Our Work Continues With Resilience and Courage
By Cinthya Muñoz Ramos
Thanks to Melanie Cervantes, Favianna Rodriguez and ACUDIR for the collaboration on these beautiful posters!
As our newspaper goes into print Oct 12, we await a signature that would mean life-changing possibilities for thousands of Californians and their families, the fighting chance at staying together.
For the last two years Causa Justa has joined thousands of immigrant rights advocates, community organizations, clerics, legal experts, law enforcement leaders and lawmakers, in the fight to pass SB1081 the TRUST Act.
If signed, the bill would stop police from holding community members for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and likely deportation.
Under S-Comm, the fingerprints of everyone arrested by local police are sent to ICE. If the fingerprints flag someone for being in the country without immigration documents, federal agents can pick them up for deportation proceedings.
The question now is, will Governor Brown redeem himself by signing the Trust Act? Or will he only leave behind a legacy of enabling the separation of families?
After much negotiation it also includes an exception for those arrested with a previous serious or violent felony conviction and those merely charged with one. It was a compromise our communities took in hopes we would get some much-needed relief from the so-called “Secure Communities” program or, as we call it, S-Comm.
The TRUST Act addresses some of the problems associated with S-Comm which has turned a routine police stop into an immigration check point, while also giving incentive to racial profiling and pretextual stops which are all too familiar in our already over-policed communities. This has resulted in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people, without due process and the basic right to a hearing before a judge.
During his term as Attorney General, Governor Brown signed away the rights of our communities by enrolling California in the S-comm program.
The question now is, will Governor Brown redeem himself by signing the Trust Act? Or will he only leave behind a legacy of enabling the separation of families?
The signing of the TRUST Act would be a huge victory for our communities. We have been organizing for immigration reform for decades; against S-Comm for the last three years; and around the TRUST Act for over two years — two years of house meetings, know-your-rights presentations, door-knocking outreach drives, community forums educating and holding elected officials and police enforcement agencies and sheriffs throughout the state accountable to our needs, our rights.
California has spoken against S-Comm, against police turning into immigration enforcement officers, and against the Arizonification of our counties. Signature or not, the work ahead is cut out for us. Our fight did not start with this important piece of legislation, and it will not end after it is signed.
The implementation of the Trust Act, or the fight in our counties if it is not signed will be just as important as the fight to get it and will require our strength, commitment and love for justice.
Our communities, our families belong together. With hope and inspired by our communities resilience, and fighting spirit~we look ahead.
Pa’lante