SAN JOSE RESIDENT Adilene Alvarez never expected her husband to be grabbed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while driving their two young children to day care in April.
She never expected him to be held in the Bakersfield Federal Detention Center or to be threatened by federal agents that her children would be taken away. Alvarez’s husband is still in Bakersfield, but Alvarez said she has hope because of the support she’s received in Santa Clara County.
Alvarez stood with more than a dozen local representatives and leaders Monday outside the Mexican Heritage Plaza as they urged all public officials to join them in a pledge to protect the immigrant community — including the roughly 134,000 undocumented residents who call the county home according to the latest data. The call to action comes amid the Trump administration’s national crackdown on immigration, which has placed more than 50,000 people in immigration detention centers and ramped up deportations.
“This is not a show,” Alvarez told San José Spotlight. “This is costing us a lot — taking care of the kids, working, paying the bills, paying the rent (by myself).”
County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas was one of the elected officials who spearheaded the pledge for residents like Alvarez. The pledge includes upholding the dignity and rights of all immigrants regardless of immigration status, championing comprehensive immigration reform, ensuring an investment in Latino neighborhoods and meeting consistently with Latino-led organizations for collaboration.
Arenas said as the daughter of immigrants, it’s important to defend the community she comes from. More than 40% of the county’s residents — an estimated 789,000 community members — were born outside of the United States like Arenas’ parents.
“This is the first time as elected officials that we’re coming together and we’re standing in unified solidarity for our Latino and our immigrant community,” Arenas said at the event.
The efforts come while the county is beefing up its protection for immigrants, even as the Trump administration considers protecting certain populations from deportation, including immigrant farmworkers. The county earmarked more than $8 million this month toward immigration-related services. It’s a historic investment despite an uncertain fiscal future.
Those millions will go toward services such as the Rapid Response Network, a community defense project that protects and helps immigrant families like Alvarez’s from deportation threats. The network has received 2,590 calls since January, with nearly one-third, or 840, of those calls coming in this month as ICE activity spikes across the country.
The efforts haven’t stopped at the county level.
The San Jose City Council recently allocated $1 million for immigrant defense organizations like Amigos de Guadalupe and the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) out of its $5.5 billion budget. School districts are refusing to cooperate with ICE and the business community is banding together.
“This is the first time as elected officials that we’re coming together and we’re standing in unified solidarity for our Latino and our immigrant community.” Supervisor Sylvia Arenas
San Jose Councilmember Pamela Campos has had residents detained in her district. She said it’s important to stand up against the federal administration’s harmful policies.
“We are dealing with a federal government that is determined to abuse their power and disregard our constitutional protections,” Campos said at the event. “We will counter Trump’s lies with the truth about our community and the fact is, immigrant families are the hardest-working taxpayers in our country.”
Alvarez’s husband’s next hearing is set for August. She said her children ask about their dad constantly and won’t leave her side for fear of separation. But they remain optimistic they’ll see him again.
“My children and I are holding on day by day, believing he will come home,” she said. “Still, this experience has left deep scars.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
This story originally appeared in San Jose Spotlight.