MALDEF: Celebrate César Chávez Day with Action

MALDEF today marked the 81st anniversary of the birth of César Chávez with a call to action.

“Cesar Chavez was not just a Latino leader, a labor leader or a civil rights leader. He was an American leader reaching the conscience of the times and toiling for those whose daily struggles providing the fruits and vegetables for tables across the nation and the world had otherwise been ignored. An official state holiday in California, this day is celebrated by many communities across our nation as a day to honor the legacy of this historic leader and recognize the value of America’s immigrant workforce. It must be a day of renewal and action,” stated MALDEF President & General Counsel John Trasviña.

Chávez’s works and passion were instrumental in achieving historic social change through non-violent means. His boycotts, pickets, strikes, and fasts demonstrate the sacrifices Chávez made in achieving positive social change for underserved communities.

Today, one of the most important issues facing America is the protection of worker and immigrant rights. MALDEF follows in the footsteps of Chávez in many ways, including through our commitment to protect the First Amendment rights for workers, day laborers, and those that are most vulnerable in our country.

Last week, MALDEF, with the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in federal court in Phoenix, Arizona challenging an unconstitutional anti-solicitation ordinance. The lawsuit challenges a law passed by the town of Cave Creek in October that targets day laborers who are seeking employment.

"The Cave Creek anti-solicitation ordinance is a clear violation of the First Amendment right to engage in free speech. Day laborers are the most visible and vulnerable segment of the immigrant population, and they and others who wish to exercise their First Amendment right to solicit employment in public places have the right to do so without fear that they will be targeted in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner and suffer fines and arrest as a result,” said Kristina Campbell, lead MALDEF staff attorney on the case.

MALDEF's work will not be done until these and other workers can work legally, with rights, dignity and legal protections.

Assemblyman Wants Prisons to Verify Immigration Status

Republican Assembymember Van Tran (Costa Mesa) wants to help the state's budget crisis by having Califorinia prisons verify the immigration status of new prisoners.

Caroline B. Sanders of the California Immigrant Policy Center has written a letter to Assemblymember Jose Solorio, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, in opposition to Tran's bill, AB 2141. The Equal Justice Society opposes the measure and is signing on to the letter. What follows below is an edited version of Caroline's letter.

AB 2141 would require the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to verify the immigration status of any new prisoner under the custody of the department, cooperate with Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and on ICE laws and regulations. This bill effectively requires the Department to take on federal responsibilities for the enforcement of immigration laws and diverts limited state resources away from pressing problems within the state correctional system.

Immigration laws are extremely complex, even more complicated than the tax code, and state and local officials can hardly be expected to enforce them appropriately. Compounding the inevitable lack of resources for sufficient training of state personnel, this bill invites heightened scrutiny and racial profiling of selected ethnic minorities in the state prison system. The unavoidable mistakes made by ill-prepared state and local officials in determining an individual's immigration status can be costly, resulting in lawsuits and protracted litigation.

Additionally, the bill offers little clarity or guidance as to how state officials would identify the immigration status of California's inmates. Only federal immigration courts are competent to determine the immigration status of individuals, and these determinations are generally not made by courts until deportation or "removal proceedings" are initiated, usually after an inmate has completed his or her sentence in state prison.

California can ill afford to divert limited resources away from pressing problems with the state correctional system, including overcrowding, a complete breakdown in medical treatment of inmates and huge parole hearing backlogs, to embroil state officials in a time-consuming venture that remains the legal responsibility of the federal government, not California.

State correctional officials need to stick to their essential job of promoting the public safety of Californians - overseeing the incarceration, parole, and rehabilitation of the state's prisoners - not taking on the responsibilities of federal authorities.