The Watsonville City Council and the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously denounced the use of military force against protestors and immigrant communities.
Both boards adopted their own resolutions, which were added late to the agendas.
The resolutions came as President Donald Trump deployed 3,400 troops from the U.S. National Guard and the Marine Corps to quell unrest in the streets in Los Angeles, where hundreds were protesting widespread raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Watsonville Mayor Maria Orozco said that the current actions by federal officials are a sharp contrast from the civil rights unrest in 1965, when national guard troops were deployed to protect the demonstrators.
“Today, the context is very different,” she said. “Peaceful protest is not only protected by the constitution, it is vital to a healthy democracy.”
Responding to protests with military force, she said, “sets a troubling precedent.”
“Immigrants are not an abstract policy group,” Orozco said. “They are our neighbors, our essential workers, our small-business owners, our classmates and our family members. They pick the food we eat, teach in our schools, serve in our clinics, and shape the rich culture of our city.”
In a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that both parties agree that undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records should be deported. But the federal officials are going beyond that scope, he said.
“This administration is pushing mass deportations, indiscriminately targeting hard-working immigrant families, regardless of their roots or risk,” Newsom said. “What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before.”
Hundreds of people—many of them legal residents—are being swept up in the raids, Newsom said.
“And when people came out to protest those actions, federal troops were deployed to stop them,” he said.
“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our National Guard at risk,” Newsom said, adding that the state has filed a lawsuit, accusing the Trump administration of overreach in its use of troops.
During the meeting, Watsonville City Attorney Samantha Zutler announced that the city has added its name to the lawsuit.
In the county supervisors meeting earlier that day, Justin Cummings said that using the military against U.S. citizens is “appalling.”
“It’s just unheard of and unconscionable that we’ve gotten to this point,” he said. “Everybody deserves to be here. Creating pathways to have permanent residency should be what we’re focusing on, rather than trying to just sweep people up and making them disappear to other countries or places where we can’t find them.”
Roughly 20 people attended the Watsonville City Council meeting, and all of the roughly 12 people who addressed the council supported the resolution.
“Your support is incredibly important, because it sends a message to the community that you value and recognize our essential workers and immigrant families, and it really sends a message to the youth of our community,” said Community Action Board Maria Elena de la Garza.
Robby Olson, a Presbyterian pastor and owner of the Watsonville Public House brewpub, called the incident in Los Angeles “appalling and terrifying,” and said that California will serve as a litmus test for what the public will tolerate from the federal government.
“L.A. is step one,” he said. “We have an opportunity to step up and make a strong statement that says, ‘we will not get steamrolled by the federal government.’ We are ready to stand up—this is our step one in response.”
Councilwoman Vanessa Quiroz-Carter said she rejects talk of the need to be peaceful and nonviolent.
“No,” she said. “We are staring down fascism, and the time for nonviolence is gone. The American people are the guardrails against a system that has failed us.”
Councilwoman Ari Parker said she has been heartbroken to hear of ICE raids at elementary school promotion ceremonies.
Parker said that the political landscape has changed since Trump took office, from the days when the political pendulum swung back and forth between Democrat and Republican control.
“This man is something different,” she said. “He ignores the rights of the states. He ignores the constitution. He ignores our governor.”
Parker acknowledged that the resolution has no legal weight and amounts to a philosophical statement. Still, it will send a message.
“I do not want to see violence,” Parker said. “But I think that in every way possible we need to fight back.”
Supervisor Manu Koenig called the events in Southern California “unnecessary, inflammatory and ill-prepared.”
It is also expensive, he said, at $134 million.
“This is just really a terrible course of action, and we’ve seen how important it is to our community here, and I hope our collective voices can help turn the tide,” Koenig said.
Former Watsonville Mayor Oscar Rios said he was alarmed and disturbed by Trump’s use of military force this week in Los Angeles.
“What is important today is that the council is taking a stand,” he said. “They are telling the people that we are watching out, what is going on in Los Angeles, and we don’t want that to happen here. I also think it’s important that we don’t get distracted — this is all a distraction, what Trump is doing. He comes out and says this is an invasion and these are criminals taking over. But where was the National Guard and the Marines on January 6 when his people invaded the Capitol? Then, they were beating on the police and destroying the Capitol. That was an insurrection. Trump waited for six hours before he did anything about it.”
