SANTA BARBARA — Since President Trump’s immigration raids started sweeping by means of California’s cities and farm fields, state Senate President Monique Limón has carried a replica of her passport.
“Simply in case,” she mentioned.
Limón is likely one of the strongest politicians within the state behind Gov. Gavin Newsom, however the detainment of Americans, together with U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla — who was handcuffed by federal brokers in Los Angeles in June — confirmed that no Latino in California is protected.
In July, a farmworker within the nation illegally fell to his dying throughout an immigration raid in Camarillo, a part of her district, and worry of different sweeps prompted the current cancellation of a vacation parade in her hometown of Santa Barbara.
Locals have been detained whereas strolling to the grocery retailer, she mentioned.
“There’s this worry of racial profiling that’s taking place that I feel may be very actual,” mentioned Limón, 46.
The granddaughter of a Mexican farmworker and the primary Latina elected Senate president, Limón ascended to the put up in November after a tumultuous 12 months that noticed the Democratic-led state underneath fixed assault from Trump and the Republican management in Congress.
The approaching months will take a look at Limón because the Trump administration ramps up deportations, appears to be like to develop offshore drilling off the Santa Barbara shoreline and slashes federal funding for Medicaid and different applications.
Limón, a progressive Democrat, should additionally work alongside Newsom, who is probably going to make use of his ultimate 12 months as governor to strengthen his fame as a presidential contender and will conflict with Limón and different legislators over finances choices.
A state finances deficit, prompted partly by the enlargement of Medi-Cal and different Democratic priorities, will even problem lawmakers hoping to backfill cuts by the Trump administration.
Carl Sayer, middle, of Petty Ranch, offers state officers a tour of his Ventura County ranch on Nov. 18. The group mentioned the impacts of federal immigration coverage on the labor pressure. California’s agriculture enterprise contributes billions of {dollars} to the state’s economic system.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
“It’s a tough time for California,” mentioned Limón, who lives in unincorporated Santa Barbara County and is married with a younger daughter. “Not simply our state, however I feel the nation as an entire.’
On Friday, Limón joined immigration advocates exterior a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement workplace in Santa Maria to demand solutions in regards to the detainment of practically 150 folks in Limón’s central coastal district in late December.
“We are able to’t let what’s taking place be one thing that we normalize,” Limón mentioned.
Raids final 12 months focused farms in Limón’s district, an space that features all of Santa Barbara County and elements of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
For Limón, the combat for immigrant rights is deeply private.
Limón’s grandfather picked strawberries in Oxnard after coming to the U.S. by means of the state’s bracero program. The senator attracts a hyperlink between California’s economic system and its undocumented workforce, blaming labor shortages and unharvested crops on the raids.
“We’d like federal immigration reform,” Limón mentioned. “And that features a complete have a look at the state of immigration, the advantage of immigration, the advantage of our immigrant neighborhood.
A lone pedestrian walks down South Oxnard Boulevard in downtown Oxnard on Dec. 19. A neighborhood enterprise proprietor mentioned that earlier than a high-profile immigrant raid in close by Camarillo in July, the sidewalks could be crammed with folks. Fallout from the immigration raids has been felt by households in Oxnard, a tight-knit neighborhood of farmers.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
“That’s not simply in all of the taxes they pay, however definitely their contributions to so many sectors of our economic system as nicely.”
A 2019 examine by the federal authorities estimated half of all the state’s farmworkers are undocumented and the overwhelming majority of employees are from Mexico.
Limón remembered Jaime Alanis Garcia, the farmworker who died in Camarillo in July, in a speech on the Senate flooring. She described Garcia calling his household in his ultimate moments and telling them how scared he was.
“After 30 years of working on this nation as a farmworker, doing the job that our authorities, our nation, our constituents, has known as an important employee job, that his life would finish that day, that means, due to the place he was working,” mentioned Limón.
A Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson mentioned in a press release that greater than 10,000 alleged undocumented immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles since Trump took workplace final 12 months, however the company didn’t present statewide numbers.
DHS “has arrested and deported tons of of hundreds of legal unlawful aliens throughout the nation, together with gang members, rapists, kidnappers, and drug traffickers.
“DHS is simply getting began underneath President Donald Trump and Secretary [Kristi] Noem,” the assertion mentioned. “One of the best is but to return.”
Limón mentioned “it’s not misplaced” on her that the granddaughter of immigrants helps lead the state at a time when Trump desires to take away Mexicans from California.
Rising up in Santa Barbara, she marched together with her dad and mom towards Proposition 187, the 1994 poll measure which denied many taxpayer-funded providers to undocumented immigrants.
The coastal metropolis was additionally the location of an enormous oil spill in 1969 that killed hundreds of birds, fish and sea mammals, and helped launch the state’s environmental motion.
