As Trump threatens cities, Berkeley reaffirms it’s a ‘sanctuary’ for immigrants

Migrant advocates and members of community organizations in the East Bay hold up signs in support of Berkeley’s sanctuary city status ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting. Credit: Vanessa Arredondo

Migrants and advocates gathered early Tuesday evening to rally in support of immigrant and refugee rights ahead of the Berkeley City Council’s vote to reaffirm its status as a “sanctuary city” following threats of mass deportations by President Donald Trump.  

Berkeley’s updated sanctuary city resolution includes new language aimed at protecting immigrants in places like schools, hospitals and churches from potential raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as the Trump administration says arrests will now be allowed in “sensitive areas” where they were previously avoided. The resolution also urges the city attorney to provide legal support for undocumented immigrants. 

Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii will create a task force composed of advocacy groups, community leaders and school and university officials to assess progress in keeping immigrant communities safe — similar to a group convened during Trump’s first term.  

“As the incoming administration threatens mass deportations and indiscriminate raids, the City of Berkeley will vote to reaffirm our commitment — we did it before and we continue now,” Ishii said in a statement.

Berkeley’s status as a sanctuary city could make the city a target for the Trump administration. 

The Justice Department has ordered federal prosecutors to investigate and prosecute state and local law enforcement officials if they refuse to enforce the president’s new immigration policies. Trump signed a slew of executive orders Monday, including a challenge to birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. after Feb. 19 to parents without residency or citizenship. Other orders would end asylum for new arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border, suspend the nation’s Refugee Admissions program, and declare a national state of emergency at the border.

California and the city of San Francisco are among those suing the federal government over the constitutionality of the birthright citizenship order, and many of the administration’s other orders are also expected to see legal challenges. The Berkeley Police Department’s policies, and the state laws that backstop them, generally prohibit officers and other city workers from cooperating with federal immigration agents — but not if that prohibition would conflict with federal law.

In “the current political climate, there are some cities that are actively assisting ICE, and we are taking the stance to reaffirm that we will not be doing that,” Ishii said Tuesday during her second meeting leading the City Council. “I feel very lucky to be in a city where this is not a controversial issue.”

Berkeley was nation’s first city to declare itself a sanctuary

Lisa Hoffman, co-executive Director of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and the Rev. Deborah Lee. “This is where we live, and we are not going to back down,” Hoffman said Tuesday. “Sanctuary is alive.” Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

In 1971, Berkeley became the first city in the country to declare itself a sanctuary when it offered refuge to U.S. Navy sailors who opposed the war and wished not to be sent to fight. That “refuge” policy evolved since then to offer sanctuary to Berkeleyans and newcomers seeking sanctuary from immigration agents. The city has reaffirmed the status at least twice already, in 1986 and again in 2017, around the beginning of Trump’s first term, under Mayor Jesse Arreguín.

Tuesday’s resolution reaffirms a prohibition on the use of city resources to aid in immigration enforcement activities and directs leadership to inform their staff about these policies. City institutions are not allowed, the policy says, to deny people access to services and benefits based on immigration status. 

The city’s resolution encourages regional collaboration among transportation agencies and regional parks, and asked that other local cities also reaffirm sanctuary resolutions. 

The resolution also called for the passage of Senate Bill 48, which would forbid ICE from entering California school campuses, protecting student attendance and funding during deportation threats. 

The Berkeley school district passed a sanctuary campus policy in the early days of Trump’s first term restricting ICE access to student information and school facilities. School board members will vote on their own resolution Wednesday to reaffirm BUSD’s commitment to protecting migrant students and families.

At the University of California, professors and instructors circulated a petition asking UC President Michael Drake to support undocumented students by reaffirming sanctuary campus policies, investing in existing immigrant resources, and creating a new program to provide emergency funds for refugee and migrant students. 

The university system recently reaffirmed a statement of principles in support of undocumented students and community members that was first put forth shortly after Trump’s election in 2016. The state promises to welcome and support undocumented applicants to the UC, with or without DACA status “on the same basis as any U.S. citizen.”

