What President Trump’s dangerous executive orders mean locally.

Multiple presidential executive orders were issued during the president’s first weeks in office.

Executive Order 12, “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” is perhaps the most far-reaching immigrant exclusion order issued since the internment of people of Japanese heritage during World War II. It is also patently unconstitutional.

This order was largely overlooked by the media with the recent focus on a different executive order, the “Muslim ban,” and ensuing chaos and litigation. But for Monterey County and California, it is EO 12 that may indeed create the greatest chaos for immigrant families and employers.

The president and his team have engaged in a massive assault on existing constitutional protections including well-established immigration laws that already prioritize the removal of the most dangerous criminals.

The broad exclusions proposed by the president’s order create grounds for deportation that include acts that may “constitute a chargeable offense,” meaning no charges have been filed and there has been no finding of a violation of law. The order empowers local law enforcement or an immigration official to make an extrajudicial determination that a detained individual should be deported.

All residents of the U.S., regardless of immigration status, are entitled to the protections afforded by the Constitution, including the guarantees to due process and equal protection.

While the ACLU and others will challenge the presidential orders, it is impossible to calculate and project how this order may impact families living in our communities.

Imagine the fear among immigrant workers, including permanent residents and even citizens who may be racially profiled and caught up in deportation efforts. Executive Order 12 makes no distinction between the prioritization of criminals convicted of a felony and a working person who may have a misdemeanor conviction for a minor offense committed 20 years ago.

The order will lead to disruptions not only in the lives of immigrant families, but also to employers and local economies. It will undermine law enforcement’s dependence on all residents feeling safe in stepping forward to cooperate and report crimes. It will also result in inestimable psychological trauma for law-abiding, tax-paying immigrants.

The new administration has called media the “opposition party.” An informed populace is dependent upon a media with access to government leaders. The media has been exposing outright lies of the new president and called them lies, rather than “alternative truths.” The broad-brush assaults on fundamental constitutional protections in the first wave of presidential orders demand continued vigilance of not only the media, but also the activism of an informed public. We erode our nation’s Constitution at the peril of our national security and humanity.

STATE SEN. BILL MONNING represents parts of Monterey and Santa Clara counties and all of Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties.