CHULA VISTA NEEDS GREATER COMMITMENT TO IMMIGRANTS

Chula Vista was the first city in the state of California to be certified a “Welcoming City” in 2019, signaling widespread support for making immigrants feel included. But last year, Chula Vista silently fell off the map of certified Welcoming Cities, and now it has a self-inflicted public debacle on its hands about how it chooses to welcome, or not, immigrants into its communities.

In late 2022, City Manager Maria Kachadoorian unilaterally decided she didn’t want to request recertification of Chula Vista as a Welcoming City, a distinction the city still touts prominently on its website. There was no notification to the public or to community partners and no input sought from anyone.

This is troubling because the city manager’s decision not to seek the Welcoming City status overrides a process that included extensive public testimony and a 5-0 vote by City Council to join the “Welcoming America” network of 18 welcoming cities. The resolution passed by the council on April 25, 2017, was “to demonstrate that the city values its immigrant and refugee residents and to help them to become a vital part of our economic and civic society.” Does the city no longer hold those goals?

The decision might also be in violation of a municipal code that directs Chula Vista’s Human Relations Commission, a body of city residents formed “to assist the city, by completing all required steps, to become a certified Welcoming City.” Shouldn’t it have been involved?

Chula Vista residents expected its city representatives to do more for them by retaining its Welcoming City status and not shying away from its commitment to immigrants and refugee residents with an opaque decision-making process.

Several dozen advocates and I supported the City Council’s resolution six years ago, and spoke in favor of it at a series of public meetings at the time. It meant that in a heightened anti-immigrant political climate, where fearmongering was driving public policy, the Welcoming City title was a refreshing pledge from the second-largest city in San Diego County. Chula Vista would actively champion city-sponsored programs in support of immigrants and refugees with a detailed implementation plan. Since 2019, it proudly displayed the Welcoming America banner in front of City Hall.

Little did I know this promise would be short-lived. Despite her actions to drop the distinction, City Manager Kachadoorian is still publicly touting the status in 2023.

Yet now the city’s commitment to immigrant community members is in question again — including by the organization that certifies cities based on a robust set of criteria such as fostering trust and building relationships between residents and law enforcement and safety agencies.

Welcoming America wrote a letter to Chula Vista in 2021 indicating that it had incorrectly certified Chula Vista as a Welcoming City because the Chula Vista Police Department was sharing automated license plate data with the Border Patrol and other immigration enforcement agencies in violation of a key compliance measure.

The letter states, “had we known that this information was being shared, the assessment would have been noncompliant.”

Community members spoke out and held press conferences at City Hall that year, denouncing the collaboration that appeared to violate the spirit of the California Values Act, the state law that prevents state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources for federal immigration enforcement.

The pressure led City Manager Kachadoorian to call for a technology and privacy advisory task force. I was among the Chula Vista residents and subject matter experts selected for the task force to draw up recommendations addressing questions of privacy and surveillance.

After months of work, we submitted recommendations urging the city to adopt an ordinance that would be enforceable by law as a way to protect the most vulnerable residents in Chula Vista. Instead, the City Council passed a resolution establishing a nonbinding and unenforceable privacy protection and technology transparency policy for city departments.

A spokesperson for the city of Chula Vista told KPBS this month that Kachadoorian “made the decision not to pursue Welcoming City recertification because of staff priorities to launch development of the justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) program and the effort to create the city’s privacy protection and technology transparency policy.”

The justice, equity, diversity and inclusion program’s implementation process is not set to begin until September, and the city’s privacy protection and technology transparency policy is a powerless guide without serious accountability measures. This leaves a wide gap in how Chula Vista can uphold a commitment for immigrant and refugee residents.

New City Council members plan to address this in upcoming meetings.

For the sake of all residents, including immigrants and refugees in Chula Vista, the commitment this time should be unwavering, long-term and without qualifications.

In late 2022, City Manager Maria Kachadoorian unilaterally decided she didn’t want to request recertification of Chula Vista as a Welcoming City, a distinction the city still touts prominently on its website. There was no notification to the public — and no input was sought from anyone.