|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In the latest move to protect residents afraid of a federal immigration crackdown in the Bay Area, Santa Clara County officials announced the launch of a new network that provides legal services, information and support for undocumented families at the mercy of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Elected officials and immigrant advocate groups gathered in Mountain View’s Performing Arts Center on Wednesday to launch the new Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network, which introduces a 24/7 emergency hotline and support services for families who have a run-in with ICE, including information on constitutional rights, immigration and family law attorneys, and “emotional and practical support in a time of crisis,” according to a statement by the county.
The Rapid Response Network goes far beyond an information hotline. Several hundred volunteer county residents have been trained to be “rapid responders” and act as the eyes and ears of the community when ICE officials are spotted carrying out enforcement activities. These volunteers are trained to mobilize via text message alerts and get to the scene as soon as possible, find out who — if anyone — was detained, and keep an accurate record of what transpired in the event that ICE officials overstep.
Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenberg called the Rapid Response Network a “necessary and vital” program that will assist people facing deportation, and an important tool in protecting residents from the federal government. He pointed out that the city of Mountain View’s designation as a “human rights city” extends to everyone regardless of immigration status, and that the City Council has made it a priority to protect immigrant rights.
“The city of Mountain View prides itself on being welcoming to all residents,” he said.
The countywide Rapid Response Network is an expansion of San Jose’s version of the program, which started earlier this year in response to a rapid increase in the number of families broken up by “indiscriminate immigration enforcement action,” according to a county press release. In Santa Clara County alone, 4,852 people are in deportation proceedings, 32 percent of whom lack legal representation.
The press release goes on to describe those affected by immigration enforcement as integral parts of the community — mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles — and a significant part of the local economy. Mimi Hernandez, an advisor at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley, said the reports of fear “sweeping across the land” has had a negative effect on business owners and their employees, with the restaurant industry taking the hardest hit. She said it’s tough to assess just how much damage has been done to the regional economy due to the immigration crackdown.
Mountain View residents trained to take part in the Rapid Response Network got to test drive the countywide system in the early morning hours on Aug. 3, when residents received a text message indicating ICE officials were present at the Park Vista apartment complex on Escuela Avenue. The group quickly mobilized, sending representatives to the apartments to find out who was taken and provide assistance the affected families.
Within a few hours, the network was able to confirm that a young man had been detained and taken to an immigration processing center. At the time, a representative from the Rapid Response Network told the Voice that legal assistance was en route by the afternoon to provide help to the man who was detained.
County Supervisor Joe Simitian said the network’s membership plays an important role in being in the right place at the right time in order to hold ICE accountable, and witnessing any overreach committed by federal officials. Having a broad network of residents looking out for one another in the community, he said, amounts to lifting the weight off of the shoulders of neighbors who are anxious over their immigration status and what might happen if they are taken away from their families.
“Each of us needs to ask ourselves what it means to be a member of the community, what it means to be a neighbor,” he said.
The network also received a blessing from local law enforcement. Mountain View Police Chief Max Bosel reiterated the department’s pledge not to take part in enforcing federal immigration laws, and said local law enforcement has a vested interest in keeping a trusting, open relationship with the city’s immigrant population. If someone is witness to a crime, he said, that person should be willing to talk to police without fear.
“We look forward to working with the Rapid Response Network to make sure that everyone’s rights are protected and the public is kept safe.”
Dave Cortese, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said the Rapid Response Network is part of the county’s larger commitment to protecting residents from immigration policies under President Donald Trump’s administration. Santa Clara County qualifies as a “sanctuary” community because it does not cooperate with ICE, Cortese said, and it’s been a top priority, through litigation and the courts, to protect the constitutional rights of county residents by resisting edicts and policies in Washington.
“Trump has his own agenda, we have our agenda,” Cortese said.
The hotline for the Rapid Response Network, which can be used to both report ICE activity and receive immediate assistance, is 408-290-1144. Anyone who wants to get involved as a volunteer may register at bit.ly/2wmQFrR for the next training session, which will be at the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale on Wednesday, Sept. 13, from 7 to 9 p.m.
Mountain View residents launch app to help homeowners navigate building permitsMarch 11, 2026 8:29 am
Does this policy include illegal aliens?
When will the county taxpayers get to vote on this new policy?
http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/24/police-release-illegal-alien-who-then-murders-girlfriend/
This s the result of these policies, Mayor Rosemberg where are the human rights of the victim?
