SANTA BARBARA — Since President Trump’s immigration raids started sweeping by way of California’s cities and farm fields, state Senate President Monique Limón has carried a duplicate of her passport.
“Simply in case,” she mentioned.
Limón is without doubt 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 secure.
In July, a farmworker within the nation illegally fell to his dying throughout an immigration raid in Camarillo, a part of her district, and concern 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 concern of racial profiling that’s occurring 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 submit 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, seems to increase offshore drilling off the Santa Barbara shoreline and slashes federal funding for Medicaid and different packages.
Limón, a progressive Democrat, should additionally work alongside Newsom, who is probably going to make use of his last 12 months as governor to strengthen his popularity as a presidential contender and will conflict with Limón and different legislators over finances choices.
A state finances deficit, induced partially by the enlargement of Medi-Cal and different Democratic priorities, may also problem lawmakers hoping to backfill cuts by the Trump administration.
Carl Sayer, heart, of Petty Ranch, provides state officers a tour of his Ventura County ranch on Nov. 18. The group mentioned the impacts of federal immigration coverage on the labor power. California’s agriculture enterprise contributes billions of {dollars} to the state’s economic system.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
“It’s a troublesome 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 concerning the detainment of practically 150 individuals in Limón’s central coastal district in late December.
“We will’t let what’s occurring 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 components of San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.
For Limón, the battle for immigrant rights is deeply private.
Limón’s grandfather picked strawberries in Oxnard after coming to the U.S. by way 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 group.
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 can be crammed with individuals. Fallout from the immigration raids has been felt by households in Oxnard, a tight-knit group of farmers.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
“That’s not simply in all of the taxes they pay, however definitely their contributions to so many sectors of our economic system as effectively.”
A 2019 examine by the federal authorities estimated half of the entire state’s farmworkers are undocumented and the overwhelming majority of staff 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 last 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 manner, due to the place he was working,” mentioned Limón.
A Division of Homeland Safety spokesperson mentioned in an announcement 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 a whole bunch of hundreds of felony 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. “The most effective 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 needs to take away Mexicans from California.
Rising up in Santa Barbara, she marched together with her mother and father towards Proposition 187, the 1994 poll measure which denied many taxpayer-funded companies 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 faculty lessons to remain indoors, she mentioned.
The primary particular person in her household to go to varsity, 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 increased training led her to run for her native faculty 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 power since agriculture contributes billions of {dollars} to the state’s economic system.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
Sen. Henry Stern (D-Los Angeles), who has labored with Limón to focus on oil drilling, mentioned she is a “lower-key variety 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 embody requiring employers to reveal pay ranges in job adverts and permitting child-care staff to unionize.
She has annoyed 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 power an environmental overview for a controversial growth 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 kin 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 occurring. What does this imply?”
Her prolonged household is so massive {that a} current Thanksgiving of practically 40 members of the family was thought of 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 group 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 Instances)
Former state Sen. Kevin de León was the primary Latino elected Senate president, and the writer of the state’s sanctuary regulation, 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 financial overview committee, expressed alarm that California’s expenditures proceed to outpace revenues, despite the fact that the state isn’t in a recession.
He predicted Limón will probably be a “good professional tem for Republicans to attempt to collaborate with” as a result of she “will take heed to individuals.”
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. The vast majority 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.” “Bear in mind immediately’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 try to “preserve the prevailing packages 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 supposed to hurry up deportations.
Some advocates need a minimum of $150 million for immigrant authorized companies in California’s finances, cash that might observe an preliminary outlay final 12 months.
“There’s 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 needs extra money for attorneys.
“It really stops individuals from getting deported,” mentioned Durazo. “We discovered from what labored.”
Whereas the arrests have introduced consideration to California’s subject staff 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.
