SAN JOSE — The president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors wasted no time during the annual State of the County address Tuesday in calling on local officials and residents to “resist” the Trump administration’s divisive rhetoric and policies.
“Our county is determined to stand up, speak up and push back because we believe that it is in the interest of the 1.9 million people who call Santa Clara County home for us to do so,” Joe Simitian said without ever speaking President Donald Trump’s name.
The county, he said, must resist the administration’s attempts to ban people from Muslim countries from entering the United States and support Dreamers.
These young undocumented immigrants were able to apply for deportation relief through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals until Trump announced last fall he was scrapping the program.
“Almost 40 percent of the population in Santa Clara County is foreign born. They’re immigrants,” Simitian said. “Now, let me connect the dots. Santa Clara County is a county of immigrants and a county of prosperity. This is not a matter of coincidence.”
In a departure from the commander-in-chief’s own State of the Union, during which Trump repeatedly touted “America First” policies, Simitian spent the bulk of his speech extolling the diversity of the county and the power of banding together to push for progress.
“We create community from the ground up,” he said. “Here in Santa Clara County, we pull together, even as others would pull us apart.”
Joint effort between community organizations, local officials and others last year, Simitian pointed out, saved the Buena Vista mobile home park in Palo Alto and helped more seniors get around the county.
“When we partner,” he said, “then the potential for progress is truly without limit.”
Simitian acknowledged that county residents want to see better wages, criminal justice reform and an end to homelessness, among other things.
But the supervisor stopped short of outlining a plan to achieve those goals, saying he had “purposefully eschewed” the chance to outline a “personal agenda.”
“I want the conversation we begin today to be about something more than any individual supervisor’s individual ambitions,” he said. “I want it to be about the work we can do together as partners.”