Limón’s personal curiosity in environmentalism was sparked, she mentioned, by the wildfires that erupted within the close by Santa Ynez Mountains and compelled college courses to remain indoors, she mentioned.
The primary particular person in her household to go to school, Limón attended UC Berkeley and acquired a grasp’s diploma in training from Columbia College.
Petite in stature, she describes herself as an “unintended politician” whose curiosity in larger training led her to run for her native college board, which led to a marketing campaign for state Meeting, and later, state Senate.
Colleagues, together with some Republicans, describe her as affordable and a coverage wonk who loves spreadsheets.
State Sen. Henry Stern, together with different state officers and Ventura County farm bureau representatives, toured Petty Ranch in Ventura on Nov. 18 to debate the impacts of federal immigration coverage on the labor pressure since agriculture contributes billions of {dollars} to the state’s economic system.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), who has labored with Limón to focus on oil drilling, mentioned she is a “lower-key sort particular person” who doesn’t hunt down the highlight.
“She doesn’t have that pushiness that many politicians are likely to have, which is ‘Who’s within the entrance, who will get to be on TV?’” he mentioned.
Former Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who now heads the California Labor Federation, recalled Limón’s uphill effort to go a invoice to cease predatory lending. The laws died the earlier session, and help waned.
Gonzalez requested her how she was going to get the votes.
“She mentioned, ‘I’m asking you to belief me and let me work this,’” Gonzalez mentioned. The invoice handed with bipartisan help and caps rates of interest on shopper loans.
Her different high-profile payments embrace requiring employers to reveal pay ranges in job advertisements and permitting child-care employees to unionize.
She has pissed off pro-housing teams by declining to vote on some payments, together with one to permit extra density close to transit stops, and by her push to pressure an environmental assessment for a controversial improvement in her Santa Barbara hometown.
In November, she criticized the Trump administration over its announcement to open up the coast to offshore drilling, arguing “new offshore drilling leases lock us into many years of air pollution.”
A few of her relations are politically conservative and he or she will get an array of questions at household gatherings: “Why didn’t California do that? I heard on the information that that is taking place. What does this imply?”
Her prolonged household is so giant {that a} current Thanksgiving of practically 40 members of the family was thought-about small.
Her aunt, Mónica Gil, an government at NBCUniversal Telemundo, launched Limón at a gala in December to honor her in downtown Los Angeles. Throughout her speech, Limón reminded the gang that it took 175 years for a girl together with her background to be elected Senate president.
“We’re beginning to see the glass ceiling crack,” mentioned Limón. “We’re not there but, however that tumbler ceiling that’s cracking is opening doorways.”
Monique Limón, president professional tempore of the California Senate, toured Petty Ranch in Ventura on Nov. 18.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Occasions)
Former state Sen. Kevin de León was the primary Latino elected Senate president, and the creator of the state’s sanctuary legislation, which limits state and native authorities cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Complicating the state’s finances course of is an anticipated shortfall within the coming 12 months.
Sen. Roger Niello (R-Honest Oaks), vice chair of the finances and monetary assessment committee, expressed alarm that California’s expenditures proceed to outpace revenues, regardless that the state isn’t in a recession.
He predicted Limón can be a “good professional tem for Republicans to attempt to collaborate with” as a result of she “will take heed to folks.”
The state finances divided some Democrats final 12 months when Newsom proposed ending new Medi-Cal enrollments for some undocumented teams and requiring others to pay month-to-month premiums. Nearly all of the Legislature, together with Limón, backed the modifications.
Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), a member of the Latino Caucus, opposed the transfer and chastised her colleagues for the “betrayal.” “Keep in mind at present’s date and what the Senate is doing,” mentioned Durazo throughout a speech from the Senate flooring.
Limón mentioned her place to begin with the brand new finances is to attempt to “maintain the present applications in place that assist Californians with out having to do reductions or cuts.”
In early December, dozens of immigrants rights’ advocates met with Limón’s workers to current their priorities for the finances.
The Trump administration final 12 months secured tens of billions of {dollars} in authorities funding to rent extra immigration officers and construct detention facilities — infrastructure meant to hurry up deportations.
Some advocates need at the least $150 million for immigrant authorized providers in California’s finances, cash that might comply with an preliminary outlay final 12 months.
“There may be going to be want for everlasting funding [for legal services] all through the Trump administration,” mentioned Masih Fouladi, government director of the California Immigrant Coverage Middle, who attended the assembly.
Durazo additionally desires more cash for attorneys.
“It really stops folks from getting deported,” mentioned Durazo. “We realized from what labored.”
Whereas the arrests have introduced consideration to California’s discipline employees and day laborers, Limón mentioned college students and others additionally want a pathway to citizenship.
“That’s solely going to return from the federal authorities,” she mentioned.
