Sanctuary and solidarity: When deportations surge on the Central Coast, we must be ready

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Something new is taking shape along the Monterey Bay.  

As the threat of mass deportation grows, ordinary citizens – many of them U. S. citizens – are organizing for resistance in ways we haven’t seen before, echoing protests in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.  

We are not unique, but this moment is. 

Across the country, communities are responding to circumstances without precedent: neighbors turned into refugees in their own communities.  

Out of that reality, a new kind of sanctuary movement has emerged, one that seeks to make entire communities into places of refuge. Here on the Central Coast, many hundreds of us have already joined in new forms of collective action, preparing to defend our communities from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.  

I am a sociologist, and I’ve spent decades studying and working with immigrant and refugee communities. In this op-ed and in one subsequent one, I will look at where this new social movement is headed, what it requires to succeed here and where it is vulnerable. 

I begin with an urgent warning. Our region faces two critical gaps in its ability to respond to mass deportations: the lack of emergency legal aid when people are detained by ICE, and the lack of community support for families left behind.

Those gaps demand attention now.

As enforcement escalates, as many believe it will, families in our region will suffer. And right now, our efforts are woefully inadequate. 

Two responses matter most if we are serious about meeting the moment: money and people power. Fundraising will not save us, but without it, every other effort will fall short. 

We must be realistic. Santa Cruz and Monterey counties are unlikely to see financial support from our local governments on par with more progressive cities and counties elsewhere in the state. But still, most local elected leaders are sympathetic and would lend their voices if asked. 

Our region is home to deep private wealth, industry leaders and charitable organizations. We must ask all of them to help. 

But we must also tap a reliable source closer to home – our families and friends. Let’s organize fundraising events. Given the opportunity and an invitation, it’s my experience that neighbors show up. People gather, donate, host events  and contribute — not just out of obligation, but for solidarity, connection and the simple human need to stand together in dark times.   

Our community is fertile soil for a collective response. 

When families are torn apart 

When a parent is detained by immigration enforcement agents, families are immediately thrown into crisis. Children are traumatized. Child care collapses. Paychecks stop.  Housing may disappear. Bank accounts may be frozen, and families may be unable to pay for food or utilities.  

Emergency legal aid is both essential and often not available.   

In December 2025, nonprofit Community Bridges demonstrated real leadership by launching the Puentes Para Familias fund. The fund provides up to $2,500 in emergency financial assistance to families facing detention and separation. But it’s not enough. 

The initial $25,000 in the fund was exhausted by the end of January – before a surge in immigration enforcement has even arrived.

We need to generate a stream of support for the Puentes Fund. To meet needs due to current rates of ICE abduction, the fund needs $250,000 per year. To build reserves for a likely surge, the fund needs more.   

Cash matters. But it is not everything. Families also need neighborly support, advocacy and help with problem-solving. They need accompaniment. “Mutual aid.” 

This calls for circles of care, small teams rooted in schools, faith communities, workplaces and neighborhoods, connected to one another through shared resources and coordination. 

We in the Welcoming Network have been doing something like this for years, through “welcoming teams” embracing asylum seekers and other refugees. 

Now, the “refugees” are our own neighbors. And many live in other towns to the south of our base in Santa Cruz.  

It is time for us to join with volunteer groups all across our region to build a larger network of community care. This new network of support is something every supporter of the new sanctuary movement, and especially every faith community, can and should aspire to join.  

If you do not yet know of a family to support (and hopefully that will remain the case) form a team anyway and throw a fundraising party for the Puentes Fund.  

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship – one of many spiritual communities in our new sanctuary-centered interfaith network – is taking the lead on this and hosting an initial event to support the Puentes Fund on April 12 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Sanctuary Hall in Aptos. 

We hope this will be the start of many such events. 

Reinforcing overwhelmed immigration legal services

The second dangerous gap in our preparedness is immigration legal defense. 

Removal defense is complex, underfunded and time-consuming. Most of those affected are poor. Few immigration attorneys can afford to work in this area. Nonprofit legal agencies, even with recent state funding that added a handful of new attorneys, are already overwhelmed. 

Our region remains, in practice, an immigration “legal services desert” for families most in need. 

We in the Welcoming Network have worked for several years to promote expanded capacity in this crucial area. We know these agencies are already swamped with unmet need for emergency legal aid.  

Legal advocates know what is coming and are bracing for it. No attorneys enter the field of immigration legal services – especially removal defense services – expecting to get rich.. Those who serve our mostly poor immigrant communities are among the most dedicated, idealistic members of our community. They already do all they can as volunteer or “pro bono” representatives. They need and deserve our support.  

Current and retired attorneys with practices in other areas of the law can help somewhat, providing that training and oversight is available from experienced practitioners. But those few practitioners, again, are already swamped with need for their services. 

That is why we believe it is urgently important to reinforce this field of deportation defense with a new system of financial support for emergency legal aid by private immigration attorneys.

On a small scale, we have already begun to use this strategy in support of asylum seekers and other refugees whom we accompany in the Welcoming Network. Now we envision a much larger system of direct payment for services to the private immigration bar, combined with training and technical support for attorneys entering this area of practice.  

This is a fundraising challenge on par with the Puentes Para Familias fund. 

Anyone can help. Not just with donations, but leadership. Anyone can invite a circle of friends to a fundraising house party or potluck. We especially need people and groups with specific skills: community organizing, grant writing, donor cultivation, government advocacy, event production. 

That is why we in the Santa Cruz Welcoming Network have decided to invite people with these and related skills – or a willingness to learn – to help conduct a “solidarity campaign” to help fund both deportation legal defense and emergency support for families affected by deportation. 

To join please send an email to the Santa Cruz Welcoming Network with “solidarity” in the subject line. You can also help by sharing this appeal with those you know who might be able to help. 

This “solidarity campaign” – for emergency financial and social support for traumatized families, and emergency legal aid for persons abducted – is ambitious. Without the new energies of the sanctuary movement, it is unrealistic. 

But with our new energies, we may be surprised by what a sanctuary community can accomplish. 

Paul Johnston is a retired sociologist and a member of the Santa Cruz Welcoming Network.