San Diego Immigrant and Refugee Leaders Condemn President Trump’s Actions

SAN DIEGO — Leaders from across San Diego County strongly condemn President Trump’s executive orders to shut out immigrants and refugees with policies and walls that divide us rather than bring us together.

As a result of the president’s actions, refugees, who are mostly women and children fleeing war and violence and who have already been vetted, now stand in harm’s way. Immigrants and visa applicants from entire countries are now blocked based on nothing more than the geography of their birth, harkening back to discriminatory immigration policies of the past. In addition, southern border communities that lack resources and infrastructure are now facing the prospects of an expanded border wall that does nothing to revitalize their communities.

By Pedro Rios

Cities and counties around the country are taking the audacious step of declaring their municipal governments sanctuaries to demonstrate solidarity with immigrants and refugees who reside within their jurisdictions. The bold declarations are necessary and responsible actions that respond to the uncertainty of increased threats by President Donald Trump about targeting immigrants and refugees for mass deportation. But really, sanctuary cities are an extension of the obligation that elected officials have of ensuring the safety and well-being of their constituents.

By Rob Garvey

President-elect Donald Trump ran for election on a platform built in large part on enforcing laws—however harsh—against illegal immigrants and a promise to bar refugees and others from Muslim countries from entering the United States.

Now, experts say, with his decision to nominate Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to be Attorney General, Trump is giving one of the most ardent anti-illegal immigration voices in the US Congress tremendous power to reshape immigration enforcement in the United States.

Sessions, the first member of the Senate to endorse Trump’s candidacy, strenuously opposed bipartisan immigration reform bills that came before the Senate in 2007 and 2013, arguing that they were insufficiently strict and ultimately led to amnesty.

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A resolution reaffirming the values of peace, tolerance and respect for multiple perspectives was adopted unanimously Tuesday night by the San Diego Unified School Board less than a month after Donald Trump was elected president.

The resolution was sparked by fears felt by some district students that Trump’s election would lead to the deportation of some students, their families and friends, who may be in the U.S. illegally, according to district officials.

OAKLAND, Calif. – As their new two-year legislative session opened Dec. 5, members of California’s state Senate and Assembly moved quickly to build on post-election initiatives to protect and uphold the rights of the state’s undocumented immigrants.

A 2015 study by the Public Policy Institute of California estimated California’s undocumented population at 2.67 million, or nearly a quarter of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., and said they make up just over 6 percent of the state’s population. Other estimates put the figure at around 2.3 million.

WASHINGTON ― Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled legislation on Friday to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation under President-elect Donald Trump ― now the question is whether it will work.

The bill, called the Bridge Act, would effectively maintain the protections of President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. More than 740,000 young people were granted deportation reprieve and work permits under the program, but could now lose those protections, should Trump follow through on a promise to end DACA immediately upon taking office.

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