I have lived on the Central Coast for 21 years. I am Latino. I am a Democrat, and for the first time in my life, I no longer feel represented by the Central Coast Democrat Party I have always called home.
That feeling has a name: Salud Carbajal. He has represented our district in Congress for a decade, and in that decade I have watched our immigrant neighbors grow more afraid, not less. I have watched three close friends pack up and leave for Mexico because they could no longer live with the fear of deportation hanging over their families. One of my closest friend’s fathers achieved his dream of owning his own restaurant in Santa Barbara three years ago. He was recently deported, leaving behind his wife and two young children to keep the family restaurant running without him.
There is no “American Dream” left for families like his. And through all of it, the one person with the actual power to fight for immigration reform in Washington has been, as far as I can tell, MIA: Missing in Action.
Don’t take my word for it. Go to Congress.gov yourself and look up his record. What you will find is thin. The clearest, most concrete accomplishment tied to his name is a bill to rename a Santa Maria post office after Larry Lavagnino.
That’s it.
Meanwhile, he recently praised himself publicly for the passage of a bipartisan housing bill, yet when you check the roll call, his own vote isn’t there. A congressman can’t take credit for a law he didn’t even vote for. If I’m wrong about any of this, I invite him to show us the record. Until then, the record speaks for itself, and it says he has not delivered a single meaningful step toward immigration reform for the community he claims to represent.
Here is what makes this worse: he is protected.
The Democratic Party of the Central Coast keeps propping him up, no questions asked, while local Latino voices who tell the truth about this party get pushed out and attacked.
This is a party that talks about caring for Latino families while pushing higher taxes, making it harder to build housing so our cost of living keeps climbing, and blocking State Street in ways that choke off the small businesses our community depends on. When someone local dares to point that out, they go after them.
When a congressman does nothing for ten years, they hand him the endorsement anyway.
That is not an accident. That is a party protecting power, not people.
What Happened to the “Dreamers?”
I want to be clear about what I am not saying. I am not saying I will turn against the Democratic Party. I am saying it’s time we start holding our local Democratic Central Committee accountable. I am saying stop accepting a Latino face on a ballot as a substitute for a Latino agenda.
We are the majority of voters in this county. That is not a talking point. That is leverage we have refused to use. It is time we start asking every candidate, of any party, the same question: what have you actually built for this community, not with your title, but with your hands and your record?
DACA students should have had a clear path to citizenship years ago. This should be the easiest fight of Salud Carbajal’s career; he came to this country as an immigrant himself. He knows exactly what our Dreamers are living through. There are no more excuses left for him to hide behind. So I’ll ask the question again, plainly: where has Congressman Salud Carbajal been?
While families in the Central Coast are being separated and our neighbors are living in fear, we deserve more than a plaque on a post office and a press release taking credit for votes he never cast.
I would like to see Salud debate Bob Smith. If Bob Smith is willing to step up to that challenge, Congressman Carbajal should be too. We deserve to see him come out and actually fight for the title he’s held for ten years, not just campaign on it from a distance.
Enough is enough. Latino voters, it is time we stand together and put people in office who have actually earned it through years of real work in our community, instead of politicians who are simply using our community to build a career.
I feel compelled to write this because I’m not sure I have a future here. I see clearly that the cost of living on the Central Coast is pushing people like me out, while the people in power get to enjoy a comfortable pension and job security for life, protected by a political structure here that was built to keep incumbents in office, not to serve working families like mine.
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Angel Rodriguez works in the restaurant business. His family immigrated from Mexico City. Angel attended SB schools and is the oldest in his family.
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It sounds like what you want is assurance that ILLEGAL immigrants will not be deported and that there be a clear path to citizenship for ILLEGAL immigrants. I for one do not welcome immigrants whose first act on American soil is to defy American immigration law. There is already a path to citizenship, return to Mexico and apply along the legal path like so many immigrants America welcomes.
Well, you have opened a can of worms. your article suggests that although you have resided in the US for some time, you are still afraid of being deported? is that so? Because I thought you indicated that you could vote for Salud.
Now for the big picture.
There are estimated to be 15-16 million illegal aliens residing in the USA. The net costs to the US taxpayers in supporting them amounts to approximately $151 billion a year, after any immigrant paid taxes.
In California, being a Sanctuary State, it is estimated that 2.3 million illegal immigrants reside here and cost California residents $30.9 billion a year in additional taxes, after immigrant paid taxes.
Now, illegal immigrants are from countries all over the world. Are you suggesting special treatment for those who originated from Mexico? If so, why would that be?
I should add that the California taxpayers also support the largest homeless population in America to the tune of several $billion a year.
I am a legal immigrant dating back 56 years, I went through the legal process, I had to be tested for various communicable diseases and have a job offer before I was permitted entry to the USA with a green card. What illegal aliens, from any source, don't seem to care about it that they are breaking US federal law. We are supposed to be a country ruled by laws. It is the duty of federal law enforcement to remove those who break immigration laws.