With renewed authority for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and a change in tone from Washington, many immigrant-dense communities across the country are passing so-called Sanctuary City resolutions, assuring their residents they don't cooperate with ICE.
In Monterey County, such resolutions have been a source of political tension and dissent. On March 21, Soledad City Council became the first in Monterey County to pass a sanctuary city resolution, by a vote of 5-0.
About 70 people showed up at the meeting, and all who spoke publicly supported a sanctuary city resolution.
One man's story in particular struck Mayor Fred Ledesma. The speaker described leaving before dawn for work in the fields, and worrying that his kids would come home from school to an empty house because maybe he'd been pulled over at a stop sign or for a relatively minor infraction, and ended up under arrest.
"It was a powerful statement," Ledesma says. "That's exactly the reason why we should be a sanctuary city.
"We're a little disappointed in some of the other cities that they're not stepping up."
By "other cities," he's talking about the rest of predominantly Latino South County, where the number-one industry is agriculture, and where an estimated 60-plus-percent of the workforce is made up of undocumented immigrants.
He's also talking about Salinas, which had considered a sanctuary city resolution but then voted 4-3 against it, largely for two reasons.
One concern was that the resolution would be mostly symbolic—local authorities generally don't cooperate with ICE anyway, unless there's a warrant signed by a judge. Second, council members worried about jeopardizing some $10 million a year in federal funds, based on a Jan. 25 executive order signed by President Donald Trump that he would withhold federal funding from cities and counties that declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.
Instead, when Salinas City Council convened on March 7, they voted unanimously in closed session to file a federal lawsuit against Trump over his threat to pull back that funding, which City Attorney Chris Callihan has said is unconstitutional.
Soledad gets about $1.5 million a year in federal funding, which Ledesma says is significant, but he doubts Trump will really follow through on his threat.
"Trust me, Donald Trump has enough other problems," he says. "Could you imagine what people would say about the president? They already say some pretty low things about him, but if he starts doing that to a little town like Soledad…
"For $1.5 million, we're willing to take the risk. When we lost redevelopment, it was supposed to be the end of the world, and we survived.
"What's up with Salinas? Malibu is a sanctuary city, but Salinas isn't. That's pretty pathetic, isn't it?"
Instead of filing its own lawsuit against Trump, Salinas has changed tack and is instead following the Monterey County Board of Supervisors' direction (as well as about another 50 jurisdictions) by signing on to documents supporting two existing, similar lawsuits filed by Santa Clara County and the city and county of San Francisco.
The defendants are Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and John Kelley, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
"It makes strategic sense to join the 50-plus other similarly situated jurisdictions," Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan writes by email. "The issues for Salinas as the same as the other jurisdictions and Salinas loses none of its options by doing this should the decision of Judge [William H. Orrick not be good."
Salinas and Monterey County join dozens of other jurisdictions that've signed on to support the case, including Santa Cruz County, Los Angeles County, New Orleans, Santa Fe, Seattle, Sacramento and Denver.
The County Board of Supervisors voted March 17 to support the existing litigation.
“While we are concerned that federal funds could be withheld for merely following state law, Monterey County should not be threatened with losing money and coerced into doing the federal government’s job on immigration," Chair Mary Adams said in a statement.
"It is our responsibility to sign on as friends of the court, to defend the authority and independence of local government. In addition, there will be virtually no cost to the county to take this critical action.”
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors also approved a strongly worded resolution back in February welcoming immigrants, but it does not technically extend sanctuary status.
In fact, the county jail provides access to arrest records and a desk for ICE officials to review. Under sanctuary status, officials refuse to hand over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities when it might result in deportation.
City police departments in Monterey County do not operate jails, and they don't work with ICE, something Salinas Police Chief Adele Fresé has stated publicly at numerous community forums in recent months.
But even at the county level, partnering with ICE is rare to non-existent.
"Our officers do not participate nor do they give info to ICE without a court order," Probation Chief Marcia Parsons says. "We've never received a court order to participate with ICE."