On the first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded the Department of Homeland Security’s Protected Areas policy on immigration enforcement. Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal of Santa Barbara says it’s a matter of basic humanity that schools or food banks or medical settings are areas where enforcement actions cannot take place.
"This president, President Trump, on day one, rolled back this policy decree that's existed for a number of decades and rescinded it," Carbajal told KCLU. "Our policy through various administrations has been to ensure that there are certain protected areas where immigration enforcement cannot take place. And those are houses of worship, hospitals, food banks and schools. And the reason being is that this is taking a humanitarian approach to our immigration enforcement policies and actions."
The Congressman says that enforcement can happen without going into in sensitive locations and the fear is making mixed-status families scared to seek medical care or go to school. Alongside 12 other lawmakers. he has introduced a Bill to restore guardrails.
"No one should have fear of being detained while taking their children to school or seeking medical care," said Carbajal.
"This legislation that I am supporting will be critical to ensuring immigrant families can continue to access health care, their children's education and other essential and vital services without the fear of being detained or separated from their loved ones."
He continued, "I think it just reflects the values and the cruelty of this administration and all his cronies that they just seem to not care about our humanity, human beings as a whole. Yet they shroud themselves in all these so-called Christian values, but it all stops when it comes to certain policies. And this is an example."
It’s one of a number of Bills introduced by the Congressman already this year, but he admits at times feeling an uphill struggle in getting legislation passed, given there's a Republican majority.
"I'm reminded that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a very slim majority in the Senate. And passing any legislation when you're in the minority is tough. But they themselves can't pass much legislation either because they're in dysfunction and chaos, even though they have the majority in chaos imploding and in dysfunction," he said.
Carbajal says he has concerns about Trump overreaching his Presidential powers.
"I think Trump is pushing the envelope along with an unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, who is given access to a lot of parts of our government and data confidential data to everyday Americans," said Carbajal.
"The courts are time and time again putting him in his place and telling him, 'by the way, your actions are all, for the most part, illegal and unconstitutional'," he said.
He had this message for the President: "If you want to do anything, have your majorities in the House and the Senate pass laws that then you could abide by. You're trying to be a dictator, but you are not King. And as a result, you have to abide by the law. And the courts are reminding him of the rule of law that he is not above the law."
