E., A MOTHER OF THREE in Salinas, is additional cautious when she takes her children to high school. She switches up her routes, leaves at totally different instances, and is at all times looking out for immigration brokers, particularly throughout pick-ups and drop-offs.
President Donald Trump’s menace of mass deportations is rarely removed from her thoughts, however it’s not her personal welfare she’s involved about.
“I’m not worried about going back to Mexico. I’m afraid of being separated from my kids,” mentioned E., who requested to not be recognized as a result of she and her husband’s immigration standing places them liable to being deported. “My worst fear is that my 6-year-old will end up in a camp. … I don’t know what I would do.”
Though there have been few, if any, stories of immigration arrests at or close to faculties not too long ago, E. and numerous different dad and mom are gripped with concern that in the event that they go to the shop, work or college, they’ll by no means see their households once more. The concern stems from Trump’s heated anti-immigrant rhetoric, in addition to his latest elimination of colleges, hospitals, courts and different “sensitive locations” as protected zones for undocumented immigrants.
“This is an immigrant city, and just the threat is enough to scare people. The specter of deportation is driving people underground.”
Mary Duan, Salinas Metropolis Elementary Faculty District spokesperson
In Salinas, generally known as “the salad bowl of the world” for its wealthy agricultural fields, concern is all over the place. Though there have been no raids for the reason that inauguration, rumors about ICE sweeps abound. At faculties, there’s a heightened sense of consciousness. Workplace employees know to ask immigration brokers for judicial warrants and to right away alert the superintendent. Volunteers stroll college students house from college, so dad and mom don’t should danger going exterior.
“This is an immigrant city, and just the threat is enough to scare people,” mentioned Mary Duan, spokesperson for Salinas Metropolis Elementary Faculty District. “The specter of deportation is driving people underground.”
Salinas has one of many highest concentrations of immigrants in California. In 2023, greater than a 3rd of the inhabitants was born out of the country, in keeping with the U.S. Census, and greater than 80% are Latino. Immigrants have been part of Salinas for generations, and practically everybody is said to somebody who was foreign-born.
The district’s attendance has dropped steadily the previous few months. In August, about 95% of the district’s 8,200 college students confirmed up for sophistication day-after-day, however by mid-January the quantity had dropped to simply over 91%, in keeping with district information.
The birthplace of John Steinbeck and the setting for his basic, “East of Eden,” Salinas has lengthy been a working-class farming group. It sits on the northern finish of the Salinas Valley, flanked by mountains to the east and west, with ocean breezes wafting in from Monterey Bay making certain gentle temperatures nearly year-round — good situations for rising lettuce.
An individual drives a tractor via a area of crops on farmland close to Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Native)
Vegetable fields — tidy, vivid inexperienced rows of lettuce, broccoli, spinach and different crops — stretch miles throughout the valley, from the outskirts of city to the foothills of the close by Gabilan and Sierra de Salinas ranges. Packing vegetation and nurseries dot the sides of the town.
Faculties have at all times performed a central position in Salinas. However up to now few months, that position has expanded, as faculties have reassured dad and mom, supplied info and comforted anxious kids. The district has skilled workplace employees to ask for judicial — not administrative — warrants from immigration brokers if they arrive on campus. It’s contemplating increasing its digital academies, like people who operated throughout COVID, for youngsters whose dad and mom really feel safer retaining them house. And it’s been taking additional steps to make college students really feel welcome and protected on campus.
“We want our schools to be places of joy, connection and belonging,” mentioned Superintendent Rebecca Andrade. “The unknown is what causes anxiety. So we try to stay focused on our role, which is educating and supporting students.”
From the onion fields to the classroom
It helps that many lecturers, counselors and different college employees grew up within the space and themselves come from undocumented households. They know what it’s like to select lettuce on chilly August mornings, hear the cries of “la migra” when immigration brokers are close by, and reside with the fixed data that mates or relations could possibly be deported.
Oscar Ramos, a second grade trainer at Sherwood Elementary, got here from Jalisco, Mexico to Hollister, about 30 miles northwest of Salinas, when he was 4 years previous together with his household. By the point he was 8, he was choosing onions and garlic together with his household, working 10-hour days all through the summers. He remembers when, within the Eighties, his babysitter was arrested on the labor camp the place his household lived.
“There was a knock at the door, and they just took her. There was no warning,” Ramos recalled. “I was 6 years old. I never saw her again.”
His personal dad and mom had been by no means arrested, however he is aware of all too effectively the concern kids expertise after they suppose they won’t see their dad and mom once more. In his classroom, the subject comes up each day, regardless of his efforts to maintain his college students targeted on schoolwork.
