Ammiano condemns SCOTUS’ upholding Arizona’s “show me your papers” provision, urges Gov. Brown, AG. Harris to ensure California becomes antidote to Arizona with TRUST Act

June 25, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 25, 2012

Sacramento - In response to the US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Arizona v. United States, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, (D-SF) and author of California’s TRUST Act (AB 1081), issued the following statement:

While I am relieved the Supreme Court struck down portions of Arizona’s discriminatory law, it is heartbreaking that the most odious provision, the “show me your papers” section (2B), still stands. This should be called the “racial profiling” provision given the painful impact it will have.

With today’s ruling, the court has further legitimized the destructive practice of local police serving as an extension of our broken immigration system. This plunges millions of our friends, neighbors, and family members across the country into greater risk of separation from their loved ones.

But ironically, the damage was in many ways already done – by the federal “Secure” Communities or S-comm deportation program.

S-Comm has burdened our local governments and put even victims and witnesses of crime at risk of deportation, making us all less safe. It has even mistakenly trapped US citizens in our local jails for immigration purposes.

California’s TRUST Act would limit the unjust and onerous detentions for deportation in our local jails of community members who pose no threat to public safety. To ensure that our state does not become another Arizona, I respectfully urge Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris to support the bill.

Statements from the sponsors of the TRUST Act follow. The bill is supported by a broad coalition of organizations and elected officials from across the state.

Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network: “The fact that the court could not tell whether on its face section 2(b) conflicts with federal policy means federal policy (i.e. S-Comm) is far too similar to Arizona policy. But it doesn’t have to be that way in California.”

Reshma Shamasunder, Executive Director, California Immigrant Policy Center: “With its decision on the provision that encourages racial profiling, the Supreme Court has effectively turned back the clock on our hard-won civil rights protections. In the wake of this bad ruling, California lawmakers must lead the nation in moving forward once again, by passing the TRUST Act as soon as possible.”

Angela Chan, senior staff attorney, Asian Law Caucus: ”The Trust Act will assist local police in rebuilding trust with Asian, Latino, and many other immigrant communities who are fearful of reporting crime because of S-Comm’s broad deportation dragnet.”

Background: The Arizona law, passed in April 2010, drew widespread condemnation because it would have forced local police to act as immigration agents and unleashed a wave of profiling based on appearance and accent. Immigrant advocates said the program would entangle police in what is an essentially broken immigration system.

At the heart of the similarity between S-Comm and SB 1070 is the fact that under S-Comm, the fingerprints of everyone arrested – even survivors of domestic violence arrested with their abusers – are automatically sent to ICE. Immigration officials then pressure local governments to hold immigrant community members in jail for extra time, at local expense, so that ICE can pick up the individuals for deportation. However, these “hold” requests are voluntary and a number of jurisdictions have already chosen to limit how they respond.

Nearly 7 in 10 of the 72,000 Californians deported either had no convictions or were brought in for minor offenses.

The TRUST Act passed the state Senate Public Safety committee 5-2 on June 12, 2012, and now heads to the Senate floor. The bill sets a minimum standard for local governments not to submit to ICE’s requests to detain people for deportation unless the individual has a serious or violent felony conviction and guards against profiling and wrongful detention of citizens and crime victims.

In an editorial published June 22, the New York Times endorsed the TRUST Act, stating: “The bill would enhance the ability of local departments to fight crime by restoring community trust and saving jail space for serious offenders. It deserves to become law.”

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Close To 1 Million Dreams Protected, 10.5 Million Dreams To Go

June 19, 2012

By Ju Hong, member of ASPIRE (Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education)

Although I recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in Political Science, I am unable to use my degree to work because I am undocumented. Not only did I face a difficult time to finding ways to work, I also faced constant fear of deportation – until President Obama made an announcement last Friday to stop deportation and provide work permits to a selected group of DREAMers who meet requirements under a new immigration policy.

This historic announcement would not have been possible without the courageous DREAMers who stood up and shared their stories, held events and rallies, contacted elected officials, and led hunger strikes and civil disobedience actions despite risking deportation. After many years of collaborative efforts to demand for justice and equality, the federal government finally made a move to provide a very limited and temporary relief for many undocumented young people in this country.

