The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Tuesday passed a resolution stating the county’s supportive stance on its immigrant residents and reaffirming it as a “sanctuary county.”
Supervisor Felipe Hernandez, who drafted the resolution with Supervisor Justin Cummings, said it is a response to incoming President Donald Trump, who has promised swift action against undocumented immigrants on his first day in office, including mass deportations.
The City of Watsonville passed a similar ordinance in 2017 when Hernandez was a city council member there, and the Santa Cruz City Council approved one of their own.
As part of the resolution, county staff was directed to work with nonprofits to find ways to strengthen resources and to protect immigrant communities.
Hernandez said that, in addition to protecting residents, it’s important to consider the financial impact of deportation, with California’s economy built largely on agriculture.
“And the backbone is the workforce, and that workforce is immigrants,” Hernandez said. “So it’s imperative that we also protect our economy.”
Roughly a dozen people spoke in favor of the resolution.
Paul Johnston said he brought a letter signed by 62 people urging the supervisors’ support.
“The reality is—I think you probably know—thousands and thousands of your constituents are panicking and are already traumatized by the threats of deportation,” Johnston said, adding that any action should be done quickly.
“We are in an emergency situation with many folks,” he said. “It can’t wait until after the holidays.”
Sandy Brown, who works for Supervisor Cummings, said his office plans to work to support the immigrant community.
“I’m proud to live in a community that has declared itself a sanctuary against the really vitriolic, hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies that have pervaded our national discourse, and we’re very concerned in the 3rd District office about what is to come,” she said. “We believe that immigrants are so important to the social, economic, social fabric of our community.”
Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who voted for a similar ordinance during the previous Trump administration, said thait is the federal government that is tasked with enforcing immigration laws. But whatever laws come, he said, should be “humane and sensitive” while keeping public safety in mind.
“Elected representatives from New York to California have expressed real concerns about what this immense influx of immigrants has caused them, and in providing adequate services to the U.S. citizens and housing, education healthcare, public safety, whatever.
“There has to be a middle ground, and I hope and pray we find it.”
In other action, the supervisors approved a project labor agreement (PLA) with Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties Building Trades Council that will require contractors hiring for a list of 10 county projects give hiring preference to local unions.
A Project Labor Coordinator will be assigned to monitor compliance and collect and report data.
County officials say the five-year pilot program—which lists 10 “covered projects” that range from $1 million to $10 million—will bolster local workforce development and ensure fair labor practices.
Dozens of people lined up to address the board, a mixture of union workers who said their unions have benefitted them, and non-union members who say the agreement will exclude them from projects
Iron worker Kyle Callaghan said that his membership has “put me in a place to buy a home, to start a family and to make my mother proud.”
It also protects him in his dangerous job by providing for his family if he is killed or injured.
But others say that the PLA will exclude their companies.
Kendall White, who started K&D Landscaping in 1986 with “a rusty old truck and a Sears credit card,” said that
the agreement will mean less work for his company and for companies such as Salinas-based Don Chapin Company.
White acknowledged that the county is in a financial crisis, and needs to find ways to save money.
“But it doesn’t make sense to add barriers to the bidding process, and increase construction costs by implementing a PLA,” he said.
