Amid rising deportations along California’s Central Coast, retired sociologist and Santa Cruz Welcoming Network member Paul Johnston urges communities to organize and to close two urgent gaps: emergency legal aid for those detained by ICE and support for families left behind. He points to the Puentes Fund, which assists families facing detention or deportation, and calls for broader community action — from fundraising gatherings to organized “circles of care” rooted in schools, faith groups and neighborhoods.
Paul Johnston
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
We must resist courthouse arrests and create sanctuary spaces
Sociologist Paul Johnston calls for local action against the courthouse arrest of asylum-seekers and other refugees, and explains how to create constitutionally protected places of sanctuary.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
If Trump’s promised mass deportations come, let’s stand up for our neighbors across the Monterey Bay region
The Trump administration has not yet managed to carry out its promise of mass deportations. But it might soon try, writes Paul Johnston, a sociologist and community activist who has studied immigration issues on the Central Coast for decades. Johnston reminds us of the way local leaders and community members stood up to protect immigrants during raids in the Salinas Valley over two decades ago and challenges us to show similar courage today. “Soon,” he writes, “we may be tested: Will we respond as one community to help those unfairly persecuted among us?
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Si se cumplen las deportaciones masivas prometidas por Trump, defendamos a nuestros vecinos en toda la región de la Bahía de Monterey
La administración Trump aún no ha logrado cumplir su promesa de deportaciones masivas. Pero pronto podría intentarlo, escribe Paul Johnston, sociólogo y activista comunitario que ha estudiado cuestiones de inmigración en la Costa Central durante décadas. Johnston nos recuerda la forma en que los líderes locales y miembros de la comunidad se alzaron para proteger a los inmigrantes durante las redadas en el Valle de Salinas hace más de dos décadas y nos desafía a mostrar un coraje similar hoy. “Pronto,” escribe, “podemos ser puestos a prueba: ¿responderemos como una sola comunidad para ayudar a aquellos injustamente perseguidos entre nosotros?”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The threat of mass deportations is real: Cities and counties must do more than reaffirm old sanctuary ordinances
Paul Johnston, a sociologist with decades of experience in the immigrant communities of the Central Coast, helped city and county leaders draft local ordinances in 2017 to stand up against excessive immigration enforcement. There are many things local communities can do in the face of threats from a second Trump administration beyond recommitting to those ordinances, he writes; minimally and most urgently, we should establish a local resource hub for deportees.