Fear of unknown as communities brace for mass deportations

 Two years ago, Leticia Ruvacalba opened La Misma Taqueria in Plaza Vigil, the tiny business park in the heart of Watsonville’s downtown corridor.

The little restaurant is often busy, and by all accounts Ruvacalba and her husband Mario are successful members of the community.

But with incoming President Donald Trump’s promises to go after undocumented immigrants and begin mass deportations on his first day back in office, that life has been thrown into turmoil.

Ruvacalba is a naturalized U.S. citizen, but Mario only recently got his green card. Their two children, 5 and 6, attend a local school. It is unclear what will happen when Trump reclaims power.

Because Mario is La Misma’s primary cook, Ruvalcaba is unsure whether she can run the business by herself if he is deported.

“For me, I’m just in the middle,” she says. “What am I going to do if something like that happens? We have a business. I would have to make a very hard decision.”

Ruvalcaba has lived in Watsonville for 35 years, and has long felt like a part of the community. But that has changed in recent years, she says. 

This includes hearing her kids describe increasing incidents of bullying at school.

“It’s been really hard, because I’ve been seeing so many things,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of violence lately. It just hurts me, what Donald Trump is doing. I just wish he would change that. Life would be much better.”

Trump says his focus will be on immigrants who have been embroiled in the justice system, but according to immigrationimpact.com, his plans could include tens of thousands of immigrants who have been in the U.S. for more than a decade.

If Trump’s plans come to full fruition, they could have massive financial impacts on the state. According to the American Immigration Council, some 10.4 million immigrants call California home, with a combined spending power of $382.7 billion. That population pays roughly $151.3 billion in taxes annually.

That is in addition to the estimated $315 billion it will cost to deport more than 13 million people.

According to U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, undocumented immigrants make up nearly 14 percent of all construction workers and around 42 percent of the state’s agricultural workers. 

Local law enforcement throughout Santa Cruz County have said they will not cooperate with federal immigration officials if they come to enforce deportation orders. 

Still, it the unknown ramifications of Trump’s plans have had a profound impact on the community.

“There is lots of fear,” says Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino. “People are very genuinely afraid of what’s going to come next and what’s going to change.” 

Cancino says Trump’s fiery rhetoric and hardline stance on immigration is having a “chilling effect,” in many cases discouraging people from properly caring for themselves.

Cancino says he has seen a 30% decline in people applying for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medi Cal and Medicare, because they are scared they’ll be snared by immigration authorities.

“Individuals will stop going to the doctor and stop seeking additional support that is bringing health and wellbeing into their households,” he says. “And I think that for me is the number-one concern. The rhetoric spills over into individuals self-selecting themselves out of services that benefit themselves and their families.”

Most people who are here illegally, Cancino says, want to find a pathway to legal citizenship. But most do not have the ability to wade through years of red tape to make that happen.

“The reality is that most folks cannot operate in that way,” he says. 

Cancino says that approximately one-third of the population in Monterey County is undocumented, while in Santa Cruz County about 8%–roughly 20,000—are here illegally. 

It is too early to speculate about what impact the new immigration enforcement policies will have, says Claudia Magallon, Santa Cruz County Immigration Project Directing Attorney.

But it is vital for everyone to learn their rights.

This includes the right to remain silent if approached by an immigration officer, and to ask for an attorney.

“It’s the government’s job to prove they are here illegally,” she says. 

In addition, there is no requirement to open the door for an immigration officer if there is no warrant signed by a judge.

Residents can also attend the Immigration Project’s presentations with topics such as naturalization and know your rights.

Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo said that the board last week approved the Immigration Rights Ad Hoc Committee, which met for the first time on Tuesday.

That meeting included more than 50 stakeholders such as the Mexican consul general and members of the agriculture community, as well as representatives from hospitality, education, healthcare, labor and public safety.

“The purpose of the (committee) is to bring local stakeholders together to solicit input, facilitate communication, and prepare for any massive federal immigration enforcement actions within Monterey County, and to utilize county resources to educate and advocate our immigrant communities,” Alejo says.

Padilla, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, has criticized Trump’s plans, which he says will “separate spouses and rip parents away from their U.S. citizen children, while causing massive economic hardship.”