Hello, District 6 residents! It has been an eventful January, and I hope you are taking time to care for one another in the face of many difficult challenges our community faces from the new presidential administration. In this month’s newsletter, I will share with you the work being done to address concerns about ICE in Richmond as well as other ways we are working to make Richmond safer for all.

Hello, District 6 residents! It has been an eventful January, and I hope you are taking time to care for one another in the face of many difficult challenges our community faces from the new presidential administration. In this month’s newsletter, I will share with you the work being done to address concerns about ICE in Richmond as well as other ways we are working to make Richmond safer for all.

Support for our Immigrant Community

Since the beginning of the new presidential administration, the President has engaged in a targeted campaign to disrupt and harass our immigrant communities by sending ICE agents across the United States, including to Bay Area cities like Richmond. Through executive orders, the policies around ICE and deportations are changing rapidly, and right now many in our community feel scared to go out in public because of fears of ICE raids and deportations.

The time for Richmond to stand up and act is now. While Richmond has proudly been a Sanctuary City since 1990,  we need to strengthen our ordinances to reflect the new realities of what is happening today. A few weeks ago, I voted in favor of directing staff to research how to strengthen our current Sanctuary City ordinance to create more tangible protections for our immigrant community. The goal is to model the work being done by other cities in California that are also addressing this challenge. We are currently working with community partners and legal experts to ensure we can make Richmond safe for all.

While we examine ways to increase protections for immigrants, the city will continue to deny any contracts with companies selling data to ICE. The Richmond Police Department has also stated its commitment to uphold our sanctuary city status by not inquiring about the immigration status of any residents.

Stand Together Contra Costa has a hotline you can contact if you witness any ICE activity in-progress, or if you or somebody you know is actively being detained or deported by ICE. They can send out legal observers to the scene to document anything happening and can follow up with anybody who is arrested. You can contact the Stand Together Contra Costa hotline at 925-900-5151, and they have responders in both English and Spanish. Additional resources are available at www.StandTogetherContraCosta.org .

Boorman Park Celebration

On January 30th, I joined the Richmond community in celebrating the groundbreaking of a new project at Boorman Park. The new Boorman Park will include a soccer field, a new playground, open spaces for barbecues and family gatherings, and much more!

I believe that access to green and open spaces is crucial for the health of a neighborhood, and I am so proud of our Richmond community for standing up and advocating for more community spaces like this in our city. As your councilmember, I will continue to support projects like Boorman Park so that all Richmond residents can have equitable access to quality parks. 

Thank you to Rising Juntos for being the leaders in this effort, as well as city staff, the California Department of Parks & Recreation, and the entire Richmond community for envisioning a beautiful park that will bring people of all ages to this space. 

Martinez Refinery Explosion

On February 1st, the Bay Area watched in shock as the Martinez Refining Company broke out in a massive fire. 

As images of towering smoke and blazing flames covered our television screens and phones, it was hard not to make the connection to the similarly massive fire that Richmond had in 2012 at the Chevron Refinery. 

I want to make it very clear: polluters anywhere are a threat to us everywhere. The reality is that oil refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial facilities pose significant risks to the communities surrounding them. These fires, whether in Martinez, Richmond, or anywhere else, are not isolated events. They are part of a dangerous pattern that highlights the inherent risks of the fossil fuel industry and the outdated infrastructure many of these facilities rely on.

We must demand accountability from those responsible for these disasters. Companies that put profit over safety and fail to prioritize the health of our residents must be held responsible. But beyond that, we must also recognize that the larger issue at play is our dependence on fossil fuels, a dependency that jeopardizes the safety of our communities for ourselves and for future generations. As your councilmember, I will continue being an advocate for a healthier environment, which includes making sure that polluters of any kind are held accountable. 

To receive text alerts about refinery incidents in Contra Costa, sign-up for the Community Warning System here.