SB Immigrant Rights Groups: "Fight Panic with Power"
From the anti-Trump deporation struggle to City Hall's brawl over new taxes, our all-star panel of top local journalists has all the news that fits from Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara’s Latino communities are infused with “fear, panic and uncertainty” in the face of Donald Trump’s vicious and menacing threats about mass deportation.
That’s the top line takeaway about how the national immigration uproar is hitting locally, as reported by Ryan P. Cruz, who says on this week’s edition of Newsmakers TV that fears about racial profiling, “collateral arrests” and, unconstitutional government actions have alarmed neighborhoods with immigrant populations - regardless of people’s citizenship or legal status.
He added, however, that a strong network of local organizations, aiming to “fight panic with power,” has organized efforts to provide legal education, family counseling, and real-time, credible information about immigration enforcement actions.
Nick Welsh returns to the panel to provide some historic perspective on the early days of Trump’s second term, drawing lessons from the imperialist, expansionist and protectionist policies of a late 19th Century president; he also reprises his reporting on a gigantic local government challenge hiding in plain sight, as the graying of the population puts ever-increasing pressure on public resources
And Josh Molina joins the gang to break down the new City Hall scuffle over how to spend millions of dollars in new revenues flowing in after voters approved Measure I last November, as housing advocates demand a larger share and charge that the move to hire more police officers, increase library hours and provide other general fund services is a betrayal of promises made about the purpose of the sales tax increase.
Plus: The latest in the effort to regulate food trucks on city streets, an 11th hour legal challenge to that 250-room hotel project on Garden Street, and how ICE rumors kept Ryan from seeing the NFC Championship Game.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
Check out Episode 478 on YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast is on Soundcloud here and also available on Spotify, Apple and other platforms. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Image: SB immigration rally (Ingrid Bostrom photo).