Santa Clara County officials, bracing for a potential wave of immigration raids, denounced the campaign.
As part of a national sweep, the planned raids will target undocumented men, women and children, as well adults who immigrated to the U.S. alone as children.
“It is discouraging to learn about the ... continuation of immigration raids targeting Central American families and unaccompanied minors,” county supervisor Dave Cortese said in a statement. “Those who are being or have been removed are returning to dire situations in their home countries and often face violence or imminent death.”
Reuters reports that the operation is expected to be the largest since President Barack Obama took office. It follows on the heels of raids carried out over two days in January that targeted Georgia, Texas and North Carolina.
Local leaders have at times had a contentious relationship with federal immigration authorities. The county has a dedicated Office of Immigrant Relations, which prioritizes the needs of its foreign-born residents over demands from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Cortese and the Board of Supervisors called on federal immigration officials to stop dividing families and follow the county’s example in regards to immigrant integration.
Census data from 2013 shows that 53 percent of foreign-born county residents are U.S. citizens, while two-thirds of families include both immigrants and their children.
“Most immigrant families are crossing the south border because they are escaping extreme violence or even death threats, and risk their lives in search of a better conditions for them and their loved ones,” said Maria Love, manager of the county Office of Immigrant Relations. Deporting undocumented citizens, she added, is not the way to fix the broken immigration system.
Supervisor Cindy Chavez said immigration raids and deportations put undocumented families in fear, which limits their ability to become productive members of the community.
“Residents of this county, regardless of immigration status, must be allowed to thrive and contribute to the greater good,” she said.
The county already has a policy against cooperating with ICE. For the past five years, the county has refused to detain jailed non-citizens for customs officials any longer than required, as long as the charges do not include violent or sexual crimes. The policy has stirred up controversy, but the county reaffirmed it in 2013 and again in 2014 despite backlash against so-called “sanctuary city” laws.
Immigration Raids ?
The United States does not conduct raids on people just because they are immigrants. Our Immigration system is broken only because we are not enforcing the laws that are currently in effect.
Let’s get this straight, ICE is after people who have broken the law by coming across the border without an invitation to come here, thus making themselves “Lawbreakers, Illegal Immigrants or Undocumented Workers”.
Just as people that break into your home and set up house are breaking the law, you would call the police, you wouldn’t give them your credit card and tell them to stay as long as they want.
I feel very bad for people that don’t live in the United States of America because they did not copy or fight for our type of Declaration of Independents, Our Constitution that set in stone the rules we live by, and the Bill of Rights that set limits on what the our own government can do. It’s called “Limited Government”. Governments without limits are run mostly by tyrants.
We the People of United State have fought a whole bunch of wars around the world the last 150 years, gotten many of our young people killed or wounded trying to liberate people from those very same tyrants that keep many of those people you are whining about, crossing the border illegally. I’m about 99% sure Miss Morales you would be one of the first yelling no more war should we try and fix their broken system.
Let’s talk about Sanctuary Cities that are harboring these fugitives, the Federal Government loves to cut off funds to states and cities that don’t comply with bathroom laws as a most recent example, US verse Arizona as another.
SCOTUS has ruled only the federal government has the right to set immigration laws.
Those laws are being violated by sanctuary cities and the people running them, this is aiding and abetting and a violation of federal law.
This reckless behavior on the part of the illegal sanctuaries could easily get funding for government schools, roads, high speed rail, welfare and any number of other federal programs CUT OFF.
The county has an illegal policy of not cooperating with ICE, well maybe its time the people that put those policies in effect spend some time in jail and court explaining why they think they too are exempt from the law because Miss Morales I don’t remember anyone asking the voters to support this sanctuary policy.
OMG! I can’t believe I just read this comment! I don’t even know where to start… but your analogy is quite inaccurate. It’s more like if someone broke into your house, cleaned it, cooked you dinner, raised your kids, was your handyman, planted you a garden, sang you beautiful music, cared for you when you were sick…. These are generations of ppl that have lived here! They are part of our community and history! You scare me. Not because you are one person with this opinion, but because I know there are so many who separate themselves so far from the reality and humanity of this disgusting injustice. God bless you and may you one day have a clearer understanding of this issue.
