Trump orders produce fear, anger in Sonoma County immigrant community

The U.S.-Mexico border already divides the family of one undocumented immigrant who has lived in Sonoma County since 2013.

Unable to hold back her tears, Teresa, 29, who asked that only her first name be used, wonders what the construction of President Donald Trump’s “great wall” will do to her family.

She has a 13-year-old son living in Mexico and a 3-year-old, U.S.-born boy living with her in southwest Santa Rosa. Every month she sends back between $200 and $300 to her son and family in Mexico, a sum that falls to $150 during the slow winter months.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with this president. If they throw us out, what will happen to our children?” she asked, tearfully, as she stood in the parking lot of the Roseland Community Center in southwest Santa Rosa.

Just hours after Trump took executive action Wednesday, ordering a crackdown on illegal immigration and the construction of a border wall, Teresa visited the public library at the community center to drop off English-language cartoons she’s been watching with her 3-year-old son, to help him with his English.

Trump’s actions Wednesday sent shock waves across the North Coast immigrant community, with many reacting with a mixture of fear, anxiety and defiance. Aside from ordering the planning and construction of a border wall, a key election campaign promise, Trump also signed an executive order to hire 5,000 new border patrol agents and triple the number of immigration officers who conduct deportations.

That executive order also calls for withholding federal dollars from cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuaries for certain undocumented immigrants and creates new criteria that could make more undocumented immigrants eligible for deportation. Though a record number of immigrants were deported under President Barack Obama, in late 2014 the former president signed an executive order that called on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending and deporting immigrants who had committed serious crimes.

Trump is also expected to sign an executive order blocking Syrian refugees from entering the United States and place a month-long ban on allowing people from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen to enter the country.

Federal, state and local officials blasted Trump’s executive orders, vowing they would not cooperate with a roundup of local immigrant families.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a statement that there was little chance Congress would “divert billions of dollars to it when there are far more important priorities.” Feinstein said solutions to country’s immigration woes won’t be found in a “series of disjointed” executive orders.

“What we need is comprehensive immigration reform,” she said. “The Senate passed a bipartisan bill in 2013 and we need to do so again.”

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a statement, said that local communities “should not be compelled to spend precious taxpayer dollars doing the job of the federal government on immigration enforcement.” Newsom said Trump’s actions were not only “inhumane and immoral” but are a “declaration of national economic devastation.”

But some in the North Coast applauded Trump’s actions.

Edelweiss Geary, head of the Sonoma County Republican Party, said Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do during his presidential campaign.

“He follows through,” she said. “Now is everything going to be absolutely great and perfect? Who knows, but this man tends to follow through on what he says he’s going to do.”

Geary said she thought it was a good idea for Trump to target cities and counties that have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. She said it was wrong for local governments to protect “illegal aliens” that had committed crimes.

Shortly after he won the election in November, Trump said he would immediately seek to deport 2 to 3 million criminal undocumented immigrants. Immigration advocates and attorneys have said that number is inflated and could include legal permanent residents who have committed crimes.

Immigration attorney Christopher Kerosky, with offices in the North Coast, said the only way to deport up to 3 million undocumented immigrants is by targeting those who have committed minor crimes, such as driving without a license or using a false identification card.

“To get to that number, you have to go far beyond rapists and killers,” Kerosky said. “You’re talking about people with minor crimes, some of them very old.”

He said both undocumented and legal immigrants who were long ago convicted of a crime but have served their sentence could also be at risk.

“Now after many years of living here, obeying the law, they are at risk because of that criminal conviction,” Kerosky said.

The state’s 2-year-old Trust Act restricts cooperation between local law enforcement agencies and federal immigration officials. Trump’s actions Wednesday set the stage for a major clash with California lawmakers around that policy.

But some local officials are calling for an even stronger stance against the White House.

“There are people who argue that because we are in California, we are already a sanctuary city,” said Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey. “We need to take that a step further.”

Coursey said it’s important for the city to make a statement that defines “who we are. We care about all of our residents.”

City Councilwoman Julie Combs said targeting immigrant families would destabilize the local community.

“We cannot support and we will resist ripping apart families, criminalizing children, raiding work places, setting up registries or detention centers,” she said. “We have a state policy and locally we can strengthen that policy. We can ensure that our police policies match the needs of our residents. I intend to protect our residents.”

Francisco Vazquez, a professor at Sonoma State University, said Trump’s executive actions targeting immigrants were just the beginning of an onslaught against a number of groups. He called immigrants, and especially Latinos, the “canary in the coal mine” for a prolonged political battle that will resemble that of the Civil Rights movement.

“It’s not only Mexico and the Mexicans that are going to be affected. This is another step engaging in a lot of policies that are going to hurt many people on the planet,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.

On Twitter @renofish.