(emotional piano music) - [Woman] Migrant people come to this country to seek an American dream.

Regardless of what country you come from, we come to this country because it's seen as this land of opportunity.

- [Narrator] In two contrasting narratives, one from 1885 and another from 2018, Humboldt County's transformation from an insular community wrought by economic anxieties and racism into one declaring itself a sanctuary for immigrants and refugees is made plain.

- It was February 1885 and Lunar New Year was coming.

There were about 200 to 300 Chinese people, mostly living in one confined square block in downtown Eureka.

The Chinese were concerned because they knew that Chinese gamblers were going to come up from San Francisco for Lunar New Years and cause trouble.

The Chinese community, the merchants go to the police and they say, "We want protection against the violence "that could well come."

And the police ignore them.

There's a shoot out in Eureka between two groups of Chinese men and a Eureka city councilman, David Kendall, is killed and within an hour there's 600 white men coming in from the woods, coming off the fishing boats and gathering in Centennial Hall in downtown Eureka.

- [Narrator] The angry crowd voted to evict the Chinese from their homes and businesses.

A posse was quickly dispatched while police stood by and did little to keep order.

The vigilantes seized Chinese property and herded their prisoners to the waterfront where they were soon to begin their exile.

- [Jean] Because the Chinese are visibly different they are targeted, they are marked and they are purged.

- What happened in Humboldt County, by its scale and by its method, became, I think, a sort of bellwether for how other places could react and get away with it and do something.

It even became known as the Eureka Method.

You would intimidate the Chinese people, law enforcement would stand back and not protect the rights of the Chinese, they would try to protect their lives, prevent Chinese from being lynched and killed, but they would encourage the Chinese to leave, and in fact sometimes help them to leave the area.

- [Narrator] Another similar incident occurred in 1906 when Chinese workers were brought in by businessmen to staff a local salmon cannery.

White workers again erupted, forcing another Chinese removal and doubling down on a growing reputation for intolerance.

For years, Humboldt County's infamous reputation kept Chinese workers and families out of the area.

One Chinese woman, however never let the history or lopsided demographics curb her ambitions.

Betty Kwan Chinn was born in China.

She spent her childhood homeless, without food or family, toiling in hard labor camps.

She was eventually able to walk hundred of miles out of her rural village and swim her way to Hong Kong and a new life.

She soon came to join her sisters in America, a nation she says provided her with freedom and opportunity.

Humboldt County has become her home.

She's heard the stories about what happened to the Chinese in Humboldt and though she's experienced some racism herself, she hasn't let that or the history of Eureka deter her from making the community better.

- But I could do something in my community, show the people we are not the bad people.

We can contribute to this society, this community.

- [Narrator] Her Betty Kwan Chinn Center in Eureka has served thousands of meals and saved hundreds of families from the desperation of homelessness, hunger, and addiction.

Humboldt County and the world have taken notice.

In 2008, she earned the Minerva Award from former California first lady Maria Shriver for her work to lift up the homeless and feed the hungry.

In 2010, President Barack Obama gave her the Presidential Citizens Medal.

- We all had a story to tell.

- [Narrator] Yet in recent years for many new immigrants in Humboldt, the situation remained volatile.

- Fortuna 2017, we don't forget families were terrorized and they are terrified still.

- [Narrator] In 2017, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement conducted a series of raids in Fortuna, California, a few miles south of Eureka.

Out of that disruption and trauma, a community group, Centro del Pueblo, formed to advocate for immigrants.

- Every time we heard of ICE being in town or raids happening, I feared that I'd come home to no mother or if I even got to go home.

- [Brenda] So what we do in Centro is to try to come together, empower per the rights we have as immigrants here.

- [Narrator] As many segments of the US population rail against the perceived threat of immigration, immigrants and their allies in Humboldt County sought and obtained enough signatures to get a sanctuary initiative on the ballot for November 2018.

It passed.

For those struggling to find and secure a home here, it was a landmark moment.

- The vote for me, that sanctuary passing here, was a bigger sign for me that we can do changes here.

And from here to a national level.

- [Narrator] These immigrants, like Betty Chinn, have decided to assert themselves in the face of demonization and fear.

By actively working to improve their adopted communities, they've distinguished themselves as contributors, reformers and activists who want to improve the world.

- All people contribute this country, that's America's so beautiful.

- We like to be happy, like everybody, I think.

But with this little detail that we are far from home, this is not our language, this is a very different culture and even though we want to make this place a better place.

(emotional piano music)