June 21, 2025

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Living with Turbulent Immigration Enforcement

 

This is from Andy Gilman, writing as an individual and not representing Ojai’s City Council. 

 

Much has already been written and said about the abrupt changes in immigration enforcement this year and the terrible stories we are seeing aired across the country. Like all of us, I am striving to understand these changes as best I can in an effort to know what we, both as individuals and as a city, can do. Here are a few facts regarding Ojai’s standing:

 

Senate Bill 54 (SB-54), which was approved in October 2017, “Prohibits state and local resources from being used to investigate, detain, detect, or arrest individuals for immigration purposes.” Ventura County Sheriff James Fryhoff’s public affirmation of SB-54  (Ojai Valley News January 2025) reaffirms the commitment of our local law enforcement to not participate with or support Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities. I am grateful to live in this state, county, and city. 

 

Still, even with these restraints in place I feel compelled to express the following:

 

1) Nationwide citizenship criteria was authorized in the 14th Amendment of our Constitution in 1868. However, we tolerate an undocumented working class because of economic expediency. We ignore something like 11 million undocumented residents in our country when it suits the nation’s ends, and selectively and perhaps arbitrarily reverse course when it may not. I believe enacting something like the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 could be in order. An efficient and speedy pathway to citizenship should be enabled so that we do not remain with policies we inconsistently enforce, and acknowledge a central characteristic of our nation: The American Spirit comes from an agreement of principles and self-evident truths, not an ethnic history or phenotype. Unless your ancestors are native peoples of this continent, you hail from immigrants, and the life-force of this country in continually advanced by the vigor of our new arrivals.

 

2) One of the most important principles we must agree on is Due Process, expressed in the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. We have seen cruel examples of undocumented individuals being wrongly detained and deported, circumventing established protocols and tearing families apart. This must stop. I urge these enforcement agents and their supervisors to immediately halt activity, reflect on the reasons we have these agencies in the first place, and to voice these steep concerns throughout their leadership. Clearly, in addition to desperately needed immigration reform, there must be consistent, transparent, and procedurally just immigration enforcement standards. We can rarely tolerate sloppy procedures for mundane subjects, but never can we live with sloppiness that amplifies human suffering. The sympathy with all human kind is our greatest safeguard against anarchy, tyranny, war, and genocide. 

 

We will continue to speak out, continue to express ourselves to our representatives, continue to write and to rally, and continue to offer support to our documented and undocumented residents. Please continue to press our state and federal government for immigration policy and enforcement reform, and let’s become a nation with laws we consistently apply, with equity, wisdom, and compassion.  

 

Andy Gilman

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I welcome your feedback.