As Americans, Californians, and Indivisians, immigration issues are near and dear to our hearts. Daily, we are seeing heartbreaking news that affects our neighbors, our loved ones, our families, ourselves.
PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE!
WHEN: Saturday, March 25, 3-5 pm
WHERE: North Oxnard United Methodist Church -1801 Joliet Pl, Oxnard
HELP US GET A HEAD COUNT: Let us know you’re coming (or interested) on our Facebook Event page or shoot us an email at indivisibleventura@gmail.com. Can’t commit? That’s okay too. Just show up – and bring your friends!
The toxic messages that are recklessly spewed out from the highest levels of our government have us and those we hold dear appalled and, in many cases, too frightened to carry out their daily lives.
When harassment starts from the top, it trickles down – creating an atmosphere in which children are too fearful to learn, families are fearful of being torn apart, and refugees have no hope of fleeing from dire circumstances in their homelands.
We invite you to join the Indivisible Ventura community as we learn from immigration activists about how we can help those that are most vulnerable through Indivisible action.
(Washington Post, March 24) “Spicer said that no matter what happens, the White House did not think that defeat would slow other parts of Trump’s agenda including tax reform and immigration reform.”
We’ve just been given notice and there’s no time to waste.
Here is the line up of the Expert Speaker Series on Immigration:
Jennie Pasquarella of the ACLU
Jennie Pasquarella is director of immigrants’ rights for the ACLU of California and staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. She joined ACLU SoCal in 2008.
Jennie specializes in immigrants’ rights litigation and policy advocacy. Her work currently focuses on the intersection of immigration enforcement and the criminal justice systems, as well as federal immigration national security policy that discriminates against Muslim immigrants and prevents them from naturalizing or receiving other immigration benefits.
Jennie’s current cases include Roy v. County of Los Angeles and Gonzalez v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, both class action challenges to the constitutionality of immigration detainers; Muhanna v. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a case challenging a covert national security program known as CARRP, which has unlawfully barred tens of thousands of Muslim applicants from becoming citizens and lawful immigrants in the U.S.; and ACLU SoCal v. USCIS, a case under the Freedom of Information Act to uncover greater information about the CARRP program.
Prior to joining ACLU SoCal, Jennie was a legal fellow/staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, both in New York. She is a graduate of Barnard College and Georgetown University Law Center, where she earned her J.D. with a certificate in refugee and humanitarian emergencies and was a Public Interest Law Scholar.
Arcenio Lopez , Executive Director, Mixteco
Twenty thousand indigenous Oaxacan people from southern Mexico live and work in Ventura County. Soil erosion of the ancestral farmlands of the Mixteca region and economic opportunity here have drawn Mixtecs to California in search of agricultural work.
Mixtecs have been a vital part of the Ventura County’s economic success since the 1970s. Concentrated in labor-intensive agricultural sectors such as row crops (strawberries and raspberries) and cut flowers, Mixtecs perform an increasing amount of the backbreaking labor which makes farming profitable and fresh fruits and vegetables affordable to the public. Many of the immigrant families who arrived in the 70s and 80s raised their families here—with children now in college or successfully employed. Many have become US citizens.
More recently-arrived Mixtec immigrants have not been as fortunate. Mixtecs in Ventura County–and throughout the state–are culturally and linguistically isolated. Many are illiterate, and most speak neither Spanish nor English, but only their native language, Mixteco. As a result, they face exploitation and discrimination in labor, housing, and everyday life. Life is extremely difficult for these young hardworking, family-oriented people with deeply rooted cultural beliefs. Most live in extreme poverty and lack basic provisions such as adequate housing, food, clothing, and other necessities of life. Central to their struggle is the fact that they cannot communicate with people beyond their own indigenous community, thus impeding their ability to obtain appropriate healthcare, educate themselves and their children, negotiate with their employers to improve their work situation, and exercise their basic civil rights.
MICOP’s work is aiding Mixtecs to draw on their community strengths and overcome existing barriers. The communal tradition of “tequio” or community obligation promotes a spirit of mutual assistance and community building. Our celebrations of cultural traditions such as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Día del Niño (Children’s Day), Guelaguetza (regional dance festival celebrating all indigenous groups), and Fiesta Navideña (Christmas) build community strength and pride, and add to the richness and diversity of Ventura County life.
Nan Waltman, CLUE -VC
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Ventura County – Board of Directors and Advisory Board
CLUE-VC was established in 2001 through the realization that the voices of people of faith are powerful yet were missing from the livable wage debate. In partnership with churches and faith communities throughout Ventura County, they developed successful campaigns resulting in a living wage standard for Ventura County, the creation of more than 500 units of new farm worker affordable housing, and a moratorium on Walmart in Ventura. Since then, CLUE-VC has emerged as a vital participant and faith community mobilizer in efforts to achieve economic justice.
Today they recognize that some of the most marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged people within Ventura County are our farm workers and immigrant families. Through training congregants and bringing the workers’ voices to city coalitions and decision makers, they advocate for humane and just living and working conditions for Ventura County families.
Lucas Zucker, Policy and Communications Director of CAUSE
Lucas first volunteered for CAUSE as a teenager in 2003, worked for CAUSE during college, and joined the staff in 2012 as a youth organizer and researcher. At CAUSE he has worked on organizing campaigns and policy advocacy around voting rights, healthy food access, public transit, environmental justice, education, immigrants’ rights, affordable housing, prison sentencing reform, tax/budget reform, and job access/quality.
Before joining the CAUSE staff, Lucas’ work and internship experience included the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), the Center for Media Justice, Ventura Mayor Bill Fulton, the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council, and the Obama White House Council of Economic Advisers. He has served as the chair of the board of directors of the California Student Public Interest Research Group and was appointed to the City of Berkeley Labor Commission. He currently serves on the board of the national Partnership for Working Families.
He graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in political economy. He lives in Ventura with his plant.
CAUSE began as two separate organizations, CAUSE in Ventura County in 2001 and PUEBLO in Santa Barbara County in 2003, which both emerged during the living wage movement and won milestone victories to create a living wage region on the Central Coast. In 2012, the two organizations joined forces, and CAUSE took on PUEBLO’s work in Santa Barbara County, creating a regional organization for social, economic and environmental justice.
CAUSE’s mission is to build grassroots power to invoke social, economic and environmental justice for the people of California’s Central Coast Region through policy research, leadership development, organizing, and advocacy.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 
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