At the annual Truth Act Forumheld by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors in November, the community had an opportunity to share public comments about the transfer of immigrants and refugees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, conducted by Sheriff Carlos Bolanos. A week later, after many years of testimony by advocacy groups and affected families, the sheriff announced he would stop cooperating with ICE.
More than 100 San Mateo County residents have been voluntarily handed to ICE, after already being found eligible for release, by the sheriff since 2018. Last year, we shamefully ranked #1 in ICE transfers in the entire Bay Area. At this year’s forum, there were more than 160 attendees and more than 50 public comments. Like previous years, not one commenter was in favor of continuing ICE transfers.
The most egregious effect of ICE transfers is the separation of families by subsequent detention and deportation of community members. Transferring individuals who have already completed their sentence or have pending charges, is at best, a misapplication of justice.
My partner arrived in the United States in his early 20s, fleeing the violence and poverty in El Salvador. He also came here to help provide financial support to the family he left behind. I became a U.S. citizen in 1996. Our children were born in Redwood City.
We were doing our best to provide for our growing family when my partner became one of 51 people transferred to ICE in 2018 from Maguire Jail in Redwood City. Within 48 hours of his detainment, we became mired in a stressful and disturbing immigration system that still threatens to upend our family forever. With tremendous community support, we secured legal counsel and got him home on bond eight months later. Three years later, as we wait for a verdict on his appeal, after the denial of his first petition, we are still fighting against having our family separated.
The fallout from an ICE transfer is never easy for any family. It is a traumatic, time-consuming, anxiety-inducing and expensive catastrophe. Just one of these reasons is grounds enough for most people to sign a voluntary departure form without putting up any fight.
Our young children suffered eight months of the destabilizing effects of their father’s absence. My partner suffered the system in the flesh and received treatment for the residual effects too. Instead of continuing with normal life once he came home, we have been forced to plan for the possibility of his deportation. I personally got a crash course in just how malicious the current process can be. I don’t wish it on anyone.
Moreover, my children have inherited the stigma and hardship of living as an undocumented person in this country. Because their father was born elsewhere, they are also being treated unjustly by the current immigration and criminal justice systems.
Cooperating with ICE, transferring and deporting essential community members only increases the pressure on families and does not help anyone. Santa Clara, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other counties in California have enacted ordinances that cement their stance against racism and ICE.
To not only recognize immigrants as worthy of compassion, but to acknowledge that we have been treated unfairly, silenced and cheated from equal opportunity in America, is to continue our pursuit of shaping this country into something better.
The sheriff has taken the first step by proclaiming that he will no longer cooperate with ICE. Now the Board of Supervisors should follow and enact humane policies that will move our county toward a more equitable treatment of everyone, regardless of birthplace.
Nora Meléndez is an entrepreneur, advocate for immigrants rights, writer and mother. She has lived and worked in San Mateo County since 1983 after immigrating from Mexico. Most recently she earned a certification in leadership in social justice from DeAnza College.
(3) comments
Well Nora - siento mucho. You do not mention why your partner, now upgraded to a 'community member', became involved in the criminal system. He is illegally here and committed a crime apparently serious enough to become subject of the justice system. He has no right to be here at all. I am an immigrant myself but never had to worry about ICE and neither did you apparently. As a former deputy mentioned, if one does not do the crime, one does not have to do the time. Sorry, but I disagree with the Sheriff. Your partner should have realized that by committing a crime he would be separated from you and his children. That is the price to pay for being irresponsible.
Well stated, Mr. van Ulden.
"Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them." Thomas Sowell
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