A ship headed for Ellis Island in 1906. THE GRANGER COLLECTION / CORDON PRESS
LOCAL Action #1 – A Santa Paula Family needs our help.
The Santa Barbara County Immigrant Legal Defense Center is reaching out for donors to help a local family whose main breadwinner is currently detained in ICE custody. This Santa Paula family needs help with rent, food, etc. The Immigrant Legal Defense Center is representing the individual but he will remained detained for a minimum of one more month. Donate here online or send a check made out to Santa Barbara Count Immigrant Legal Defense Center and mail it to: ILDS, 120 E. Jones St. Suite 117, Santa Maria, CA 93454. #VenturaCountyStrong is filled with kind and generous people. Let’s help a neighbor’s family.
STATE Action #2 – Ask Assemblymember Limón to vote YES on AB-4
Our coalition of CA Indivisible groups are working together to make sure good bills make it through our complicated state legislature. Assemblymember Monique Limón, a member of the Assembly Health Committee, will be voting on AB 4 – “to expand Medi-Cal to undocumented immigrants of all ages” this coming Tuesday.
Indivisible Ventura, along with 60 other Indivisible groups across the state of CA support AB-4, a commonsense bill that will cut our uninsured rate in half. Read our group letter here.
Minimal Script: I am calling from [zip code] to ask Assemblymember Limón to support AB 4 to expand Medi-Cal access to undocumented immigrants. California is stronger when everyone has access to healthcare and we are all healthier when everyone is covered. Can I count on her to vote YES on AB 4 in the Assembly Health Committee next week?
Contact
State Assemblymember Monique Limón: (CA-37): SAC (916) 319-2037
STATE Action #3 – Ask Gov. Newsom to pardon Cambodian immigrants who face deportation.
ICE is tearing apart California families. It’s deporting Cambodian Americans with past convictions at an alarming rate. “Many [of those being deported] were born in refugee camps. They don’t speak the language, it’s really hard to imagine a means of survival, especially because they don’t know the culture.” – Katrina Dizon Mariategue, Southwest Asian Resource Action Center.
Gov. Newsom has the power to stop this. By granting pardons to those who face imminent deportation, he can protect them and make sure they remain with their loved ones at home in California.
Sign this petition here.
Minimal Script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want Governor Newsom to pardon Cambodians Americans who are living peacefully among us for crimes of their past and protect them from Trump’s relentless deportation machine.
Contact Gov. Newsom:
Phone: (916) 445-2841
Email
Mail: Governor Gavin Newsom, 1303 10th St. , Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814
Background
A majority of the Cambodian Americans ICE is targeting arrived in the country as refugees during the Vietnam War era when the United States military secretly bombed Cambodia with 2.7 million tons of explosives. This deadly campaign helped enable the Khmer Rouge’s rise to power, a regime that led a genocide that killed over 2 million people.
Now, our government, under the leadership of a racist xenophobe, is trying to displace these people again. It’s hunting down Cambodian Americans with conviction records – most of whom committed crimes as teenagers, served their time, transformed their lives, joined the workforce and bought homes – and deporting them to a country they barely know. “A lot of them are being deported for criminal convictions that are 20 or 30 years old,” states Anoop Prasad, attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice . “A lot of them have had no contact with law enforcement and no arrests for decades. …They moved on with their lives. They got married, they had kids, they bought houses, they had careers. And then suddenly, out of the blue one day, ICE just swoops into your house and cuffs you.”
“Subject to deportation” doesn’t mean you have to deport a tax-paying contributor to society. Only if you want to. And Trump wants to. This is a huge part of Trump’s war on immigrants that the mainstream media is ignoring. We must shine a bright light on these attacks and demand that state leaders use their power to stop them. Speak out now to demand that Gov. Newsom take action.
