Good evening, councilmembers. My name is Nalini Gupta, and I am the managing policy director at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.
We fully support the Vista Community Safety and Due Process Resolution, which provides critical safeguards to the people of Vista and reflects the city’s commitment to safety, inclusion and justice for all. In a time of heightened immigration enforcement nationwide, this resolution is an important step in standing with immigrants, people of color and the broader Vista community.
We support this resolution because it seeks to educate Vista residents about their legal rights during interactions with law enforcement. We also strongly support the provisions that prohibit federal law enforcement from accessing non-public areas of city-owned properties without a judicial warrant and that restrict the sharing of personal information with federal immigration authorities.
City resources should be used to uplift and strengthen our communities, not to tear families apart. The safeguards in this resolution will help ensure that Vista residents feel secure in their own city.
We urge the council to pass this critical resolution and furthermore consider additional protections for Vista residents to increase transparency and accountability, including establishing reporting requirements to track federal immigration enforcement operations within the city and any city cooperation with such operations.
Thank you.
