For more than 40 years, I have called the San Bernardino area my home. I am not just a resident – I talk to my neighbors and I listen to their concerns. We are too often overlooked, pushed aside, and left out of the conversations and decisions that directly shape our lives and our community. Yet it’s our labor that makes the logistics industry function. And the funds rarely come back to support us.

I have watched cameras go up across our neighborhoods, but this isn’t just about cameras. It’s about surveillance. 28 Flock license plate reader cameras now track where we go and how we move through our own neighborhoods. That data can be shared and accessed by outside agencies, including federal immigration enforcement.

My neighbors and I are against the city of San Bernardino’s contract with Flock Safety. Across the country, immigration authorities are increasingly using technology partnerships to monitor and target immigrant communities. When local data feeds into those systems, it stops being about safety and starts being about control.

Our community made it clear at the San Bernardino City Council meeting, residents do not want their tax dollars funding tools that can be used against them. Families across the Inland Empire are dealing with the consequences of aggressive enforcement. Children are left without parents and entire neighborhoods live in fear.

Is this what our city should prioritize? Instead of surveillance, we should invest in families and people who live throughout San Bernardino. The city council should build a community job center, create affordable housing for those experiencing homelessness, develop green spaces and infrastructure that improve daily life. These are the investments that truly make a community safer and stronger. This community deserves good jobs, safe roads and neighborhoods, and real investment in its future.

– Alberto, San Bernardino Airport Communities Leader