Reading: Immigrant America. From the Great Inclusion to the Great Expulsion. (El País)
FEDERAL Action #4 – Support the “BLUE CARD” Act (H.R. 641/S. 175)
Senator Feinstein and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-19) have introduced the Agricultural Worker Program Act (H.R. 641/S. 175). This law would allow farmworkers who have worked in the field for at least 100 days in the past two years to apply for a card that will allow them to work legally in the U.S. Once workers obtain the blue card and maintain it for 3-5 years, they can apply to become lawful residents and obtain a green card, and a path to citizenship.
Minimal script: I’m calling from [zip code] and I want to thank Rep./Sen. [___] for their support of (H.R. 641 representatives/S. 175 senators).
Rep-check here. (Both Brownley and Carbajal are supporters! Yay!)
Sen-check here. (Both Feinstein and Harris are supporters! Yay again!)
Contact
Rep. Julia Brownley: email, (CA-26): DC (202) 225-5811, Oxnard (805) 379-1779, T.O. (805) 379-1779
or Rep. Salud Carbajal: email, (CA-24): DC (202) 225-3601, SB (805) 730-1710 SLO (805) 546-8348
Senator Feinstein: email, DC (202) 224-3841, LA (310) 914-7300, SF (415) 393-0707, SD (619) 231-9712, Fresno (559) 485-7430
and Senator Harris: email, DC (202) 224-3553, LA (213) 894-5000, SAC (916) 448-2787, Fresno (559) 497-5109, SF (415) 355-9041, SD (619) 239-3884
Other Rep./Senator Contacts: www.phoneyourrep.com
Background
Agriculture is a $47 billion industry in California, and U.C. Davis estimates that up to 60 percent of California’s 421,000 farmworkers—approximately 253,000 people—are undocumented. Under the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement guidelines, undocumented farmworkers are all priorities for deportation.
Senator Feinstein: “Farmers throughout California struggle mightily to find workers, and we all know that backbreaking farm labor is performed largely by undocumented immigrants. By protecting farmworkers from deportation, our bill would ensure that hardworking immigrants don’t live in fear and that California’s agriculture industry has the workforce it needs to succeed. Despite their significant contributions to California’s economy and communities, farmworkers are a priority for deportation under the Trump administration’s policies. We must protect the families who help put food on our tables.”
Representative Lofgren: “Farmworker communities across the country are living and working in fear and uncertainty due to President Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant enforcement and deportation agenda. Addressing this crisis and allowing existing farmworkers and their families to earn legal immigration status and permanent residence is critically important to our nation’s food and agriculture system. With this legislation, farmworkers will be able to improve their wages and working conditions, resulting in a more stable farm labor force and greater food safety and security to the benefit of American employers, workers, and consumers.”
Senator Blumenthal: “Undocumented farmworkers who pick, grow, and cultivate the food that millions of Americans eat everyday should not have to live in the shadows. This bill lifts everyone up by protecting migrant families in our rural communities from deportation, boosting efforts to enforce labor protections for all farmworkers, and making it easier for employers to comply with the law. This is a necessary step in the direction of comprehensive immigration reform, a priority Congress must urgently address.”
Senator Leahy: “Across our country, including the many dairy farms of Vermont, foreign workers support agriculture and help put food on our tables. It is past time we show our support for them and our understanding of the challenges that farmers and workers face in doing the hard work of dairy farming. Our bill would allow these workers to come out of the shadows and contribute to their farms and communities without fear of arrest. The current system has long been broken, and it needs to be fixed. I am proud to support this solution and to continue the work of achieving these reforms.”
Representative Carbajal: “Central Coast agriculture producers have lost over $13 million in crops in past years due to a shortage of farmworkers. I joined my father picking strawberries and cucumbers during summers off from high school. It’s difficult work with few benefits and little pay, but he did it to build a better life for our family. This bill provides farmers with reliable labor and gives farmworkers an opportunity to come out of shadows. We owe at least this to the hardworking men and women who help us put food on the table.”
Who supports this?: This legislation has already received support from United Farm Workers, the county’s largest farm workers union that was founded by Cesar Chavez.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 