Supported Organizations:
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
For 30 years, CHIRLA has fought, organized and served individuals, institutions and coalitions to build power, transform public opinion, and change policies to achieve full human, civil and labor rights. From policy & advocacy work, legal representation, to community engagement and organizing, CHIRLA is a vital resource for all civil rights.
La Raza Centro Legal
A community based legal organization dedicated to empowering Latino, immigrant and low-income communities of San Francisco to advocate for their civil and human rights. They combine legal services and advocacy to build grassroots power and alliances towards creating a movement for a just society.
We Are: a Nation of Immigrants
Fundamentally, the United States is a nation of immigrants. Despite tremendous fear, uncertainty, and difficulty, wave after wave have still come. Each, adding their own aspirations and toiling under often oppressive conditions, to relentlessly build upon what many of their brothers and sisters from around the world had already achieved.
“Immigrants are the wine industry’s shadow. As the industry in the US grows taller every year, its shadow grows longer, more disfigured, and has become awkwardly out of synch.”
Without immigrants who tend to the life of the vines, and who often work behind the scenes in the cellars to make the wine—the wine industry would be nothing but a vestige of itself. We Are: grateful.
While the country's legislators continue to squabble over addressing the often ruinous effects of decades of hypocrisy and look-the-other-way politics, there are many people and organizations fighting to represent the human beings, families, and values that would provide for Immigration reform that provides dignity for the children, students, workers, and families who have long deserved it.
Terrific history recap on how we got here as a nation: “A wall can’t solve America’s addiction to undocumented immigration,” Julia Young, Washington Post, 1/’19
President Obama's record high deportations early in his tenure, more than 2 million ( "Obama Immigration Legacy" project by Presente.org), have torn apart real families. If that were not enough, industries, including Agriculture, are seeing spot labor shortages around the country, affecting our nation's ability to care for, and feed itself. The time for compassionate Immigration reform is now.
1943, by Leon Helguera, for United States Office of War Information
National Immigration reform with dignity has stalled once again. California AB-20 is an example of states taking it upon themselves, desperate for positive change, and unwilling to wait any longer.
But as 2017 begins, the Trump administration is launching an unprecedented, transparently racist attack on Immigrants. Immigrants have long built, cared for, fed, and nurtured our entire nation, while paying taxes despite the incessant fear surrounding their lives here. The New York Times reported roughly 60% of undocumented immigrants have been in US for a decade or more.
The LA Times reports that despite the rise in farmworker wages of late, "Trump’s immigration crackdown is supposed to help U.S. citizens. For California farmers, it’s worsening a desperate labor shortage." California farms provide a large portion of our country’s fresh food, and growing food insecurity effects will be seen across the country.
All compassion is discarded in the relentless politics of fear fed by scapegoating during election cycles. Proud families have been forced into the shadows, living in constant fear of a traumatic, instant separation. Children, brought here by their parents in search of a better life or fleeing oppression, and living their entire lives in the US, now face the looming threat of deportation ("Dreamers").
We are nothing less than a nation of Immigrants, built by and benefiting immeasurably from their contributions to every aspect of our lives. The daily fear and trauma must end.
Q: If these policies were directed against the Irish, Eastern European, Russian, Chinese immigrant communities, would you make your voice heard then? Muslim?
The politics of fear, hatred, ignorance, and racism might never be as unrestrained and public as it is now. Our Immigrant neighbors are living in fear. It is real, and they need our Help. Please do not remain silent.
Chinese Immigrant Labor and CA Wine Industry:
Let us not forget the fundamental contribution of Chinese laborers to establishing CA wine industry. Please see NPR report, here...
