A Half Moon Bay nonprofit dedicated to supporting Latino immigrants and farmworkers received a postcard filled with anti-immigrant rhetoric this week, one day after President Donald Trump took office.
Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, or ALAS, has been providing services and advocating for the beach town’s farm worker community for more than 10 years.
When ALAS employees got into work on Tuesday, they were horrified to discover a postcard in their mail that contained messages intimidating immigrants such as “Report illegal aliens” and “There is nowhere to hide.”
“One of my staff called me and she was crying,” said ALAS Executive Director and Founder Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga in an interview. “They had received the postcard in our mail and asked me to come right away. Seeing it was really shocking and very difficult because it’s really concerning.”
The postcard, which was postmarked in Oakland, contains a list of places where immigrants can be found such as schools, work, church, restaurants and “in your neighborhood.”
It also has a phone number and online link that can be used to report undocumented immigrants to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The same postcard has also been received by several offices of United Farm Workers of America, the nation’s largest farmworkers union, they said in a social media post.
In the area where a return address is supposed to be, a handwritten note reads “Have your bags packed – Trump’s coming!”
For many undocumented immigrants, the new Trump presidency has stoked fears as he has promised to “launch the biggest deportation in American history,” he said during an October rally last year at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Since taking office on Monday, Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at cracking down on immigration and preparing for deportations.
He attempted to repeal birthright citizenship and declared a national emergency at the southern border.
A few weeks ago, U.S. Border Patrol conducted announced raids in Bakersfield that led to dozens of arrests.
“We’re all really worried about what’s happening,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “It’s really sad for our farm worker community, our immigrant community, our essential workers … they’re the backbone of our economy.”
In addition to the postcard and Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders this week, Half Moon Bay’s farmworker community is grieving since Thursday marks the second anniversary of the mass shooting that killed seven farmworkers in the coastal town.
“We have so much sadness around this tragic event, and now we’re having to worry about threats to our Latino community and our farmworkers from the president,” Hernandez-Arriaga said.
It was the deadliest shooting in the history of San Mateo County and revealed the deplorable working conditions that some agricultural laborers endure.
We’re all really worried about what’s happening.
Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, ALAS Executive Director and FoundeR
ALAS is set to hold a vigil service with musical performances to commemorate and honor the seven victims, most of whom were migrants.
Moving forward, ALAS is planning to hire a full-time security guard as a safety measure in response to the postcard. They are also working to get an immigration attorney in the wake of growing fears of deportation.
“In the history of our agency, we’ve never had a security guard,” Hernandez-Arriaga said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time, but now it’s critical that we find an immigration attorney to be part of our team.”
“We’re taking everything very seriously. We’re not gonna let this paralyze us.”