County Board of Supervisors will consider creating a committee to focus on immigrants’ rights.

Immigrants form the backbone of Monterey County’s two largest industries, agriculture and hospitality, both of which are experiencing labor shortages.

As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his inauguration on Jan. 20, after campaigning on a promise to enact mass deportations of immigrants, local officials and industry leaders are bracing for what is ahead. “The real threat here is that we’re going to lose the labor pool that is harvesting our food crops, but also managing our restaurant operations and staffing our hotels,” says Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

County Supervisor Luis Alejo is proposing the County create an ad hoc committee to address immigrant rights. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the creation of this new committee when they meet on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Alejo hopes the new committee can be a place for communication across public and private sectors, and create a rapid response committee where different members – residents, business leaders, nonprofit and local government representatives – gather information, distribute resources and provide education to the immigrant community.

“I’m hoping that we get the right voices in the room, so that we can have honest and frank discussions, and bring new and different ways of looking at solutions that are not just based on one particular economic sector or another,” Groot says.

California is a sanctuary state, meaning local law enforcement doesn’t aid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Alejo hasn’t seen targeted raids on farmworkers since the 1990s. “It’s unclear right now who will be targeted first. It is my hope that agricultural workers will not be targeted,” he says.

This is the second time Trump is putting immigration at the forefront of his administration, but this time around, the wind is at his back. The Supreme Court supports his agenda and the Republican Party will have the majority in the House and Senate. “It’s even more concerning today than it was several years ago,” Alejo says. “It was the courts that were really the saviors, in many ways, to put those checks on the executive or legislative branches.”

Even so, mass deportation would be a difficult task. The U.S. has the largest immigrant population worldwide, with over 60 million foreign-born residents; an estimated 11 million lack legal status, representing 23 percent of the immigrant population. Statewide, Monterey County has the highest proportion of immigrants of any California county, 29 percent. As of 2013, the most recent date when such estimates were released, 62,000 immigrants in Monterey and San Benito counties were believed to be undocumented.

“This has the potential to have a major impact on our local economy,” Alejo says.

In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes, according to the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy.

“For a vibrant economy, we need people coming here with the desire to be part of the community,” says Monica Lal, President and CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. “Many of them pay taxes. We know that many of them contribute in many ways, and the most vulnerable should be supported.”