Advocates, council say resolution means they won’t ‘back down’

The Rev. Deborah Lee, executive director at the Oakland-based Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, poses for a portrait after Tuesday’s. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local

Dozens of community members and organizers gathered on Tuesday outside the City Council’s West Berkeley meeting space holding signs that read “No borders” and “Sanctuary for all.” Salvadoran, Nicaraguan, Vietnamese and Japanese community residents, college students, and members of the city council spoke in support of immigrant rights, sharing some of their personal experiences. 

Jose Artiga, executive director of the SHARE Foundation which advocates for people from El Salvador and Honduras living in the U.S., said he was forced to leave his home in 1980 after far-right paramilitants invaded his town with an order to kill five students including him. Only Artiga survived. 

“Refugees are escaping policies that are displacing them like economic blockades, persecution and economic policies of hunger,” Avila said. “Refugees are people and are also our brothers and sisters. They have names. They have faces and they are not numbers. They are mothers and fathers that want their children to go to school.”

Rebeca Torres Avila, a formerly undocumented student who attended BUSD through high school, said she is a proud product of Berkeley.

“My parents would tell me: ‘Give it your all, daughter, so you can have a future in this life. You are in the land of dreams,’” Torres Avila said. “The land of dreams and opportunity is what this country is to me and the 11 million undocumented people living in it.”

Nonprofit and faith-based organizations such as East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, the Multicultural Institute in Berkeley, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, and UC Berkeley’s University Lutheran Chapel helped organize the pre-council rally. 

“We are very pleased to see all of you here tonight as we send a powerful and collective message to our immigrant friends, neighbors and colleagues that we are here, this is where we live, and we are not going to back down,” Lisa Hoffman, the co-executive director of the nonprofit East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, said during the rally. “Sanctuary is alive.”

During the council meeting, city officials, nonprofit leaders, activists and clergy members all spoke highly of the resolution.

“The fight for workers’ rights is inextricably tied to the fight for immigrants’ rights, and vice-versa,” Sara Cerami, Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra’s chief of staff and vice president of the union that represents hundreds of city community service and part-time recreation employees, said during public comment.

The City Council held its first meeting of the year on Tuesday. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight

Members of Mayor Ishii’s family, like roughly 120,000 other Japanese and Japanese American people, 1,300 of whom were living in Berkeley, were forced into concentration camps during World War II. (Officially, the camps were referred to as “war relocation camps.)

“I understand that sometimes our government makes these decisions, and it’s important for us on a local level to really stand up and say ‘That’s not right,’” Ishii said Tuesday.

Michael Smith, a legal advisor for East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, said there were a number of “parallels” between the current administration and that of Ronald Reagan, during whose time in office he first began working for the organization.

“The sanctuary movement got really active in 1982 because of the lies of the Reagan administration saying all these Central Americans were coming to the U.S. for economic reasons, while we were supporting genocides and massacres in Central America,” Smith said. “The current administration also tells many lies about immigrants, says they’re rapists, murderers and criminals. This coming from a president who is a convicted felon.”

“I never thought that we would have to be at a time when we have to reaffirm this again. This is very personal to me as an immigrant whose family is here but for the ability for asylum to be granted for some of them,” Councilmember Igor Tregub, originally from Ukraine, said Tuesday. “I shudder to think that there are attacks on others by the highest elected official in the nation right now.”

“I believe with my whole heart that this is not only the right thing to do, but it is our moral imperative,” the Rev. Drew Paton, pastor at First Presbyterian Church in the Southside neighborhood, said Tuesday. “With every beloved child of god who is subjected to the violence of detention and deportation, a gaping hole is torn, not only in the life of that individual, not only in their family, in their schools, workplaces, worshipping communities, but in the fabric of our city and society. We intend to exercise our religious freedom and practice our faith by welcoming and protecting the stranger.”

The council passed the resolution unanimously on its consent calendar, eight votes to zero. Councilmember Ben Bartlett was not present for the vote.

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