{"id":41605,"date":"2021-10-27T20:28:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T03:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41605"},"modified":"2021-10-27T20:28:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T03:28:55","slug":"water-water-everywhere-but-only-temporarily-for-hmong-farmers-in-siskiyou-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=41605","title":{"rendered":"WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE: BUT ONLY TEMPORARILY FOR HMONG FARMERS IN SISKIYOU COUNTY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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by\u00a0Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0Oct 27, 2021<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0Other<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By SUNITA SOHRABJI\/EMS Contributing Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hmong American farmers in Northern California, pitted in a battle with law enforcement over access to water, have won the first round of a protracted fight but may have to wait until June 2023 to declare victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone here is pretty happy to have their water back, even if it\u2019s only temporary,\u201d Hmong American activist Tong Xiong told Ethnic Media Services.<\/p>\n

Xiong\u2019s grandparents farm cows, goats, chickens and vegetables on a 40-acre plot in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision in Siskiyou County. The Hmong community makes up more than 75% of the residents in that subdivision.<\/p>\n

Over the summer, Xiong\u2019s grandparents watched their livestock and income slowly die after the county Sheriff Department implemented a May order banning the transportation of more than 100 gallons of water on the main roads leading up to the subdivision. A single cow, Xiong said, needs more than 100 gallons of water each day.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 3, U.S. District Court Judge Kimberly Mueller issued a temporary injunction against the ban. Farmers and others will be able to transport water to the subdivision until the courts issue a final ruling in a case filed by seven Hmong farmers against local law enforcement and politicians.<\/p>\n

Xiong believes the Hmong community has been singled out due to racial animus, and that the county is using its attempts to stop illegal marijuana grows \u2014 a local industry estimated to exceed $1 billion \u2014 to justify that animus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the first time we have been treated this way,\u201d Xiong said, noting that his family is routinely told to \u201cgo back to your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSiskiyou County has no concept of who the Hmong people are,\u201d said Xiong.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue rejects the idea that the Hmong community is being targeted because of its ethnicity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just not true,\u201d LaRue told EMS, contending that on the land that comprises Mount Shasta Vista subdivision\u2019s 800 parcels, 90% is being used for illegal cannabis grows. \u201cOur intent is to target crime, not race, and we have to target areas where we see the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marijuana growing is legal in California, but Siskiyou County has banned it. Moreover, growers must possess a permit issued by the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana is not what concerns me. It\u2019s about the crime associated with it,\u201d said LaRue.<\/p>\n

The suit filed by Hmong farmers against county law enforcement and politicians claims the water ban violates their 14th Amendment rights and equal protection clause.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ban dramatically limits the ability of people to access one of life\u2019s basic necessities,\u201d Glenn Katon, litigation director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice\/Asian Law Caucus, told EMS.<\/p>\n

AAJC\/ALC filed an amicus \u2014 friends of the court\u2014 brief supporting the farmers\u2019 lawsuit. \u201cThe water ordinances target a geographic area that includes only some 3.2% of the county\u2019s grow sites but is 75% Hmong,\u201d states the brief. \u201cThese facts raise a compelling inference that the purpose of the water ordinances is to discriminate against the county\u2019s Asian and Hmong community rather than address illegal marijuana grows or a water shortage in the county.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katon alleged that county law enforcement and Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Republican who represents the region, have made a number of statements expressing racial animus against the Hmong community.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo deprive people of water is illogical. If you want to go after illegal cannabis grows, go after the illegal cannabis farmers,\u201d Katon said, adding that there were many stops and seizures of water trucks. \u201cThere is no authority for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. LaMalfa\u2019s office did not return calls for comment. But LaRue countered Katon claims, stating that his deputies do not go after potable water trucks, which must have both a permit from the state and signs indicating they are transporting potable water. \u201cMost of the trucks we are seeing out here are for non-potable water,\u201d he said. He added that the county\u2019s enforcement efforts have been costly and stretch back years.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the county Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency because of the proliferation of marijuana greenhouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2020 alone,\u201d said the defendants in their response to the lawsuit, \u201cthe Sheriff\u2019s Office spent more than $120,000 on helicopter flights, a utility vehicle, overtime expenses, protective equipment, GPS units, chainsaws, cutters, and other gear \u2014 all of it investigating and stopping illegal marijuana cultivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To aide those efforts, Siskiyou County has secured funding from a domestic cannabis suppression and eradication program of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.<\/p>\n

In her injunction temporarily halting the water ordinances, Judge Mueller questioned the county\u2019s most recent actions, stating that they \u201chave the practical effect of cutting off the water supply to a minority community that has recently been the target of racial prejudice. The plaintiffs, who are members of this community, have raised serious questions about the merits of their claim that the ordinances are motivated by racial animus. They have also shown that without an injunction, they will not have water to meet their basic needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Mueller said the plaintiffs\u2019 ultimate success is uncertain because the county has shown ample evidence of a massive uptick in violent crime, environmental damage, and dangerous living conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will respect what the court says,\u201d said LaRue. \u201cBut we have other ordinances we can enforce.\u201d Law enforcement could demolish grow houses, for example, or simply uproot illegal marijuana plants.<\/p>\n

Katon is confident that the farmers will prevail: \u201cWe have a good case, which will get better as we go along.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union and AAJC\/ALC have written to LaRue, demanding that vehicles seized during searches be returned to their owners, in light of the injunction.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, a final judgement in the case may be at least 18 months away, according to a status report filed in court Oct. 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Sunita Sohrabji\u00a0|\u00a0Oct 27, 2021\u00a0|\u00a0Other By SUNITA...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41606,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41605\/revisions\/41606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}