Did you know that Humboldt County is a sanctuary county?

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HUMBOLDT COUNTY, Calif. (KIEM)- Did you know that Humboldt County is a sanctuary county?

Back in 2017 there was a very big ice raid in Fortuna that made many in the immigrant community wonder what they could do to protect themselves and others from this happening again.

So a grass roots organization called Centro del pueblo, along with many other organizations and community members, came together to campaign for a sanctuary law to get passed in Humboldt County to protect the immigrant community.

“In 2018, as we saw that the institutions did not think it was important, the center put a form in the elections office to put it on the ballot for that November of that year and a political campaign began,” said Brenda Perez, a community organizer for Centro del Pueblo.

After about nine months of campaigning, the sanctuary law was passed in that year’s elections and is the first sanctuary law to be passed through the election process in the entire country, but who or what does this law protect?

“ICE right now, due to the sanctuary law, cannot collaborate with the local police system and they are not allowed any taxes from our money that’s coming in and none of our taxes are allowed to be taken into any immigration laws,” said Karen Villa, a community organizer for Centro del Pueblo. There is also a big protection for our community and our families.

Parents who have or are deported, unfortunately, often do not have a say where their children go. This law protects them and allows them to pick where they want their children to go.”

Centro del pueblo says that this law is very important for Humboldt to be informed about because it is a way to protect the community.

“People come here for a better life and so it’s important for us to kind of be able to have that helping hand rather than push people down and so just to be able to kind of get familiarized with it and spread the word,” said Villa.