Blocking San Diego County agencies from helping ICE
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11TH.>>>>
SUPERVISORS VOTE TO BLOCK COUNTY AGENCIES FROM HELPING ICE.More on that next. But first... let’s do the headlines….#######
THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN THE COUNTY ARE STILL WITHOUT POWER TODAY (TUESDAY) BECAUSE OF EMERGENCY POWER SHUTOFFS.
S-D-G-AND-E ACTIVATED THE SHUTOFFS MONDAY AFTERNOON TO REDUCE WILDFIRE RISK FROM DOWNED POWER LINES.
POWER IS NOT EXPECTED TO RETURN FOR SOME RESIDENTS UNTIL AT LEAST FRIDAY.
S-D-G-AND-E SAYS THE LINES MUST BE INSPECTED FOR DAMAGE BEFORE TURNING THE POWER BACK ON.
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THE COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS APPROVED A PROPOSAL TO GIVE THE CITIZENS LAW ENFORCEMENT REVIEW BOARD OR CLERB, ENHANCED ABILITY TO INVESTIGATE DEATHS IN COUNTY JAILS.
THE PLAN WILL LET CLERB INVESTIGATE ANY EMPLOYEE OR CONTRACTOR WORKING UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE SHERIFF OR COUNTY PROBATION DEPARTMENT, SOMETHING THE BOARD CAN’T DO NOW.
COUNTY STAFF NOW HAS 60 DAYS TO CRAFT AN ORDINANCE TO EXPAND CLERB'S POWERS.
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THE SAN DIEGO CITY COUNCIL HAS CHOSEN A NEW COUNCIL PRESIDENT: DISTRICT 1 COUNCILMEMBER JOE LACAVA.
LACAVA WAS FIRST ELECTED IN 2020 AND WAS RECENTLY RE-ELECTED BY VOTERS IN PACIFIC BEACH, LA JOLLA AND CARMEL VALLEY.
COUNCILMEMBER VIVIAN MORENO PRAISED HIM FOR SUPPORTING MORE PUBLIC INVESTMENT IN DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE HIS DISTRICT.
CCPREZ 2A 0:09
Your commitment to transparency and good governance is very well known. And I know that you will carry that forward as council president.
THE COUNCIL PRESIDENT CONTROLS CITY COUNCIL AGENDAS AND DOLES OUT COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS THAT CAN INFLUENCE THE DIRECTION OF POLICY MAKING.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
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SUPERVISORS VOTED THIS WEEK (Tuesday) TO BLOCK SAN DIEGO COUNTY AGENCIES FROM HELPING IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT.
REPORTER KATIE HYSON SAYS IT’S THE NINTH CALIFORNIA COUNTY TO PASS THIS KIND OF POLICY.
DEPORTVOTE 1 trt 1:17 SOQ (kh/mb)
The new policy prohibits the use of county staff, funds or time to assist ICE, unless they have an arrest warrant.
Robert Vivar was there in support.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office released him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in 2002.
He says they deported him to Mexico before he could find a lawyer.
The California Supreme Court vacated his conviction and gave him residency back in 2021.
SOT :19 But in the meantime, my family got destroyed. My grandkids that were living with me suffered tremendous separation. I was supporting them, my daughter. It wreaks havoc on the family and on the family finances.
He says local law enforcement and community members need to cooperate for public safety.
SOT :20 If our communities are afraid to report when they are being victims of a crime or when they see a crime, because of the possibility of being turned over to ICE, that creates additional burden.
A 2017 study by a UCSD professor found that counties that don’t actively help ICE have significantly lower crime rates.
Jim Desmond was the only board member to vote against the policy. Joel Anderson was absent.
Katie Hyson, KPBS News
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WHILE SOME IN CALIFORNIA ARE BRACING FOR DEPORTATIONS, EL CAJON’S REPUBLICAN MAYOR HAS PLEDGED HIS SUPPORT TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT’S PLAN. INEWSOURCE REPORTER SOFÍA MEJÍAS-PASCOE (MEH-HE-US PASS-CO) HAS THE STORY.
SANCCITY 1 1:07 SOQ
Mayor Bill Wells has a message for California, and for his city – where nearly a third of residents are foreign born. WELLS: “I want to make it clear right now that El Cajon is not a sanctuary city.’’ California’s sanctuary law, or SB 54, limits how local law enforcement can cooperate with the feds on immigration. Supporters say the law prevents immigrants without legal status from being deported for low level crimes. But Wells said the law makes El Cajon less safe. He wants police to aid in Trump’s mass deportation plan and he might be willing to violate the law to do that. “The short answer is yes, but it's not that simple. I'm gonna go through a process of trying to figure out what, where the boundaries really are.” Meanwhile, Attorney General Rob Bonta affirmed the state law’s commitment for immigrants in a video posted to X this week. WELLS: “California DOJ is here to protect immigrants rights, freedom and safety” Bonta’s said they won’t hesitate to “step in” against agencies violating SB 54. For KPBS, I’m inewsource reporter Sofia Mejias-Pasco
I-NEWSOURCE IS AN INDEPENDENTLY FUNDED NONPROFIT PARTNER OF KPBS.
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THE LIFEBLOOD OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH – MONEY AND ROBUST DEBATE – MAY BE IN CONFLICT AS ACADEMIA ANTICIPATES A SECOND DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENCY.
