San Diegans react to President Trump’s new travel ban
Good Morning, I’m Debbie Cruz….it’s Wednesday June 11th
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San Diegans react to President Trump’s new travel ban.
More on that next. But first... the headlines….
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After months of discussion, San Diego city council members approved a revised version of the city's budget for the 2026 fiscal year beginning July 1.
The vote was seven to two with Councilmembers Jennifer Campbell and Vivian Moreno opposed.
The council’s modified budget would restore some cuts to parks and recreation centers and Monday hours to 14 of the city’s 37 libraries.
The city plans to use new revenue streams, such as charging nonresidents to park in Balboa Park, to cover the costs.
Charles Modica is the Independent Budget Analyst.
“If we do hit an economic downturn even if all these good things, these new revenues come to fruition, we will be faced with a need for immediate cuts.”
With seven votes in favor of the budget, the council would be able to override a veto from the Mayor.
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The city of San Diego will start charging homeowners a trash fee next month.
The City Council approved the fee Monday after a lengthy hearing.
Starting July 1st ... homeowners will have to pay about 43-dollars per month for three bins -- one for trash, one for recycling and one for yard waste or food scraps.
If approved by the City Council, homeowners could first see the charge on their property tax bills by October.
This ends a more than 1-hundred-year precedent of not charging single family homeowners a fee for trash pickup.
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The San Diego County Fair is officially open!
This year the theme of the fair is Summer Pet-tacular. The San Diego Humane Society is partnering with the fair to bring pet-centric events and experiences to the Del Mar fairgrounds.
Attractions will include animal-themed exhibits, pet adoption events plus all the typical fair excitement of crazy fried foods, rides and concerts.
The fair is open June 11 through July 6 and is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
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From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need.
The local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and immigrant rights groups rallied in front of San Diego International Airport yesterday (Tuesday) to protest the latest travel ban.
Reporter Alexander Nguyen was there.
As international travelers from Japan arrived in San Diego, they were met with protesters …… against the Trump administration’s latest travel ban.
“racist ban against Muslims and African countries.”
The ban went into effect Monday and applies to 12 countries and also imposes heightened restrictions on 7 others.
Afghanistan where thousands await U.S. resettlement is included in the ban.
Muntaz Momand has been trying to bring his family and fiancée from Afghanistan for several years.
“It’s abuse of power. They’re systematically, you know, like attacking the refugees, vulnerable people. And I am one of them, even though I have citizenship ... For this government, my citizenship doesn’t mean anything.”
Momand is frustrated because he’s met with roadblock after roadblock.
He and CAIR are calling on the local congressional delegates to pass the No Ban Act … which limits the president's power to enact travel bans. Alexander Nguyen, KPBS News
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KPBS Midday Edition host Jade Hindmon sat down with Homayra [Ha-my-rah] YusufI, [You-sih-fee] a senior policy strategist with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans or PANA [Pan-uh], to tell us more about the impact of the travel ban here in San Diego.
What was your initial reaction to Trump's travel ban this time around? My initial reaction was just heartbreak. Um, you know, my family actually came to the United States. I'm from Afghanistan.
Um, my family's from Afghanistan and and while some members of my family were able to come to the united states as refugees, um myself and my mom and siblings actually came um through this family-based visa to be able to reunite with our family here with my dad who was here on a student visa and others in our family.
So I think my initial reaction was just feeling heartbreak for all of those people who had who have been waiting for years and years and years to reunite with their families for those individuals who you know who are trying to come here on student-based visas or for employment who will now be essentially told that that's not possible. I mean, is there something different in terms of how this band feels as opposed to the one in 2017?
The new iteration of the span um is more expansive than the last one, right? It includes 19 countries total. Um, but it still is just as destructive as the initial muslim and african band from the last trump presidency. Um, it is going to lead to the same discriminatory practices. It is going to have the same chaotic implementation.
If you remember back in 2017, the chaos at the airports of people trying to arrive in the United States and essentially not able to. Um and it's going to create the same harmful practice of separating and terrorizing families at our organization.like you said, this is a continued effort at just, you know, blaming immigrants rather than recognizing the contributions and and like the community that immigrants bring into this country. And you've touched on this, but with a band like this family separations are inevitable. Can you speak to the emotional turmoil of going through that?
The emotional turmoil is just you know it's it's it's heartbreaking but it's also bringing the sense of fear for folks, right? We have individuals who have elderly parents that they have been waiting for years to reunite with, right? And wondering will I ever see them again. We have folks who are just feeling a great sense of fear because they're not only they, you know, many of them have immigration status. This is what I want to say.