I guess we’ll need something like a Supreme-Court decision to enjoin local journalists against conflating the word “immigrant” (which has numerous longtime, honorable, respected meanings beyond any controversy at all) with “illegal alien,” as some Bay-Area writers have now deliberately done in the last couple of years. First they euphemized the phrase to “illegal immigrant,” and now more boldly and VERY misleadingly write just “immigrant” in its place.
This headline about “immigrant support” can be read to mean all sorts of things it actually doesn’t. That can’t be accidental, because the calculated ambiguity isn’t limited to this publication at all. The whole thing is increasingly Orwellian. And as a great scholar of ideologies and their mind-sets wrote decades ago, “If anything is characteristic of ideologies and ideological thinkers, it is the destruction of language. . .” People imagine a world within a package of assumptions, and then steer the language to favor the assumptions, so as to avoid anyone examining them.
Illegal aliens have absolutely no right to be here. They are only being protected by Democrats for political expediency as the Democrats are hoping they will eventually get their vote. If illegal aliens leaned Republican, how long do you think these same people would defend them? They are nothing but hippocrits. It also drives me up the wall that city and county officials take our hard earned tax dollars, with a vote or even asking us, to defend these people that have no right to be here. No wonder so many honest citizens are leaving California.
@North/East – I’m wondering if this policy includes legal aliens. If someone legally came to the U.S. how does this help them?
The answer as to when we get to vote on this is “NEVER”. Why take the chance?
I remember when the City became a Human Rights City, we were told “It’s just a formality, there won’t be any ordinances or laws tied to it”. Well, that didn’t last long.
It is good to see that people can now decide which laws they do and don’t want to obey and enforce though. Can you imagine what would happen if someone was put in jail and separated from their family because they stole food from a store? Or what if someone can’t get a job and robs a bank to pay their rent so their family doesn’t lose their house? How about when someone says something that you think is racist or homophobic; shouldn’t you be allowed to beat and mace them without fear of arrest?
Don’t worry about any of that. There is now a hotline you can call if you broke any laws the County disagrees with! The U.S. now has a county by county immigration policy and there is no limit to who and how many people can come; just get here any way you can! No background checks required! Free legal representation!
Jim Neal
Old Mountain View
Dear Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenberg Sir,
I am writing to you because I, not unlike Illegal (So sorry!) – undocumented folks, also require urgent protection from the heavy hand of the Federal Government.
How dare the FED’s threaten to arrest me for little so-called “crimes” like dealing coke, aircraft hijacking, carjacking, kidnapping, bank robbery, child pornography, credit card fraud, identity theft? I NEED your protection from the FEDs! Just like the services you offer to the other law breakers in the City.
Otherwise I will not report to the Mountain View Police Department frequent instances of jaywalking I see every now and then.
Sincerely, law abiding (now and then) citizen.
Is not just that they use and change words and their meaning, they also in the name of violation of terms of use are censoring comments that point out the consequences of this crazy policies, I just saw my post gone, it was an article from 08/24/2017 just a few days ago, about an “immigrant without documentation’ in the sanctuary city of Santa Rosa, that after been released from the police killed his girlfriend. But of course, this violates the terms of use, the sad truth is a violation when the political agenda is all they care about! Human rights Mayor Rosemberg says are what we are for as a city, so were are the human rights of the victim? Why does nobody care that a family would not see anymore a loved one, or that only applies to Undocumented immigrants?
Hmmm, now that’s very interesting! I saw a post here earlier from someone that provided a link to a story about a woman being killed by her boyfriend shortly after being released by a sanctuary city that refused to turn him over to ICE. According to the article in the link, the man was released only 16 minutes after ICE requested his detainment even though the city knew it would take ICE agents over an hour to get there.
The post itself though didn’t contain any offensive language, so I’m wondering why the editor chose to remove the comment? I hope the editor has not decided that links to articles the show the bad side of the sanctuary city story are ‘offensive’ or somehow violate the ‘terms of use’. Anyone who wants to find the story can look up ‘Veronica Cabrera Ramirez Murder’. I chose the story printed by the SF Chronicle. I didn’t include the link because I don’t want to be banned/blocked for violating the ‘Terms of Service’.
It would be ironic indeed if those who always scream loudest about the right to free speech, are in the end, the ones who bring about it’s demise.
Jim Neal
Old Mountain View