The Riverside County Board of Supervisors last week adopted a resolution in support of the immigrant community in a 4-1 vote with Supervisor Karen Spiegel voting against.
“There’s a couple concerns I have, and I shared that last time, and that is unintended consequences when we take actions of this nature,” Spiegel said of her decision. “That’s one of my biggest concerns, and I explained it all last time.”
Spiegel also said she had questions about what it was that this resolution was accomplishing, for example would it make it easier for people to access resources or would it simply raise a flag that there was an issue?
“Oh we can put [in] actions if you’d like,” Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who co-authored the resolution with Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez, said. “We actually watered it down because of that concern that you had [about unintended consequences].”
The vote came after more than an hour of public comment in which 41 speakers, both online and in person, shared their thoughts with the board. Of those who spoke at the meeting, one recommended that the board hold off on making a decision, six spoke against the resolution and the remaining 34 spoke in support of the resolution, including Corona resident Alan Vargas, who called on the supervisors to support all residents, not just those who have citizenship or those who can and do vote.
“I come in support of this resolution, again strongly, coming from an immigrant family, a mixed-status family, and also as someone who has seen firsthand, and continues to see firsthand, the sheer grit it takes to be an undocumented person in this country to push and persevere,” Vargas, who argued that supporting the resolution was the moral stance, said.
Others who spoke in support of the resolution, like Erika Paz, shared their own personal immigration stories and the hardships that exist within the system.
“I was undocumented for 10 years, and I paid taxes [during that time],” Paz, who despite paying taxes was ineligible for federal assistance programs, said. “I went to school. I had to pay for my own insurance, and I had to make sure that I was not a public charge to make sure that I was able to adjust my status.”
But Paz acknowledged that becoming documented took a long time and was a privilege that many don’t have access to, even if they too are law-abiding residents who have jobs and pay taxes.
Those who spoke against the resolution included residents like Paul Petrella, who erroneously claimed that the resolution would turn Riverside County into a “sanctuary jurisdiction,” and said that adopting this resolution would result in the county losing federal funding.
“President Trump is my president, he’s your president, and he’s the president for all of us, and you can get on board with him and his [Make America Great Again] America-first agenda, or get the hell out of the way,” he said. “Resist or continue to resist at your own peril.”
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La Quinta Councilmember Steve Sanchez, who called into the meeting, also spoke out against the resolution, stating that he felt the effort to support undocumented immigrants was not the “best use of our resources.”
“Immigration policy is a federal responsibility. This issue is beyond the county’s jurisdiction,” he said. “The saying, ‘stay in your lane,’ couldn’t be more relevant here.”
Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, who is also the board chair, responded directly to Sanchez’s comments during discussion among the supervisors, stating that not only did the resolution have zero impact on the vital work of the county, which would continue without interruption, but that the scope of the resolution was entirely within the purview of the board.
“At the end of the day, even though it’s not necessarily our jurisdiction when we talk about federal law, it is our jurisdiction when our own backyards are being impacted,” he said. “When our own school sites, when you see parents trying to figure out how to pick up their kids because they’re worried about [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] showing up, that’s very real.”
The resolution, while affirming the county’s commitment to immigrant communities, does not obligate the county to spend any additional funds, does not make Riverside County a so-called sanctuary county and does not break any current federal or state law, according to County Executive Officer Jeff Van Wagenen and County Counsel Minh Tran.
“Our office has worked very closely with the executive office to make sure that there is nothing in this resolution that would violate or run afoul with any current state or federal laws,” Tran said. “And to further protect our county, we have also included paragraphs number eight and number nine in the resolution. These paragraphs further clarify the intent of this resolution.”
The decision came one week after a marathon meeting in which the board of supervisors unanimously voted in favor of moving forward with the resolution and directed county staff to evaluate how data for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program participants and law-abiding undocumented immigrants is collected, managed, stored and protected; identify potential funding sources to support law-abiding undocumented immigrants facing deportation proceedings; and create a webpage with information and resources related to immigration. Spiegel was absent for that vote.
In other board action: The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously appointed Mary Martin as director of the Riverside County Department of Animal Services and Dr. Jennifer R. Chevinsky as the county’s new Public Health Officer.
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