Patricia Marquez Proctor: you, dear, are the one that doesn’t understand the situation. First understand that Empty Gun and others like myself realize and acknowledge the many law abiding immigrants are the ones cleaning my house, tending my yard, and providing medical care when I’m sick. These people have come here legally and are welcome in my book. And if they’ve been here for ‘generations’ as you claim, then they would be legal, US citizens as they were born here (although some would dispute that). Is it really fair that some can walk across the border and stay with all benefits that citizens and legal immigrants have paid for? Is it fair that friends of mine have been in this country legally for 15+ years and are STILL in line for a green card? Is it fair that my co-worker had to raise her baby alone for months while her husband returned to their home country and waited to gain legal residence in this country? Is it fair that other friends waited 9 years in eastern (ie communist) Europe to legally settle in this country? Is it fair that my (ex)roommate had to wait to go to her home country to see her dying father because she was still waiting in line for her green card? Do you really think it is fair for those who enter this country without ‘papers’ should be able to just plop down without waiting their turn to immigrate as so many others have? I think that’s the point Empty Gun and others are trying to make. And what would you say to the family of Kate Steinle and the remaining family of a father and his two sons gunned down in SF a few years ago by those who entered this country illegally? While you seem to have a good heart, Ms Proctor, your ignorance of the situation scares ME because there are many others like you. God Bless you and may YOU one day have a clearer understanding of this issue.
Miss Marquez,
You know full well people that have been here for generations/ born here, are here legally. Sounds like you have been taking advantage of people here illegally to pay none living wage’s, shame on you!
My apologies to Supervisor Cortese, Ms. Love, Supervisor Chavez, Ms. Proctor, and every other big-hearted person who is too empty-headed to be held accountable for their position on this issue, but you are all wasting your compassion for these alien invaders, just as fed-up Californians wasted their time two decades ago voting for Proposition 187, just as Congress wastes its time blowing smoke about immigration reform, and the media wastes its time suppressing the ugly truth about wetback crime and feeding us Disney-quality pablum about how lucky we are to have them.
We are all wasting our time because for the last three decades the immigration policy of the United States has been decided by the illegals themselves. Who decides if Jose from Guatemala is going to live in San Jose, California? Is it SJ’s mayor? No. Is it someone in the state government? No. Is it someone in the federal government? No. It’s Jose. It’s his call whether to sneak across the border and settle here, get involved with a local gang, reduce the going rate for roofers, steal someone’s social security number, have surgery on the county’s dime, avoid income taxes, adopt a new name, put his kids in school.
If you want to argue with me, be prepared to identify just who it is who has authority over Jose from Guatemala. Our own government has many times, as a prelude to its latest amnesty scheme, claimed itself powerless to remove the illegals, so why are we kidding ourselves that this upcoming raid is anything more than a political stunt, or that those rounded up will not return — whenever THEY DECIDE TO?
> The policy has stirred up controversy, but the county reaffirmed it in 2013 and again in 2014 despite backlash against so-called “sanctuary city” laws.
Uh oh.
I think I may have been guilty of “backlashing” against “sanctuary city” laws.
Does anyone know what the punishment for “backlashing” is?
Sensitivity training? “Community service” (a.k.a. “slavery)? Re-education camp? Prosecution for “hate crime”?
Fin Fan: when you wrote “so why are we kidding ourselves that this upcoming raid is anything more than a political stunt, or that those rounded up will not return — whenever THEY DECIDE TO?” were you referring to people like Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who was deported four times yet returned and killed Kathryn Steinle in SF? California is overrun with criminals who are deported and return to the US multiple times. Not everyone here illegally is a criminal other than the fact of their mere presence here, but they also constitute an outsize proportion of criminal defendants and inmates in prisons and jails. And there are even more of them who are not criminals, but who are sucking the budget dry utilizing social services, yet pay no taxes here, either because they work off the books and/or make insufficient money to have taxable income. On the federal level, 47% of US workers, legally here or not, pay ZERO federal income tax.
On this we can agree. This same pro immigration crowd pushes the H1B visa as well. The H1B visa is the scourge of the valley.
Engineers at Yahoo India were trained/groomed to come here. They stay because the good “American” ones went to google/uber.
Even at a vaunted company like Yahoo who should be paying engineers top $$$$. They use the H1B to stagnate wages.
SJI size constraints in the reply box wouldn’t let me post my entire comment to Fin Fan, so here’s the rest:
Illegal immigrant advocates often argue that without the illegals to pick and process our food, we’d be paying $5.00/pound for lettuce, etc. If you factor in the cost of welfare, WIC, MediCal; gang suppression and intervention, extra cops, D.A.’s and public defenders, jails, prisons and their guards; free education for their kids, many of whom eventually drop out of high school, and free food at those free for all these immigrants, we are already paying AT LEAST $10.00 per pound for lettuce.