For many years, I have lived in fear: The fear of facing deportation and of permanently leaving the country I called home; the fear of being separated from my friends, my family, and my community; the fear of not being accepted within my own community; the fear of contacting the police at a time of need; and the fear of losing my hope and dreams in graduating from college. Today, I feel liberated from these fears. Because of this announcement, I can better focus on preparing for my master’s degree program, provide for my family, and continue to advocate for the federal DREAM Act and Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

Prior to June 15, 2012, I was unable to get a job, apply for internships, or qualify for financial aid. Thus, I had to work more than thirty hours of week at a Japanese restaurant, mopping floors and washing dishes, getting paid below minimum wage under the table, while I commuted to school and enrolled as a full-time student at Laney College, Oakland. Sometimes I had to stay up all night to apply for limited scholarship opportunities to meet the deadlines. Today, I feel free from these obstacles. Because of this announcement, I will have open doors of new opportunities to use my degree to work and contribute back to society. Not only will I have the chance to work to support my schoolwork, but also I have capacity to support my family.  Like one of my fellow DREAMers said, “I feel I am normal again.”

With this announcement, an approximate 800,000 young peoples’ dreams are now protected, at least temporarily. This is huge victory for the undocumented community, but the fight is not over. There are thousands of other young DREAMers who are not eligible to apply for deferred action or work permits because of strict requirements under this announcement. For example, DREAMers who are over 30 years old cannot qualify to receive deferred action or work permits. Moving forward, we must stay involved and work with the Obama’s administration to include all DREAMers because they also have the right to DREAM.

Finally, we must continue to fight for the federal DREAM Act and Comprehensive Immigration Reform because this announcement is only a temporary solution. Now more than ever, we have strength, conviction, and power in our hands to organize, mobilize, and take collective actions to solve our broken immigration system. Soon, we will fulfill all the 11.5 million dreams.

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State Senate Committee approves bill to counteract disgraced “S-Comm’ deportation program

June 14, 2012

TRUST Act would ease burden on local governments of controversial program which has deported 72,694 Californians

SACRAMENTO – On June 12th, 2012, by a vote of 5 to 2, the California State Senate’s Public Safety Committee approved the new version of the TRUST Act (AB 1081 – Ammiano). The bill would reform California’s participation in the discredited “Secure” Communities deportation program – which has faced severe criticism for undermining public safety and burdening local governments – by limiting the unfair, extended detention of immigrants in local jails for deportation. Details are available below. The bill now heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.

The committee heard powerful testimony from Blanca Perez, a Los Angeles mother facing deportation due to an arrest last year for selling ice cream on the street who urged the state to set an example for the rest of the country with the passage of the bill. “Immigrants in Alabama and Arizona are afraid today, but as my experience tells us, immigrants in Los Angeles, here in Sacramento and even in San Francisco, have reason to be afraid as well,” Ms. Perez told the committee.

“Blanca’s story confirms that ICE’s priorities are stunningly out-of-whack,” said Assemblymember Tom Ammiano. “This is something I’d expect in Arizona, not in Los Angeles. Persecuting this courageous, hard-working mom for selling ice cream on the street is a ridiculous waste of resources. Today’s vote recognizes that S-Comm is sabotaging our public safety. The TRUST Act is the solution we need to begin rebuilding the confidence that our local law enforcement worked so hard to build, but that ICE has shattered.”

Tuesday’s decision comes as the Supreme Court continues to mull Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB 1070, which like the controversial S-Comm program entangles local police in federal immigration enforcement. To create a “bright line” between local police and ICE, the TRUST Act would:

  • Set a minimum standard for local governments not to submit to ICE’s requests to detain people for deportation unless the individual has a serious or violent felony conviction.
  • Guard against profiling and wrongful detention of citizens and crime victims and witnesses. Localities that detain individuals with serious convictions for deportation would develop common-sense plans to prevent profiling and wrongful detentions.

Last year, a report by UC Berkeley’s Warren Institute estimated that nationwide, some 3,600 US Citizens were apprehended by ICE due to S-Comm since the program’s start and also found S-Comm was disproportionately targeting Latinos.

