I’ve lived on the Central Coast for 21 years. I’m Latino, I’m a Democrat, and for the first time, I don’t feel represented by the party I’ve always called home.
That feeling has a name: Salud Carbajal. In a decade in Congress, I’ve watched immigrant families grow more afraid, not less. Three close friends left for Mexico rather than live in fear, and one friend’s father, a restaurant owner in Santa Barbara, was recently deported, leaving behind his wife and two young children. There is no American Dream left for families like his.
Check Congress.gov yourself: the man with the power to fight for reform has done almost nothing. His clearest achievement is renaming a Santa Maria post office. He recently praised himself for a bipartisan housing bill, yet the roll call shows he didn’t even vote for it.
Our local Democratic Party keeps protecting him while pushing higher taxes, blocking housing, and choking off State Street businesses. Latino voters are the majority here. Stop accepting a Latino face as a substitute for a Latino agenda.
DACA students deserve a path to citizenship now. Carbajal was an immigrant himself; he has no excuse left. I want to see him debate Bob Smith and defend his record.
I’m writing this because I’m not sure I have a future here, priced out while people in power enjoy pensions and job security a broken system was built to protect.
