In response to a flurry of executive orders by President Donald Trump, some of which challenge the foundation of citizenship in the United States, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create an ad hoc committee focused on protecting the East Bay’s vulnerable immigrant and LGBTQ populations.
The Alameda County Together for All ad hoc, which includes District 5 Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas and District 2 Supervisor Elisa Marquez, is a “proactive” measure intended to resist the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants who have entered the country illegally and repeal of protections for transgender Americans, Bas said.
“Folks on the front lines in schools, in health care centers, in workplaces are reporting that they’re experiencing a lot of questions and sometimes outright fear,” Bas told the Bay Area News Group. “I don’t think anyone wants to leave it to chance, and folks want to be proactive.”
The new ad hoc will expand the Ad Hoc Committee for Immigrant and Refugees Rights, which was formed in 2016 to provide a resource network for Alameda County immigrants during a “heightened period of immigrant enforcement,” according to the committee’s final report in 2021. The new commission, however, will expand on the original mission with the inclusion of LGBTQ people and other vulnerable populations.
The ad-hoc will not incur any immediate cost but could provide recommendations for the board to take.
Bas proposed additional funding for the Public Defender Immigration Representation Unit as one such measure, which may require additional support as deportation cases increase. She also emphasized more collaboration between the county and community-based organizations, like Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership and Street Level Health Project, to identify the burgeoning needs of marginalized communities that may be targeted under new federal policies.
This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were observed in San Jose, igniting panicked messages across the South Bay’s immigrant community. The return of immigration enforcement in civilian spaces and the promise of mass deportations has stoked fears in the immigrant community, including at schools, offices and agricultural fields. Approximately 107,000 undocumented immigrants live in Alameda County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2015-2019 American Community Survey.
Supervisor Nate Miley questioned the efficacy of creating the new committee and its potential for overstepping supervisors and the county’s agencies. He also criticized the 2016 Ad Hoc Committee for Immigrant and Refugees Rights and the limited number of policies that resulted from it.
Marquez defended the Immigrant and Refugees Rights committee, stating it was the board’s fault for not implementing proposals.
“Let’s be clear. We’re in this dilemma because we didn’t implement the recommendations and we didn’t maintain them, so we’re playing catch up here,” Marquez said. “This is why this committee is needed.”
Mindy Pechenuk, a candidate for Oakland mayor, told the Alameda County Board of Supervisors they were making a mistake in creating the commission and described the action as “destructive.”
She said the county’s leaders should welcome Trump’s help for “Oakland, Alameda and all of California,” as the president vowed this past week to waive federal permits for Los Angeles as the city prepares to rebuild after deadly wildfires torched more than 50,000 acres this past month.
As a blizzard of orders continues to come from the White House, Bas said the county must step up to provide residents with essential information about the changes at the federal level in order to limit the fear of the unknown.
“One of the antidotes to fear that people have right now is accurate information,” Bas said. “Any of us who work here for the county are not agents of the federal government. So we should not be able, and should not — period — enact any federal policies.”
