Since Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, after campaigning on promises to close the southern border and deport undocumented immigrants, San Francisco residents who were born in Latin American countries have been on edge.
Calls to the city’s Rapid Response Network, which verifies rumored federal immigration enforcement activity, have ramped up dramatically as rumors spread on social media about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers being spotted on Muni buses or in public parks. Some immigrants have said they’re afraid to go out or are considering returning to their home countries.
Yet 48% of Latino men voters nationwide cast their ballots for Trump in November. In an effort to understand the nuances of how Spanish-speaking immigrants in San Francisco view his immigration crackdown, The Standard conducted street interviews with 29 people in the Mission and Visitacion Valley, SF’s Trumpiest neighborhood.
Some have been here for decades, with or without legal status. Others arrived mere months ago. Many spoke only Spanish. A few asked not to have their full names published for fear of reprisal.
Here’s what they said.
‘I hope those guys get deported’
Juan Carlos Romero, 58, a carpenter who moved to San Francisco from El Salvador without documentation 44 years ago, said any immigrant doing “stupid things” should be deported.
“I’m Latino too,” Romero said, “but if you are going to come here to drink, rob people, kill people … stay back home.”
In August 2017, Romero’s nephew Abel Esquivel was shot dead on the corner of 24th Street and Van Ness Avenue by three men, all of them undocumented. While all three were convicted, two were quickly released from jail.
“We all come to the U.S. for one reason and one reason only: to work,” Romero said. “Go to school, no tattoos, stay out of trouble.”
A Mission jeweler had a similar story. Edgardo Campos emigrated from El Salvador 57 years ago, when he was 10. In 2009, he was shot in the face during a robbery of his 24th Street store by men he knew.
“I hope those guys get deported,” he said, sitting behind the counter in his 24th Street store, chains sparkling through the display glass. “Not people in the fields picking tomatoes, picking cucumbers. Most people looking for work at the unemployment office couldn’t spend eight hours in the fields.”
This was a common sentiment. No matter their political beliefs, most immigrants said they are here to eke out an honest living and support their families. In San Francisco, that can mean working multiple jobs in cleaning and service industries that struggle to recruit U.S.-born workers.
While most immigrants stressed that they oppose mass deportation and that foreign-born workers are vital to the economy, some said the government has to limit immigration.
“In this country, we have too many people,” said Pablo Paris, a food service worker from Mexico who thinks too many immigrants were allowed to enter the U.S. under President Joe Biden. Illegal immigration hit a record high in 2022.
“We need people from different countries,” Paris said. “It was OK before, [but] now it is bad.”
‘Every president has flaws’
Carol Ortiz, a Colombia-born Uber driver who has lived in the Mission for two years, said that although Trump is revoking some protections for undocumented immigrants, she respects the will of the voters.
“It’s the decision of the country,” Ortiz said in Spanish.
Raúl Arteaga, who was born in El Salvador, has lived in San Francisco for 44 years.
“People come to [the U.S.] to work and don’t have other means,” Arteaga said in Spanish. “But some people come here to do bad things.”
He added that Latinos are being unfairly targeted, another common sentiment.
“Why don’t they deport Chinese and Russian people?” Arteaga, a fence installer, asked.
“Everyone is just looking to get ahead,” said Alfredo Martinez, a 27-year-old bartender. “People think the world is like a candy shop, but that’s just not how it is.”
Martinez is lukewarm on Trump.
“Every president has flaws,” he said.
Pedro Diaz, a 53-year-old construction worker, said he’s noticed fewer Venezuelans out in the neighborhood since Trump took office but isn’t worried himself, since he paid an attorney $6,000 to help him get legal papers.
“Trump wants to take me back to Mexico,” Diaz said. “But he cannot take me… I don’t have documents, but that’s why I pay that to an attorney.”
Hector Tio, 63, came to San Francisco from Mexico in 1971 and has dual citizenship. He said 55% of undocumented immigrants should be deported but didn’t specify who or why.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from,” Tio said. “It matters where you are going.”
‘The community is scared’
Some Latino immigrants who spoke with The Standard did not object to ICE crackdowns on immigrants committing violent crimes but were upset by the threat to workers. Others were not worried about the prospect of deportation.
“Why does he want to divide us?” asked Christopher Colindez, who was washing cars at his job while he spoke to The Standard, of Trump. “Some were born in one place and some in others, but that doesn’t mean we’re criminals.”
Colindez came to San Francisco four years ago from Honduras. The 27-year-old said he wouldn’t be worried if he were to be deported, since his whole family is in Honduras, and he’s confident he could find agricultural work there.
Carlo, lounging on his moped between delivering DoorDash orders, was equally unconcerned. The Colombian native, who declined to give his last name, said he could probably get rehired at a hose factory there if he were to be deported.
“I came here out of curiosity,” he said in Spanish, explaining that he’d been interested in the Panamanian jungle. It took him five days to cross the jungle on foot, and he arrived in the United States about a year ago. Now he’s thinking about going back to Colombia.
“I had my experience here,” Carlo said. “I start working at 7 a.m. and work until 7, 8, 9 at night. I don’t eat well.”
Antonio Martinez, a Mexican-born rapper who performs as Casper MCA, is working on an album called “Sin Fronteras Dreams” (dream without borders).
“They’re violating a lot of human rights, and the community is scared,” Martinez, who works with the community organization Calle 24, said in Spanish. “We need to arm [the community] with the knowledge of their rights.”
Gonzalo, a retired corporate chef who declined to give his last name for privacy reasons, came to the Bay Area from Mexico 46 years ago. He’s now a U.S. citizen and is horrified by the ICE crackdown on migrants.
“It’s wrong. It looks like a desire for vengeance on minorities, and especially Mexicans,” Gonzalo said in Spanish.
He added that some of his Latino friends, including fellow immigrants, had voted for Trump, either because they believed his rhetoric about criminals coming across the border or because they are loyal Republicans.
“Now, they regret it,” he said.