Celia Jiménez here, dreading the next four years under President Donald Trump. I haven’t forgotten being bombarded with the anti-immigrant sentiment from his previous term. My little cousin, who was in elementary school at that time, told me he no longer wanted to be Mexican because Mexicans were “bad people.”
Yesterday, Trump signed a series of executive orders declaring cartels terrorists, declaring a national emergency at the Mexico-United States border (essentially militarizing it), ending birthright citizenship and suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
I received an email from Blanca Zarazúa, a Salinas-based immigration attorney and honorary council of Mexico, sharing that CBP One, an app for asylum seekers, was no longer operational and that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, a program implemented in 2012 during the Barack Obama administration, was “rendered invalid” in Texas. “Others will surely follow suit,” Zarazúa added in her email.
I asked Zarazúa how it was to work as an immigration attorney during Trump’s first term.
“I would try to speak or negotiate with a government attorney, and they would rarely return my call or respond to my email message,” she says.
Zarazúa also mentioned local clients having their hearings in Los Angeles or out of state instead of San Francisco.
“They will do all these little things that will make it very difficult for clients to present their case, and difficult for attorneys to defend their clients,” she says.
Since Trump won the election in November, the County of Monterey and local organizations have worked to show this area is immigrant-friendly. The county created an ad hoc committee and a website with resources. Pro-immigrant organizations have organized different “know your rights” forums and workshops and more are being added regularly at different locations across the county.
Next events include those organized by Alisal Union School District on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 5:30pm at Bardin Elementary in Salinas, Watsonville Law Center at Soledad’s Community Center on Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 5:30pm and Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales in Greenfield on Thursday, Jan. 30 (on Facebook Live) at 6pm (it will offer Triqui and Mixteco interpretation).
There are different ways to look at mass deportations. From an emotional standpoint, it destroys families overnight with unimaginable long-lasting consequences for family members, especially kids. Or from a financial standpoint, families are unable to support themselves, increasing the need for social services. It also means less revenue for businesses, such as ag, construction and hospitality, and less tax revenue from the local, state and federal levels (According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in 2022, undocumented immigrants contributed $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes).
Whatever our views, pro or against immigration, there is something we can’t deny: Immigrants are a key element that makes America great.