CA leaders rally against mass deportation efforts

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KRON) -- We are less than a week away from the presidential election and one of the big issues this year is immigration. Former President Donald Trump is promising that if reelected, he will try to deport millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Hoping to get ahead of the issue, some California elected officials are already opposing that plan.

California has around 10 million immigrants with just over a third of those being from Mexico. The idea of forcing many of them to leave against their will is getting pushback. On Thursday, California State Senator Josh Becker and Latino community leaders strongly condemned any plan that would involve the mass deportations.

They are also pointing out that we have been here before. Between 1929 and 1939, as many as 2 million Mexican and Mexican Americans were forced to leave the U.S. in what was known as the Mexican Repatriation. Many of those who were deported were U.S. citizens born in the United States. In 2005, California officially apologized for the Mexican Repatriation. Those opposed to another era of mass deportations say we should not allow history to repeat itself.

While the former president is pushing for mass deportations, his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has said she does not support that plan and would instead pursue broad immigration reform, including changes to the asylum system and creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal status.