More funding for school districts experiencing a decline in attendance because of immigration enforcement. Better data that tracks immigration-related arrests and deportations.
These are just some ideas local community organizers and state legislators discussed at a roundtable event in Santa Ana on Wednesday, Aug. 13.
Assemblymembers Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, and Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, along with Speaker Robert Rivas, met with leaders from more than a dozen Orange County organizations that serve immigrants. They discussed ways state lawmakers could protect vulnerable community members as the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues.
“Whatever we can do as a state, whether it’s an independent commission to gather data to find out how many have been arrested, where they’re being arrested, where they are being sent — we don’t have this information, and we need it,” Quirk-Silva said.
Sonta Garner-Marcelo, president of the Santa Ana Educators Association, asked legislators to direct more funding to school districts that may see a decline in attendance or enrollment because of fears related to immigration enforcement.
“When we had COVID, we were all scrambling to protect each other,” Garner-Marcelo said. “Well, this is the same protection that we need now.”
Meanwhile, an “independent oversight board” to track arrests and detentions and collect demographic data on groups targeted by immigration officials could be helpful, said Marisol Ramirez, co-executive director of Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, an immigrant rights and civic engagement organization.
Ramirez also asked lawmakers to pass legislation mandating that a guardian be informed if a child’s parent is detained so that children don’t get lost in the foster care system.
Rivas said unreliable data on ICE arrests and detentions is an issue that needs to be addressed. At the moment, he said the legislature is fast-tracking a package of bills that would require federal agents to clearly identify themselves and bar them from entering schools and hospitals without a warrant.
“There’s not one state that has done more for undocumented immigrants than California,” said Rivas, who highlighted his own story as a descendant of migrant farmworkers from Mexico. “Everyone, whether they’re documented or undocumented, deserve to not live in fear.”
Valencia said he has heard from resort owners who informed him that occupancy rates have dropped noticeably since ICE sweeps began in June. He also shared an anecdote of a local ice cream shop that saw its business grow throughout the pandemic but, for the first time in five years, has recently reported a decline in sales.
“We hear loud and clear the necessity for additional funding” for schools and local groups providing immigration-related services, Valencia said.
The meeting was the fourth immigration roundtable that Rivas, D-Salinas, hosted with nonprofit representatives across the state, following similar events in Fresno, Los Angeles and Salinas.
President Donald Trump, in his second term, has made immigration enforcement a centerpiece of his agenda, following his campaign promise to launch the “largest deportation” program in U.S. history.