Exactly right. California used the Bracero program, which allowed Mexicans to come here for a few months and help with the harvest. Then they would leave. It was good for us and good for them, since they made much more here than in Mexico.
But since many decided not to leave as required, the Mexican government (not the U.S. gov’t) asked for assistance in moving its citizens back (their government wanted that money back home, too).
So the U.S. and Mexican governments agreed on “Operation Wetback”, which moved tens of thousands of illegals back across the southern border.
But that was then, and this is now. The bracero program was eliminated due to protests by the same do-gooders who now condone illlegal immigration. And it’s hard to believe, but now every illegal is registered to vote! They can’t register a car or deal with the DMV without being registered to vote. And it’s illegal for state employees to ask anyone their immigration status!
This all started years ago, with the “Motor Voter” law. Now, the Moonbeam Administration is frantically trying to register every posasible illegal. Why? To keep Brown’s libs in control. They couldn’t do it aboveboard, so now it’s being done by hook or by crook.
Finally, I’d like to ask Ms Proctor why she thinks it’s A-OK for citizens of foreign countries to break the law here. Because that’s exactly what they’re doing. There are plenty of folks who did it the right way — the handyman I use was born in Mexico. He spent more than ten years going through the immigration process. Now he’s a legal citizen of the U.S.
How does Ms Proctor feel about him? Does she think it’s fair to him and his family, that millions of ILLEGALS are allowed to flood across our borders? If she thinks that’s fair, I would like to hear her definition of ‘fair’. I don’t think my handyman would agree with it.
> If she thinks that’s fair, I would like to hear her definition of ‘fair’.
An excellent suggestion.
Americans who believe in the rule of law should ask that question EVERY time the Big Hearts launch into their “fairness” narrative.
In the Big Heart dictionary “fair” doesn’t mean “lawful”, or “honest” or “unbiased”; It means “my tribe wins”.
The Big Hearts definition of THEIR tribe is flexible and situational. They will belong to whatever tribe is in line to get a portion of loot from the last successful tribal raiding expedition.
JMO, You have always been great at cooking up a witches brew. You forgot to throw in a Bats penis, and a mosqitors peter.
YET ! You have never attempted to shed light on the off shore profits being held off shore, by the billionair Brats in Silicon Valley. At last reports 2.1 Trillion dollars.! You remind me of a punk VATO, that take the easy way to get attention.
SO GET A LIFE. !
Our electeds need to do more than talk, they need to fix the system so that immigrants can come here legally like my Mother and sisters did, and like many of my friends have. More action less talk, that’s what I have to say.
Um, yeah, Kathleen, immigrants can already come here legally. Like, ONE MILLION PER YEAR. And that’s great! So keep out the illegal invaders.
“Most immigrant families are crossing the south border because they are escaping extreme violence or even death threats,” This is surely a lie. Vote Trump.
“Supervisor Cindy Chavez said immigration raids and deportations put undocumented families in fear, which limits their ability to become productive members of the community”.
Does anyone else see the irony in this statement? The point is, they SHOULD be in fear! That means the law is working!
It also admits that they are not currently very productive, and a drain on the system!
Frankly, I feel That Trump is in fear of loosing all that cheap labor, he has benifited by all of these years. He is building a cage all around our borders to in prison all of this cheap labor.
Apple, Microsoft, and other Silicon Valley Corporations have resorted to skirt this delema, by paying the greedy politicians, to enact laws for H-1B workers. Yet no one is building a wall around Apple to keep these low based workers , from displacing United States Engineers. one example is Disney World. For these Billionaire Brats, Ro Khanna, is but the tip of that ice burg. 2.1 Billion dollars, laying off shore, waiting for Khanna to lower the off shore corp tax, for his donors. That is truly Un American, or perhaps that is Americana. You must have an answer for that thought!
TVBS,
Is there anyone you approve of? Or do you hate everyone?
Frankly, he’s building walls to keep you and mockery from escaping again.
That was 2.1 Trilion Dollars.
H1B’s are the scourge of the valley. No other profession is attacked in this manner. I’ve heard of some piffling about nurses but they have very strong unions. The large tech companies have built the “new” America on the backs of cheap labor.
Illegal latinos perform labor
indentured servant Asians perform work tasks in tech
Then they hire an American. Really we have enough laws. A black kid steals a blunt wrap and all hell breaks loose. But other than that do we enforce laws?
Is it really that unimaginable that the only willing visa’s provided are bribes and sweetheart deals?
Is it really that unimaginable that those who have historically provided slave labor, from across a walkable land mass, are the only ones without attainable visas?