"Angel Santuario, an organizer with the Mountain View Tenants Coalition, said he and other Mountain View residents have already experienced a wave of hostility"
Please, clarify this to me: people who are in this country illegally, joined a coalition with the goal to stay and pay less money (rent) to the people who are in this country legally (landlords), and the same people are now demanding an additional protection, so they will not be deported and will stay in the rent controlled housing... Something is wrong with this picture.

While I don't know the source for President Elect Trump's "2-3 million" I do know the number 820,000 is way too low.

I went to the source and found that number is more like 1.9 million according to the "Migration Policy Institute".

It turns out the definition of an illegal alien is not as clear cut and some would like.

It's not just people who sneak into the country without permission. It's people who stay longer than allowed. It's people visiting from another country who BREAK THE LAW which then means they are no longer qualified to stay.

The "Migration Policy Institute" says there are 1.9 million people if you use the last definition.

So the real number isn't that far from President Elect Trump's number. Just depends on your definitions.

Mr. Noack, your reporting and lack of investigative journalism reference Mr. Santuario's statement regarding the "wave of hostility" from the "emboldened" Trump supporters makes you out to look foolish. This is just one more liberal left wing piece of reporting that isn't supported by fact. Please look into Mr. Santuario's statement and report back the truth or just keep pushing the hype in an effort to sensationalize your article and try and create hysteria where it is not needed.

@ Geek.

Your assumptions are completely wrong.

1- I'm not here illegally.
2- The coalition's goal wasn't to pay "less money", but to stop the rent gauging that was happening in the city.
3- No one is "demanding additional protection". I asked the city to take a stand against racism, misogyny, homophobia, bigotry, etc...
4- CITIZENS, REGISTERED VOTERS passed measure V in the city. Google employees, homeowners, etc... You should know undocumented immigrants can't vote.

Your anger because of our community's choice to put a stop to uncontrolled rent increases has clouded your vision... or are you just trying to spread misinformation? hate?

Whatever your intentions may be, it's futile. Even if our community disagrees on certain issues, we tend to respect each other and recognize our humanity. That's something you won't be able to change regardless of the lies and hatred you spread. Also, because of my spirituality, I regard you as a brother, as ill intentioned or misinformed as you may be, you're still a brother to me. I have a feeling you don't feel the same way, but that's inconsequential.

I hope one day you'll see the light in all of us, and in your own self.

Angel... While I don't support what @Geek posted, I'd like to point out that "CITZENS, REGISTERED VOTERS" also voted for Trump who did not hide his disdain for illegal immigrants, notably those from Mexico. If you are going to cite the outcomes of elections, then it seems the nation sent a message about how welcomed our friends to the south actually are.

I in no way support Trump, nor do I support Measure V... Just wanted to get that out there.

@ Bored

My comment was to address Geek's specifically. He tried to blame "illegal immigrants" for passing measure V, which as you know, isn't the case.

You are right though, some people who voted for Trump have been openly racist against Mexicans, muslims, etc.. but there's a lot of people who voted for Trump for very different reasons. Some just didn't want Clinton in power. Others, as a way to "get back" at the system. I have friends who voted for him because they want a "revolution" to happen... others were just naively thinking Trump would help their economic situation.

All I'm trying t say here is that the reasons people voted for Trump are many, not only racism or bigotry.

Thank you for your comment. I really appreciate you voicing your disagreement with Trump... we can disagree about measure V or many other things and still like and treat each other with respect.

@Angel S.
Let's put 2 and 2 together. The article says that "he and other Mountain View residents have already experienced a wave of hostility from people who feel "emboldened" following Trump's election.". "He" in this sentence is you, is this right? So, you, Angel, are experiencing a wave of hostility from the Trump supporters. Please, give me a direct quote from Trump that expresses a hostility towards LEGAL immigrants. Also, please, read my post one more time: "joined a coalition" is not equal "voted", so maybe it's your vision is clouded and you are spreading "lies and hatred"...

The alleged "wave of hostility" is nothing more than political positioning/dramatization to achieve an end not supported by the majority of legal residents (voters) of the United States of America. There must be respect for the laws of our country and a disaffected minority group (I mean in numbers not race) should not just decide it can take what it wants unjustly by shaming local governments to ignore and aggressively undermine Federal laws. It will be interesting to see how local governments deal with cuts in Federal payments for non compliance.

Our laws do protect any person (legal resident or not) from human rights violations as they should. Nobody (legal resident or not) has unfettered rights to subsidized housing or benefits not in agreement with Federal Law, unless they are in Mountain View or San Francisco I suppose.

The whole measure V argument was very anecdotal and lacking facts (similar to his suggestion that there is a wave of hostility), the majority of the housing providers with pre 1995 buildings were not "gouging" people, the bad actions of a few were over dramatized for political purposes and it worked.

It is not surprising that Mr. Santuario and is ilk are going back to the same old playbook, hopefully at some point voters will pay attention and actually think about the big picture and actually talk to people in their own communities to realize the truth.

I am very confused about the title of this story which is "Trump deportation plan sends South Bay leaders searching for options". My confusion is based on the fact that nowhere in the story does it detail what the plan is, and also that embedded in the story itself is the statement "Forming a local response in the South Bay remains complicated by the lack of clarity on how federal immigration policy will take shape under a Trump administration.". In my opinion, the last statement is diametrically opposed to the title of the article. How can South Bay leaders be searching for options to a deportation plan that has not even been formulated yet?

The article also states "Following his election victory, Trump said in interviews that upon taking office he would move to immediately deport up to 3 million immigrants who have criminal records.". Since that is the one solid part of the plan that has been expressed by President elect Trump, does that mean that the South Bay leaders are looking for ways to oppose this? If so, why on earth would anyone oppose the deportation of convicted criminals that are also in the country illegally? And by that I mean anyone who has overstayed their visas as well as crossed the border improperly.

I held off on commenting on this because the "Fallout from the local election" matter was yet to come before the HRC and also because it was added to the HRC calendar on very short notice and I wanted to make sure I was clear on what would be included in that topic and feedback from the public before making any comments. I also want to emphasize that all my comments here are my own personal opinions and observations, and I am speaking only on behalf of myself.

It is my belief that the actions described in this article are premature given that the full policy is not yet known and is primarily the result of the national media's hype, speculation, and in many cases, irresponsible reporting by substituting rumor, conjecture, and opinions as facts.

As we have seen in many cases recently, many local governments and agencies have rushed to take actions based on reports in the national media that had the effect of creating confusion and conflict among the people, BEFORE all the facts were established. I believe that these reactionary responses do not serve the public well, and indeed that they instead serve to polarize and divide us.

I would hope that any governmental bodies would take the time to get all the facts first, and then decide whether or not a course of action is necessary and prudent.


I can also empathize with Mr. Santuario as I too have experienced a "wave of hostility" for my opinions, and have also been threatened with physical violence and attempts to intimidate me. I would hope that in the future, that we can all learn to have a civil discourse without the violence that we saw on display in San Jose a few months ago ( Web Link ). So far, I haven't been able to find any articles on whether or not the people involved were arrested, let alone prosecuted for their crimes that day. It was also one of the major reasons that I did not even feel safe in displaying a campaign sign in my yard for Trump, because I was afraid for what would be done to my home and/or the residents. It is the first time since I have moved to Mountain View that I have had that experience and I think it is a very sad statement on the level that political discourse has been lowered to here.


Jim Neal
Old Mountain View