It has been a while since I have written here but I have found myself very busy launching a new organization as well as managing a full-time job as a teacher. However, I wanted to share something that may be of interest with this community, considering our mutual love of civil rights and that is an initiative that is now being circulated in California that would prohibit the detention and deportation of a California resident. If it qualifies and is approved by the voters in the next election, it could mean so much for California families.
The initiative is officially called "Protect Our Family" and was just today approved by the State Attorney General for Title & Summary, which means we can start collecting signatures. It is a constitutional amendment initiative so it will require a bit over 800,000 signatures in five months to qualify.
Here's the summary of the initiative measure as prepared by the state: http://oag.ca.gov/...
Some have accurately pointed out that the federal government is responsible for deportation and that this initiative can't prevent that. It's a good point, so I've added this section to clarify:
When an undocumented immigrant is serving a jail sentence, the federal government sends out a detainer request to have the person detained after they have served their sentence in order to be deported. In this time period, they are in the custody of the state until the federal government collects them to proceed with the deportation.
Now, this happened to an undocumented immigrant in Oregon earlier this year and she sued the county for violating her rights. She won in federal court and now that county is liable for damages. As a result of this case, a number of California (and other states as well) counties have declared their intent to no longer honor these requests.
http://napavalleyregister.com/...
http://www.latimes.com/...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/...
So this initiative prevents the state, its counties or city governments from using its funds or resources to detain a resident of California for deportation. This is entirely possible and it not only helps keep California families together but also protects our counties from being held liable for violating someone's civil rights as mentioned earlier.
12:19 PM PT: New link to initiative text:
http://oag.ca.gov/...
12:24 PM PT: Link to story about Oregon case: http://bigstory.ap.org/...
Mon Nov 03, 2014 at 6:40 AM PT: Here's where you can download and print the signature petition form and send it to Sovereign California. https://www.scribd.com/...