Like when we talk about immigrants, I feel like there is this sense that oh well there's certain ones that are undocumented and this and that. First of all, the travel ban is limiting a legal pathway, right? For folks to come into the United States. It's a very expensive process to get visas to come into the United States. It is a highly vetted process, right?
Um and individuals who have been waiting for years to get these visas from these countries are essentially told you're out of luck. Um and so for those people waiting and for their families who are waiting, it's a complete heartbreak.
well, i know you've got your hands full at pana right now. What are your next steps and priorities uh to protect immigrants and refugees here?
I think the first thing that pana is doing and continues to do is ensure that folks have legal representation, what we've seen in terms of immigration cases as that's so vital. But of course, um you know, when you look at the landscape in San Diego, there's so many people in need of legal representation and, you know, not the funding behind it.
So, we continue to provide what we can um and and to ensure that we're also facilitating community meetings so that folks understand. There you know, there's so much ambiguity in this travel band so making sure that um community members understand who it applies to, who it doesn't.
So engaging with them, but we're also engaging on the no-ban act and i call on all viewers to our listeners to call their congressional offices um and you know ask for their congressional offices to support this no-ban act because this will actually um limit the way that the administration um can, you know, have these sweeping bans across nations. We really need to make sure that this doesn't continue to happen.
That was Homayra [Ha-my-rah] YusufI, [You-sih-fee] with the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans speaking with KPBS’ Jade Hindmon.
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California is suing the Trump administration over the military response to protests in Los Angeles over the objection of local officials.
Military reporter Andrew Dyer says signals from the administration indicate troop deployments in response to protests will grow.
“I think we're entering an even another phase, especially under President Trump, with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tells a congressional subcommittee yesterday troops are important to Trump’s domestic security plans.
National Guard deployments during times of unrest aren’t new but sending in active duty troops is rare.
San Diego Marine Corps veteran Janessa Goldbeck is the CEO of the advocacy non-profit Vets Voice Foundation.
“We in this country have the most professional fighting force in the world, and we have a force that is apolitical. And when the president is directing active duty military to do law enforcement in the streets, that puts them in a very political position…”
It seems the president is very intent on reshaping the military to be his own force, to be used for political purposes.
Reluctance to using troops in a domestic capacity dates as far back as 900 years, to the Magna Carta.
The last time the National Guard deployed without local consent was in 1965 during civil rights protests in Alabama.
Andrew Dyer, KPBS News.
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As the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown, advocates are renewing calls for San Diego police to end a controversial surveillance program.
Reporter Gustavo Solis says the license plate reader program might violate state law.
“You can map people’s movements with license plate readers. Your car goes from one end of an intersection with a license plate reader to another location with a license plate reader to a third. And you can map where that car goes.”
That is Tim Blood – chair of the city’s Privacy Advisory Board – explaining how the San Diego Police Department’s automated license plate reader program works.
It pulls millions of data points into a database that police can use to solve crimes. The system also allows the SDPD to share the data with federal agencies – including Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations.
Critics of the program say the data sharing likely violates a state law passed in 2015 that prohibits local police departments from sharing license plate data with federal law enforcement agencies.
Lilly Irani is with San Diego’s TRUST Coalition. It’s a collection of more than 30 advocacy groups asking the City Council to eliminate the program.
“Pull the funding entirely from the license plate reader system. At a time when libraries and parks are being cut there’s no reason that we should be investing in infrastructure that’s making us less safe.”
The Privacy Advisory Board recommends that SDPD stop sharing data with federal law enforcement ... even if the city keeps the program going. Blood says so far police officials have been cooperative … and he’s hopeful they’ll come to an agreement.
Gustavo Solis, KPBS News
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People coming to the U-S to study and work can get caught up in the politics of immigration.
One San Diego economist says that overall it’s a financial gain for both the U-S and the workers’ home country. Sci-tech reporter Thomas Fudge has more.
UC San Diego economist Gaurav Khanna says the economics of migration show it isn’t a zero-sum game, where one country wins and the other loses. Other countries benefit when their citizens get education and job skills in the U.S. because so many of them return home, bringing those valuable skills with them. Migrants who get jobs in the US also send money home. Khanna says the US benefits from a growing tech sector and what he calls downstream economic benefits.
“You know if you think of the car manufacturing sector in Detroit. It uses a lot of software, not only in the production process but our cars have software in it. Now, that innovation actually occurred in Silicon Valley by a bunch of Indian immigrants.”
Though some people say this migration is a brain drain for poorer countries, Khanna argues it is a brain gain for all of those countries involved. Thomas Fudge, KPBS News
That’s it for the podcast today. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org. . I’m Debbie Cruz. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
