After election, Santa Cruz County school leaders affirm rights of immigrant, LGBTQ+ communities

With Donald Trump securing a second term in the White House, education leaders in Santa Cruz County this week are affirming the rights and protections of groups that Trump targets relentlessly: undocumented and LGBTQ+ communities. 

County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah, speaking at a news conference Thursday afternoon at the Santa Cruz County courthouse, said that public schools and local government agencies will uphold local and state policies and laws that protect these groups. 

“I’m here to address a climate of concern among families resulting from the hateful and demonizing rhetoric about immigrant communities we have heard from the incoming administration,” he said. “Let me be very clear, every child has a right to receive a free public education without discrimination, reprisal or fear, regardless of immigration status, race or gender identity.” 

Sabbah spoke as he stood alongside more than 20 officials from local schools, government and law enforcement agencies and community organizations at the news conference. In a release, they said, “As leaders in local government, we unequivocally reaffirm our commitment to supporting all immigrants in our community.” 

Following Trump’s victory, local parents, teachers and education officials have a broad range of fears for what his presidency might bring. Trump has run his campaign on promises including deporting the country’s approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants, shutting down the U.S. Department of Education and cutting federal funds to schools that recognize transgender identity. 

One Pajaro Valley Unified School District parent, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for her trans child, said she’s devastated about Trump’s win. Particularly, she said, she’s distressed that the majority of the country voted for Trump despite his rhetoric, particularly against trans people and undocumented communities.  

“The biggest fear is, how many people do not want my child to exist?” she said. 

For Live Oak School District Superintendent Pat Sánchez, the concerns range from the safety of the district’s undocumented community members to the question of federal funding. 

“I think the biggest one is, we’re seeing some of our students that may or may not have undocumented parents that are concerned and feeling anxious about what could happen to undocumented parents,” he said. “Outside of that, I’m also worried about what’s going to happen with education funding at a federal level.”

Sánchez said he also feels a great sense of uncertainty about what could happen next. 

“The not-knowing causes anxiety,” he said, adding that the best educators can do now is carry on doing their work and continue modeling “professional, kind behavior.”

Cabrillo College President Matt Wetstein, who was also at the conference, told Lookout that the news of Trump’s win has been hard to process. 

Wetstein said the first thing he did the morning after the election was text his wife, Sydney, who was in Stockton. “I said, ‘It’s hard to get up and go to work today,’” he recalled. “It takes a while to process. It’s a different country today than it was before.” 

He and other local education leaders are coordinating how to provide support to their students and protect their rights. More than 50% of Cabrillo students identify as Chicano/Latino.

“As a college campus in a community that cares for students, we’re going to do our best to ensure that all students feel welcome and safe and are part of our learning environment,” Wetstein said. “We’re going to honor federal law in making sure that they’re not discriminated against.” 

The California Community Colleges’ chancellor, along with the University of California president and the California State University chancellor, issued a joint statement addressing the “anxiety” about Trump’s victory and also affirming their commitment to serve their communities.

Asked for an interview regarding the UC Santa Cruz’s efforts to address concerns about Trump’s immigration policies, UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason provided the joint statement. ”We are proud to welcome students, faculty, and staff from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, and we will continue to support and protect all members of our communities,” the statement reads.

Wetstein said Cabrillo will also protect its students who are recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. 

During his first term, Trump unsuccessfully tried to end the program, which provides legal status and work permits for more than 500,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. 

The U.S. Supreme Court blocked his efforts in 2020. But with a conservative supermajority on the court now, it’s unclear what might happen in the future. Trump’s campaign officials say he’ll try to end it again, among a wide range of strategies to deport immigrants. 

As part of the news conference Thursday, officials named several laws protecting the rights of undocumented community members – of whom there are estimated to be more than 19,000 in Santa Cruz County. 

The California Values Act prohibits state and local police from using funds to support immigration enforcement. For example, this prohibits police from asking people for their immigration status and also prohibits them from sharing an individual’s immigration status with immigration authorities. Finally, it also prevents local police from arresting individuals solely based on them having a deportation order. 

In addition, two other California laws ensure transparency about law enforcement’s communication with federal immigration authorities and another limits how local law enforcement can detain people on behalf of federal immigration officials. 

The California Education Code prohibits schools from adopting practices that limit access to services based on immigration and restricts schools from collecting or sharing details about immigration status. 

Nora Yerena, founder and co-director of Watsonville-based Raíces y Cariño, said she’s felt a deep sense of grief, fear and uncertainty. On a weekly basis, the center serves about 50 families, including some who are DACA recipients and some who are LGBTQ+. 

“It’s super heartbreaking,” she said. “Yesterday, a young mother, she was like, ‘How is this gonna affect my DACA [status]?'”

The center provides caregivers a space to bring kids to participate in enrichment activities and also offers a range of services to families, many bilingual, including translation assistance and help filling out forms for Medi-Cal and other programs.  

Yerena sees the challenges facing undocumented and LGBTQ+ communitie intersecting at her center. The center offers a range of services, including some that specifically provide support to bilingual, immigrant families with children who are LGBTQ+. 

Raíces y Cariño has a youth-led gay-straight alliance club that meets twice a month, and it also has a bilingual support group for parents who have LGBTQ+ children. She said the center was also recently asked to provide educational and support services to a local school that was experiencing a rising number of incidents of students using discriminatory language against LGBTQ+ students. 

“If there is any hope, it’s in ensuring there’s education for parents,” Yerena said, so that parents, even if they are not LGBTQ+, are raising their children “with values and understanding of others.” 

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