The county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to launch a know-your-rights training program to provide information to small businesses and workers amid the Trump administration\u2019s ramp-up in immigration enforcement operations, particularly in workplaces.<\/p>\n
Chair Terra Lawson-Remer\u2019s proposal passed 4-1, backed by Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe, Joel Anderson and Paloma Aguirre, who was sworn in earlier that day. Supervisor Jim Desmond cast the lone opposing vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about due process, this is about the Constitution, and this is about fairness for everyone,\u201d Lawson-Remer said, \u201cand ensuring that our small businesses are equipped with the tools that they need to be able to operate in a just and fair way and not be intimidated by federal government overreach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program will be delivered by the county\u2019s Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which was established<\/a> in 2021 to support workers and businesses. The office regularly provides training and online resources on wage theft prevention, fair hiring and other topics.<\/p>\n Funding for the new program will be included within the office\u2019s existing budget, officials said.<\/p>\n Part of the plan calls for providing employers with information on how to follow the law, how to properly respond if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Homeland Security Investigations agents show up, and how to help avoid business closures.<\/p>\n The proposal is a response to the increased<\/a> immigration enforcement operations throughout the county, particularly the raid<\/a> at South Park\u2019s Buona Forchetta restaurant in late May. Armed agents wearing tactical gear arrived at the restaurant to execute a federal search warrant, handcuffed several workers and detained four of them. Some of the restaurant\u2019s locations temporarily closed<\/a> as a result of the operation.<\/p>\n Lawson-Remer said in a board letter that the incident showed that many small businesses lack the information needed to respond in such instances.<\/p>\n \u201cIn those moments, fear takes over. Legal rights get blurred. Small business owners, who are focused on serving their community and keeping up with payroll, are thrown into crisis without a roadmap,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Desmond, who cast the sole vote in opposition, said that while he supported people knowing their rights, he was not in favor of developing and implementing a training program \u201cwithout even knowing what\u2019s in it.\u201d<\/p>\n He blamed the previous presidential administration\u2019s immigration policies, as well as California state law, which limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies.<\/p>\n \u201cThese ICE tactics may seem severe, but they\u2019re done to protect the law enforcement officers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got here by not enforcing immigration laws, and when we see immigration law being enforced, actually happening, some are shocked by it.\u201d<\/p>\n Aguirre criticized the enforcement tactics seen during many immigration operations as she explained her support for the proposal, saying they have \u201cnothing to do with public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaving this program and being able to support small businesses on what their rights are, especially when we\u2019re seeing practices where there isn\u2019t due process taking place, is something that we need to have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Know-your-rights training will be offered in multiple languages. Officials said the information will also be available online for employers who cannot attend an in-person session.<\/p>\n The program will be developed in collaboration with small business organizations, chambers of commerce, legal experts and worker advocates.<\/p>\n Originally Published: July 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to launch a know-your-rights training program to provide information to small…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,64,1582,276,409,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-84682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-local-politics","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-san-diego","19":"tag-sandiego","20":"tag-top-stories-sdut","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114900011831153542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}