Trump's mass deportation plan has Bay Area on edge
SAN FRANCISCO - President-elect Donald Trump is threatening mass deportations on the first day of his second term, leaving the Bay Area’s migrant community on edge.
Carolina Martin Ramos was born in the U.S. to a family with mixed immigration status.
"I think we’re all kind of in shock," said Martin Ramos, who now serves as executive director of La Raza Centro Legal in San Francisco, fighting for the migrant community for decades, providing legal advice, to help them with their immigration status.
There are an estimated 10 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to the latest estimates from the Pew Research Center, with 1.8 million in California.
"There are people who are already afraid, and they’re already holding up in their houses and don’t even want to go out onto the streets."
Both San Jose and San Rafael police departments posted messages on social media following Trump’s election day victory, reassuring migrants they would not be targeted by local law enforcement.
"Everyone in our community, regardless of nationality, regardless of socioeconomic status, regardless of immigration status, our role is to serve the entire community and ensure public safety for all," said San Rafael police Captain Roy Leon.
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California is a sanctuary state, which prevents local law enforcement from questioning someone’s immigration status, but federal agencies can if they have reason to believe a person is undocumented.
Bill Hing, a University of San Francisco professor of immigration, told KTVU that although there is no complete list of undocumented people, more than 600,000 Dreamers are cataloged. Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children and are shielded from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
"That can be canceled by President Trump, and I have no doubt that he will cancel the DACA program," said Hing.
The California Legislature is set to meet in a special session on Dec. 2 to protect what Gov. Gavin Newsom's office describes as "California values." Meanwhile, local advocates are bracing the undocumented community for what might come during a second Trump term.
Free legal advice is available to undocumented immigrants, with numerous nonprofits in the Bay Area offering such services.
Professor Hing doubts that President Trump will use the Alien Enemies Act, which was used for Japanese internment camps during World War II because he says it can only be applied to deport people from a country the U.S. is at war with.