest metropolis — have pledged to guard its immigrant communities, submitting lawsuits towards the federal authorities over its makes an attempt to limit funding to ‘sanctuary’ jurisdictions and spending on packages like “know your rights” trainings and immigration authorized companies. San Jose final month additionally instituted a coverage that requires federal brokers to take away face coverings whereas conducting immigration enforcement operations throughout the metropolis.
The newest initiative, which stems from the “ICE-free zones” instituted earlier this month in Chicago, is being led by Supervisor Sylvia Arenas from the county and Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas and Rosemary Kamei from the town. Each the county and the town have lengthy held non-cooperation insurance policies that stop officers from aiding federal brokers in immigration enforcement efforts.
“This is really in the spirit of standing with our community and letting our community know that we want to make sure that we are not somehow inadvertently responsible in helping carry out some of the immigration enforcement activities,” Arenas stated on the Board of Supervisors assembly on Tuesday afternoon.
The supervisor, whose district contains elements of San Jose, Morgan Hill and Gilroy, is asking officers to determine an inventory of county-owned or managed properties that might “potentially be used for immigration enforcement staging, processing or surveillance.” The proposal, which was unanimously permitted by the board, additionally desires signage posted on these properties that notifies the general public that immigration enforcement actions are barred on the location.
The San Jose Metropolis Council’s guidelines committee is anticipated to vote on whether or not to maneuver its personal proposal ahead on Wednesday afternoon.
Ortiz, who represents East San Jose on the Metropolis Council, stated at a press convention on Tuesday that the hassle began with a “simple but powerful idea: that city property, property built and maintained by the people, should only be used for city or county purposes.”
“When immigrant families see federal agents parked outside of our community centers, it doesn’t just create fear, it creates barriers to education, to healthcare, to housing assistance, to the very services that help families survive in this Valley,” he stated. “That’s not who we are as a city, and that’s not what our public spaces have been created for.”
Equally, the town proposal authored by Ortiz, Candelas and Kamei asks metropolis officers to compile its personal record of owned and operated properties “that are open space with publicly accessible parking lots that could be misused for non-city purposes.”
The proposals have already garnered help from immigrant rights advocates who preserve that the initiative will assist defend the county’s various communities.
Jeremy Barousse, the director of coverage on the nonprofit Amigos de Guadalupe, urged the board through the assembly “to pass a strong policy that excludes federal immigration enforcement from using county property to execute their harmful family separation agenda.”
“This is our community and we must not let malicious federal agents use local government property to violate the constitutional rights and safety of our people,” he stated. “Our county is a beautiful place that thrives due to the vibrant contributions of our immigrant communities and we must protect this diversity and our community with a powerful unifying partnership across the county that asserts ‘hands off’ our communities.”
Within the meantime, Santa Clara County is constant its work to make sure it protects its immigrant communities within the occasion Trump sends the Nationwide Guard to the Bay Space like he lately did in Los Angeles. Deputy County Govt David Campos assured the board that “no one is more prepared” than Santa Clara County.
“As scary as it is, and we feel a lot of anxiety, we’re actually ahead of the curve in terms of where other Bay Area governments are, and as a region the Bay Area is certainly looking to be more prepared than LA County was,” Campos stated. “My objective and the objective of the administration is to make sure we are as prepared as we can be.”
