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By Miriam Raftery
Photo: Opponents of resolution rallied Monday in El Cajon; CBS 8 video screenshot
Read the revised resolution on pages 57-59 from City Council agenda attachments
January 28, 2025 (El Cajon) – A crowd of about 75people opposed to mass deportations held a rally outside El Cajon’s City Hall yesterday to speak out against Mayor Bill Wells’ proposed resolution for the city to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The City Council will hold a hearing today at 3 p.m. on the controversial measure.
Changes have been made since the last meeting, adding praise for the city’s “vibrant and diverse immigrant communities” but also declaring the city’s intent to “comply with federal immigration law to the legal extent permissible under SB 54 and other applicable laws to remove violent criminals from our community.” SB 54 is a state law which prohibits cities from turning anyone over to federal immigration authorities unless they have been convicted in court of committed certain serious felony crimes, such as murder or rape.
But President Donald Trump has declared a border emergency and ordered immigration officials to conduct broad sweeps in immigrant communities. In recent days, people including citizens have been stopped, asked for documents to prove citizenship, and many have been detained. Trump has stated his goal is to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—going far beyond the small percentage convicted of felonies.
His administration has set forth quotas to arrest 1,000 to 15,000 immigrants daily, 75 for each Border Patrol district every day. Agents have been going into shopping areas, fields, and are now authorized to enter schools, churches, and hospitals to arrest immigrants. Trump has also voiced his intent to denaturalize some citizens and to revoke legal status for some immigrants with special protected status, such as Haitians.
Might the Trump administration in the future ask local cities and police to assist in handing over citizens whose legal status has been arbitrarily revoked? What if Trump revokes legal status for Iraqi and Afghan immigrants granted special protected status for helping our military? Already, Trump has blocked flights for Afghans and others granted refugee status, including some who helped our military and could face death if returned to their homeland, as well as family members of active duty U.S. military.
Mayor Bill Wells notes that the Trump administration has threatened to arrest city officials who don’t cooperate on immigration arrests, while state law mostly prohibits this, putting cities “between a rock and a hard place.” The city sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta seeking clarification on the city’s legal obligations regarding immigration, and whether the state would indemnify the city if it did not comply with federal orders. Bonta has sent a reply, which included a long list of links and information, but did more to muddy the waters than clarify the points raised.
He added in a CBS interview,“If someone commits a crime, and we catch them...we should be able to tell ICE what is going on.” That goes against the principle in the U.S. that a person is presumed innocent until a judge or jury finds them guilty of a crime. Detention or deportation without a trial raises the specter of what has happened under third-world dictatorships in some countries, where thousands of people have disappeared after being merely accused of crimes, including political dissidents.
“The people, divided, will never be united,” the crowd chanted at yesterday’s rally.
Some voiced fear or anger over the proposed resolution. A woman named Violet, whose last name was not provided, tearfully said a friend was just picked up by immigration authorities. She shared a cell phone photo showing Border Patrol officers in El Cajon.
Others voiced fear of being stopped and asked for papers to prove citizenship, an action that arguably violates the 4th Amendment ban on warrantless searches. One rally participant suggested that if this goes through, the Mayor and Councilmembers will lose in the next election.
Some Councilmembers have voiced concerns over the resolution.
Councilmember Michelle Metschel noted that a resolution is not needed to affirm public safety or seek clarification on the laws from state or federal authorities. She noted that many who spoke against the resolution had voiced legitimate fears, the said, ”I originally signed on to support this,” she said of the resolution, “but as an adult and a representative of my community, I’m entitled to chance my mind as I get more information and as people talk to me,” Metschel added, drawing applause. “These are the heart and soul of what we’re representing,” she said of the speakers present. “I am elected to support them.”
At the last Council meeting on January 14, as ECM reported, Vice Mayor Gary Kendrick revealed, “My mother was living in Czechoslovakia in 1939 when Hitler came in. They said `Jews have to wear yellow stars, but that’s all that we’re doing.’ Then the Gestapo came for her boss, they dragged him out of the office to wash cars, then they dragged him out again and nobody ever saw him again...I’m very concerned about civil rights, because things tend to creep along and get worse..”
Kendrick also praised immigrants for their contributions to the community and agreed with earlier speakers who said if police are cooperating in turning undocumented immigrants over for deportation, many El Cajon residents would be afraid to come forward to report crimes if they are victims or witnesses. ““I don’t want people living here in fear,” he concluded.
Supporters and opponents of the resolution are expected to turn out in force at today's City Council meeting, which will be held at 3 p.m. at El Cajon City County Chambers, 200 Civic Center Way in downtown El Cajon.
Comments
Controversial?
. . .At least they're not going Israeli . .
Hmmm
As usual you cite no source.
We're going to start removing inflammatory claims that are not substantiated.
Sociopathic?
All
Deport...
That's a heartless view.
Many who crossed out border had no legal way to come here. In Central and South America, many people have been threatened or killed by drug cartels, for example. The cartels threaten to kill people if they won't assist cartels in illegal acts such as drug smuggling. If someone refuses they can be killed or have a family member killed. Many people have disappeared at the hands of cartel violence. There has long been no legal way for people in most of those countries to apply for visas or aslyum, other than showing up at our border and asking for asylum. Biden had an app implemented late in his administration for a few countries, but Trump took that away.
If your life or your family's life was in danger, wouldn't you do anything to save them? How can you have no compassion for people in that situation?
What about children brought here through no choice of their own, have never learned a language other than English, and are now adults? Why shouuld they be punished because their parents brought them here? Many have jobs or college degrees and are law-abiding members of society.
To single someone out solely based on their ethnic backgrounds sounds disturbingly like Nazi Germany.
By the way, crossing the border without documentation is only a misdemeanor the first time. Yet your call to send everyone back to wherever they came from would endanger lives of many immigrants. To not care if others are harmed or killed is sociopathic.