Local forum teaches undocumented immigrants to exercise their rights

Rocio Ortiz came to the “Know Your Rights” forum in King City to get more information for her brother, who is an undocumented immigrant and has a daughter with special needs.

“What is going to happen in case my brother and sister in law get deported?” said Ortiz. “My niece was born here so what is going to happen? You know the doctor’s, the therapist, everything that she needs.

City officials said King City’s demographics are more than 85 percent Hispanic and little more than 20 percent of them are undocumented immigrants.

“There’s a lot of fear in the community,” said King City Mayor Mike Lebarre . “We believe that providing knowledge and truthful facts are ways to combat that fear.”

Event coordinators taught the crowd about which steps they need to take should ICE come knocking on their door.

“Don’t open the door, don’t say a word, don’t sign any document and contact your immigration attorney,” said Paz Padilla, Immigration Specialist for Catholic Charities Diocese of Monterey.

Misconceptions were also cleared up.

“There are no raids happening,” said Padilla. “What’s happening is they come to homes looking for one individual or two individuals and we know that in that household there’s two or three families living there. So what happens is as soon as you open the door they have the right to go and question everybody in that household.”

King City Police Chief Bob Masterson also spoke truth to fearful rumors.

“When it comes to the local police department, we don’t really have a care of your immigration status,” said Masterson. “It is not our job to enforce immigration laws.”

Ortiz said she appreciates the information from the forum and is trying to remain optimistic.

“Hopefully nothing happens but we need to be prepared,” said Ortiz.

Another forum will kick off April 5 th at St. Theodores Church in Gonzales from 6 p.m.-8 pm.