RESEARCHERS AT UCSD TOLD PUBLIC MATTERS REPORTER AMITA SHARMA THEIR COLLEAGUES ARE CHILLING THEIR OWN SPEECH – A FORM OF PREEMPTIVE SILENCING - OUT OF FEAR THEIR FEDERAL FUNDING MAY BE CUT OFF. HERE’S MY CONVERSATION WITH AMITA.
CENSORSHIP (as) 5:07 LAST WORDS "Thank you" SOQ
Amita, what is preemptive silencing? Debbie, preemptive silencing is basically a powerful entity using intimidation and or threats to mute people..so If I control your livelihood and make it be known that very bad things will happen if anyone opposes me…that’s preemptive silencing. In the case of UCSD, some scientists seem to be censoring themselves, They still remember Trump’s first term when climate scientists were terminated.They still remember attacks against Dr. Fauci during the pandemic and recent calls for him to be jailed. I spoke with Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease doctor at UCSD…He says his colleagues believe that environment will return in the next Trump administration and they don’t want to be caught in the crosshairs. “So everybody's anxious and then they're worried that if they say something that it's gonna come back on them, but I depend on grants from the NIH. 12:43 And if the NIH is going to cut infectious diseases, then that's gonna hurt my livelihood, but also my science, et cetera.” And I want to be clear that no one I spoke to at UCSD said any kind of edict has come down from the university’s leadership about censoring their public statements. Amita, what are the potential consequences for UCSD scientists if they do run afoul of the next White House and of the new administration? Well first of all, UCSD receives 972 million dollars in federal funding, about 557 million of that money comes from the National Institutes of Health or NIH, and that also has a big impact on the local economy. No one is saying FOR CERTAIN that will go away if researchers speak out of turn. But there IS a lot on the line if that does happen or if priorities change if there’s payback from grudges held over from Trump’s last term, such as getting rid of infection disease research at the NIH, which Smith says would be devastating to preparation for the next pandemic. “As a virologist, bird flu is coming by the way and it is gonna probably have some pandemic type effects as well. We're gonna need those strong institutions to take care of it. Plus anything else that we’re not thinking of at the moment.” So many other countries have complained for decades about experiencing brain drains in science and tech. Might that happen here? Smith says it’s already happening here. He knows scientists who have either left already or are planning to leave in anticipation of the effect of a second Trump Administration. Some of this feeling has echoes from the past. I also spoke to Steffanie Strathdee, a professor of medicine at UCSD. She is an AIDS researcher. That work was stigmatized and targeted in the 1990s. She recalls scientists being audited for no apparent reason. She worries that Trump could usher in a new era of fear among scientists that could last generations. She says that combined with a brain drain could be hard to reverse. “What it means is you’re losing memory of how to get things done. If you wipe the slate clean and start over again, it's gonna take a lot of time,, to regrow that kind of, institutional memory. And so,it's yet another layer of unraveling that I think is going to be an issue.” Amita, who is advocating for researchers if their work is threatened? I spoke with San Diego Congressman Scott Peters about some of the angst local researchers are feeling about Trump’s second term. And he said they should take a deep breath and chill. He thinks some of the fear is unwarranted and some of the threats coming from Trump’s camp are bluster. He said both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and Trump are concerned about China overtaking it in research and aren’t about to upend funding to San Diego’s life sciences. But if he’s wrong, he says he’s prepared to fight for local scientists. “This congressional delegation, I in particular, have made it a priority to support the life sciences here with both public research dollars, which we've increased dramatically. and keeping an ecosystem where private investment also happens.” And Debbie I have to add that the self censorship extends beyond science into other academia, into business, nonprofit advocacy groups, and even media. You’ll recall that both the LA Times and The Washington Post had endorsements of Vice President Kamala Harris before the election ready to go but then scrapped them. It was a move widely seen as capitulation to Trump. A retired political science professor told me recently it’s not so much self censorship as reasoned cowardice. Debbie: Amita, thank you. Amita: Thank you Debbie.
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BOOKS THROUGH BARS SAN DIEGO IS AN ORGANIZATION THAT GATHERS AND SHIPS BOOKS TO PEOPLE INCARCERATED NATIONWIDE. ARTS REPORTER JULIA DIXON EVANS SPOKE TO ONE VOLUNTEER ABOUT THIS WORK.
PRISONBOOKS 1 (1:08) SOQ
Cherish Burtson remembers a time when books were her only escape. She was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, California. "And I went through so many books, I think that's the only thing that allowed me to actually get through it." Now, Burtson volunteers with Books Through Bars, a mutual aid collective that sends books to prisons. The group holds regular "packing events" at Groundwork Books at UC San Diego. Volunteers open letters from incarcerated people, select books and write letters back. This year, the group received about 150 letters per month. They shipped twelve hundred books to incarcerated people in 200 facilities across 40 states. "When you're in there, you're just at a complete standstill and you really feel like the outside world forgets about you. And it's those little things letters and books that make you feel like you actually still are a part of the world." Books are donated from the community and bookstores. Their primary expense is shipping — about $5 per package. Books Through Bars’ next volunteer event is scheduled for January. Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS news.
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That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. And on the Midday Edition podcast this afternoon - host Jade Hindmon will be finding out why employees are feeling increasingly dissatisfied. I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
