Just one day after the election, anxiety had set in among some Santa Barbara County residents.
Two female employees at a Subway restaurant discussed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s unanticipated win against his challenger, Hillary Clinton. Their tone reflected uncertainty and fear, similar to many Santa Maria residents. The city has a majority Latino population, including a substantial proportion of undocumented immigrants.
Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) estimates nearly 40,000 undocumented immigrants in Santa Barbara County, with a large portion of that residing in Santa Maria. The city’s undocumented population has already been dealing with the possibility of being deported since a new Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holding facility built in Santa Maria went online in August 2015. But now they feel their fears are being substantiated by Trump’s hardline talk on immigration.
Among the promises Trump made during his campaign, he said he’d remove all “criminal aliens” (which is already an ICE function) and build a wall between Mexico and the U.S.
His other plans are even more worrisome to undocumented immigrants. On his website, Trump has posted some of his presidential priorities, including curbing uncontrolled foreign worker admissions and vetting immigrants based on their “likelihood of success” and whether they’d be financially self-sufficient.
It’s not entirely clear how the government will make this determination. The Sun reached out to the Trump campaign for clarification via email and telephone, but there was no response as of press time.
Francisca, a 29-year-old mother of three who migrated here from Oaxaca, Mexico, said she can only assume the worst.
Out of fear of deportation, Francisca wouldn’t give her last name. But she currently works a full-time job at Community Health Centers in Santa Maria while taking classes at a local college, and taking care of her three children: two daughters and a son ages 5, 6, and 9.
Francisca told the Sun that she came to the U.S. at 3 years old and didn’t find out that she was undocumented until she was a teenager. At 19 years old, she began the process of applying for permanent residency, which is the first step to getting citizenship, but she said the system is significantly backed up. However, even without citizenship, she considers herself an American.
Between being a mother, having a full-time job, going to school, and dealing with her undocumented status, Francisca lives a challenging life.
“They think it’s really easy, but it’s not easy at all,” Francisca told the Sun. “If you’re going to school and you’re working, it’s really hard.”
Though it’s been difficult, since 2015 when President Barack Obama issued an executive order protecting 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, Francisca has lived what she considers a normal life.
However, that order was effectively blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court last April (after a 4-4 split) and now President-elect Trump has promised to do away with it altogether on his first day in office.
Juan, an undocumented immigrant field laborer living in Santa Maria, holds similar fears. He also didn’t want to be identified by his last name, but he told the Sun that he came here in 2000 when he was 22 years old. He now has a family—a wife, and three kids who were born in the U.S.
Now that Trump is about to become president, Juan fears that he’ll go to work one day and never come home. Speaking through an interpreter, he told the Sun that he knows of several hundred like him who feel this way.
“It was a threat what he said to Hispanic people,” Juan said. “I don’t think it’s good to separate families.”
Even the kids are scared. Francisca, whose kids go to school in Orcutt, told the Sun they’ve already experienced bullying in school since Trump’s election.
Juan said his kids are generally aware of what’s happening, particularly the older ones. He said he’s not sure how to address their concerns.
“They watch the television and they ask ‘why,’” he said. “We try to explain to them very lightly so we don’t scare them too much.”
Hazel Davalos, the organizing director for CAUSE, is doing what she can to inform immigrant families in Santa Maria, including door-to-door outreach in farmworker neighborhoods. She calls Trump’s win heartbreaking.
“We certainly recognize a great fear among immigrant families in Santa Maria,” Davalos told the Sun. “As an organization, we’re trying to deal with that fear and make sure that immigrant families know their rights and do what they can to take care of themselves emotionally.”
Everything her organization has worked on in the last four years, including policy advocacy and informative campaigns, is in jeopardy, she said. But she added that a silver lining exists in the fact that California has greater protections for immigrants. The organization has also worked on a farmworker’s bill of rights to protect employees from poor working conditions and wage theft.
When asked if Juan had a message for Trump, he said Trump should think of the families.
“I would tell him don’t be unfair with the people,” Juan said. “If it wasn’t for all of these immigrants, he wouldn’t have fruit on his table.”
Staff Writer David Minsky can be reached at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 17-24, 2016.