Instructor Oscar Ramos in his classroom at Sherwood Elementary Faculty in Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Native)
“When I read them stories, they’d make random comments about their pets or their friends or what they’re doing this weekend,” Ramos mentioned. “Now, they talk about ICE. ‘My parents said we can’t go to Walmart because that’s where they’ll pick you up.’ ‘I got sick but we couldn’t go to the hospital because immigration might be there.’ There’s just so much fear.”
Though immigration raids have at all times been a part of life in Salinas, “this time feels different,” Ramos mentioned. “The mood seems more hateful, unpredictable. How far will (Trump) go? How far will he push the limits? Will he send us back? Put us in giant prisons? Separate families? It seems like he doesn’t care. We see it and we feel it.”
That unpredictability has left even these with authorized standing on edge. Tales abound about residents being caught in immigration sweeps and detained or despatched to Mexico. Individuals fear about shedding their visas, or about family members getting wrongfully arrested.
‘I could lose everything’
Cecilia, 28, got here to the U.S. from Mexico at age 2, together with her mom and sister. She has authorized standing via the Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals program and works in a household useful resource heart for immigrants. When she will be able to afford to, she takes courses at Hartnell Neighborhood School in hopes of incomes a level in accounting or enterprise. With a knack for math, she hopes to sometime work in a payroll workplace.
Everybody in her household has visas, however she now worries that these could possibly be taken away.
“I never used to carry my DACA papers, but since the election I always do,” mentioned Cecilia, who requested that her full identify not be used as a result of she fears her DACA standing could also be revoked. “If I lose my visa, I would lose my job, I could lose everything. I know other people have it way worse, but it’s still scary.”
Left: Campus counselor Ismael Del Actual factors at posters displaying a variety of feelings. Proper: The Calming Room within the counselor’s workplace at Los Padres Elementary Faculty in Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. (Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Native)
Ismael Del Actual, a counselor at Los Padres Elementary Faculty, is busy nowadays. There’s a gentle stream of scholars who go to the “calming corner” in his workplace, searching for a second’s escape from their anxiousness. He tells them to take deep breaths, depend to 10, draw, squeeze a stress ball, discuss their fears.
However largely, he simply listens.
“It’s not about having the perfect words, because there’s nothing perfect about any of this,” mentioned Del Actual, who grew up in Salinas and whose dad and mom are immigrants from Mexico. “I just try to be there for them. I tell them, ‘You’re right, this is scary, and it makes sense to feel anxious.’”
On daily basis, lecturers ask every of the college’s 680 college students to select an emoji to explain their temper. Till not too long ago, practically all the youngsters picked “happy.” Now, an growing quantity choose “sad” or “angry.” Del Actual visits with these college students personally and tries to supply consolation and coping methods.
Typically, it’s dad and mom who present up at his workplace, situated in a tidy moveable subsequent to the college backyard. The partitions are adorned with inspirational slogans in Spanish, comparable to “No hay mal que bien no venga,” or “Every cloud has a silver lining”, and the furnishings is a cheerful vivid blue.
He advises them to maintain a provide of crimson playing cards that define their rights to immigration officers, go to group occasions to get dependable details about what’s taking place and what assets can be found, and have a plan. Resolve who will choose up the youngsters if the dad or mum is arrested, and provides the college that individual’s telephone quantity.
In some methods, the concern of deportation has introduced households collectively, and motivated them to talk out — even anonymously. Throughout a latest protest, greater than 200 dad and mom at Los Padres saved their kids house from college as a present of solidarity. And they’re fast to assist one another and help those that want help, he mentioned.
Two college students stroll to class at Los Padres Elementary Faculty in Salinas on Feb. 11, 2025. Picture by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Native
“I can’t imagine what these parents are going through. These are humble people who work hard, and they just want what’s best for their kids,” Del Actual mentioned. “I just want them to have a sense of peace.”
Assist for households
At Los Padres, effectively over half of the scholars are immigrants or the youngsters of immigrants. Vice Principal Christina Perez, who grew up in Salinas, is aware of precisely the hardships these households face. Her dad and mom had been immigrants from Michoacan, Mexico, and her father, who didn’t have authorized standing within the U.S., was deported a number of instances when Perez was a toddler.
Like all faculties within the district, Los Padres presents a slew of assets for immigrant households. The district operates 4 facilities for households to get meals, clothes and different provides, counseling, referrals for authorized recommendation and different wants. Almost 4,000 households go to the facilities yearly.
Perez provides a private contact, reaching out instantly to folks who’re nervous about being separated from their kids. Her message is that the college will do every part in its energy to guard college students and guarantee they really feel protected and cozy.
“I can imagine what these families are going through. It’s ugly to live in that fear. You’re afraid to go to work, afraid to go to school, you wonder how you’ll support your family,” she mentioned. “That was my family, years ago. You think things are going to get better, but here we are.”
This story initially appeared in CalMatters.