Under the program, the fingerprints of everyone arrested – even survivors of domestic violence arrested with their abusers – are automatically sent to ICE. Immigration officials then pressure local governments to hold immigrant community members in jail for extra time, at local expense, so that ICE can pick up the individuals for deportation. However, these “hold” requests are clearly voluntary under federal law.

The vote falls one week after Washington, DC became the latest in a string of local governments across the country to adopt policies similar to the TRUST Act and also comes days after the California Catholic Conference – which consists of all ten of the state’s Catholic Bishops – publicly announced its strong support for the bill.

Over one hundred community members from around the state attended today’s hearing in support of the bill.

About the TRUST Act: In 2011, the first version of the bill passed both the California Assembly (47-26) and the Senate Public Safety Committee (5-2). The bill originally sought to modify California’s agreement with the federal government over S-Comm to curb the program’s well-documented abuses. However, in a stunning display of bad faith, ICE shredded all state agreements last year, but claimed states still needed to send fingerprints. ICE’s surprise maneuver spurred a months-long process of consultation with groups across the state, resulting in the focus on ICE’s burdensome “hold” requests.

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“New Americans in California”: The #s on Our Growing Numbers

February 2, 2012

By Jenalyn Sotto, Communications Intern at the Asian Law Caucus

For longer than recent memory, every decade brings with it a plethora of changes: (r)evolutionary fashion trends, a series of technological advances, two (and a half) presidential terms, three Olypmic games, and the U.S. Census. The U.S. Census Bureau’s Facebook Page lauds itself as “[the] trusted source for quality statistics about people, places and our economy.” While its scope of information collecting remains unparalleled in its field–save for perhaps the State Government Tax Collections–rarely does the ordinary U.S. person (resident or citizen) see more of the U.S. Census’ data than the small, or sometimes lengthy, questionnaire during data-collecting.

But during this election year, where the stakes are even higher for under-represented communities, it is vital that we know and acknowledge changing demographics.  The Immigration Policy Center released a detailed set of infographics on Latino and Asian immigrant populations taken from–you got it!–the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 Census. Updated from the released data and special reports from the 2010 Census and the 2010 American Communities Survey and re-released with state-specific infographics for distribution, the study entitled “STRENGTH IN DIVERSITY: The Economic and Political Clout of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the United States” serves to breakdown, demystify, and debunk popular tropes about the growing immigrant populations with specific emphases on the Latina/o and Asian populations through numbers. Referred to as “New Americans,” the study enumerates the national and state-by-state economic and political growth of foreign-born naturalized Latina/o and Asian Americans as well as their native-born children.

For California:

California’s New American population is robust and makes California robust.

  • More than 1/4th of Californians are immigrants. *
  • More than 1/2 of Californians are Latina/o or Asian–and they vote. *
  • Immigrant workers, entrepreneurs, and taxpayers are integral to California’s economy. *
  • Immigrant, Latina/o, and Asian entrepreneurs and consumers add hundreds of billions of dollars and more than a million jobs to California’s economy. *
  • Most native-born Californians have experienced a wage gain from immigration. *

Therefore, California policies sensitive to the Latina/o and Asian populations should be considered with great legislative and community, grassroots care. Over half of the state identifies as Latina/o or Asian! But, as made evident by campaigns past and present, diversity in these groups causes mobilization difficulties. The issues of immigration policing in California alone makes heads spin–what more when it comes to small and medium business tax reform, redistricting, voting rights, language access, healthcare, education, public health and safety, and government representation?

This California infographic–and all other state infographics–is the proverbial tip of the iceberg, only going so far to as to whet your appetite by leaving that almost insatiable craving for clarification, qualification, and denouement. This offering by the Immigration Policy Center should serve as a first course for the type of awareness and data collection that our community organizations, legislators, and local officials should enact in order to better cater to the growing New American populations. Even more important, New Americans should become better versed in their numbers in order to harness that salient power. The national discourse has been long dominated by the see-saw of ambivalence and disfavor (heavy on the disfavor) towards immigrants and their progeny, but with the American imaginary increasingly interchanging “immigrant” with Asian or Latina/o it is high time for our communities to seize the day(ta) and make ourselves well and truly known.

*: These statements were taken from the Immigration Policy Center’s The Political and Economic Power of Immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in the Golden State (Updated January 2012).

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