San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

Immigration Advocates Say Yes to California Values in Escondido As Trump Pumps Up His Base

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On Wednesday, the Escondido City Council is expected to vote on joining the Justice Department’s lawsuit to block the California Values Act and other state laws protecting immigrants.

The ACLU and immigration rights activists will hold a 3pm press conference, followed by an Indivisible-supported rally supporting the state law and the region’s immigrant community, which was recently targeted by ICE raids that arrested more than 100 residents.

The San Diego County Supervisors will meet in closed session on April 17 to join the lawsuit. The only event at the County building related to this vote at this point is in support of the Trump administration’s stance, organized by the Border Patriots, the same group of we’re-not-racists who’ve been targeting Chicano Park in recent months.  

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The Orange County Board of Supervisors decision last week to join with the Trump administration’s lawsuit may come back to haunt them.

From CNN:

…the decision by Orange County Republicans to back Trump against the state on immigration represents an enormous gamble for the GOP on two distinct fronts. The intervention risks branding the GOP as anti-immigrant even as the burgeoning populations of Latinos and Asian-Americans are helping to transform Orange County’s political complexion from deep Republican red to competitive purple.

It also bonds local Republicans closer to Trump as the most recent public poll shows that almost two-thirds of all California residents disapprove of his job performance. “Moderate Republican-leaning independent voters are going to see that these Republicans…are essentially gluing themselves to Donald Trump’s agenda,” says Democratic consultant Dave Jacobson, who is working on several races in the area. “And I think it’s a toxic brand to associate yourself with…”
…It also represents a GOP return to hardline immigration politics a little over two decades after California’s Republican Governor Pete Wilson promoted Proposition 187, which sought to deny public services to undocumented immigrants; though the measure passed in 1994 and helped Wilson win reelection that year, it polarized the growing Hispanic population against Republicans and helped tilt California lastingly toward the Democrats. 

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Credit: ACLU

All I’ve heard about in terms of pushback for the San Diego County Supervisors bad idea has been a call-in campaign. This phone number will route you to a Supervisor based on your zip code: 619-432-6700

What to say: “I’m calling to insist Supervisor XXX protect SB-54, AB-405, and AB-103. We are proud to live in a Sanctuary State and have no intentions of following in Orange County’s footsteps! I expect you to vote against joining Trump’s lawsuit on sanctuary cities and I expect you to support Attorney General Becerra’s lawsuit regarding the proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census.”

Click on this link for a map of the districts to determine who your Supervisor is. Here are their email addresses:

  • District 1. Supervisor Greg Cox. greg.cox@sdcounty.ca.gov.
  • District 2. Supervisor Diane Jacob. diane.jacob@sdcounty.ca.gov.
  • District 3. Supervisor Kristin Gaspar. kristin.gaspar@sdcounty.ca.gov.
  • District 4. Supervisor Ron Roberts. ron.roberts@sdcounty.ca.gov.
  • District 5. Supervisor Bill Horn. bill.horn@sdcounty.ca.gov.

With two Supervisors’ seats up for grabs come June, this situation provides an excellent opportunity to stage a protest event with electoral consequences.  

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DACA isn’t dead, yet. The President had a Twitter-tantrum yesterday:

The Trump administration never sought an emergency stay of the order that resurrected the program, nor did it seek a stay when a Brooklyn-based federal judge issued a second injunction.

Photo: Doug Porter

Instead, they appealed the California injunction to the 9th Circuit, with oral arguments scheduled oral arguments for May 15. Under that timetable, the program will likely survive for at least a few more months.

Then there’s the executive order from President Trump back in September calling for DACA to end. And his flip-flop on several (I think the exact number is three) deals Congress was ready to sign off on that would have at a minimum extended the program.

In the President’s mind, however, Democrats didn’t care or act. Riiight. He wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him in the ass.

Lies, misrepresentations, and failing to remember what he’s already said are an essential part of his character. According to the Washington Post, President Trump has made 2,436 false or misleading claims and flip-flops since taking office. He now averages 6 per day.

Despite the administration’s effort to connect immigration and crime, the facts say otherwise. Border cities have lower crime rates than inland cities. Studies from across the political and intellectual spectrum have concluded there is no connection.

According to data released on Monday, the number of people enrolled in DACA climbed slightly from Jan. 31 to March 31.

Quarterly reports on the status of the program were part of an order issued by the San Francisco-based judge who ordered the administration to resume DACA renewals in early January.

As of the end of March, the report says around 694,000 people were enrolled in DACA, up from approximately 683,000 two months earlier. The number of active DACA recipients with pending renewals increased 66 percent over the same period, to 26,350.

An estimated 9,160 “Dreamers” with expired authorizations have renewal applications in the pipeline.

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Lest you think there’s any real policy making going on here, take a look at the decision-making process, via New York Magazine‘s Daily Intelligencer:

Initially it seemed this tirade was inspired by Fox & Friends, which is usually a safe assumption, but on Monday the Washington Post reported that it was actually brought on by a heady cocktail of Fox News, socializing with immigration hard-liners Stephen Miller and Sean Hannity over Easter weekend, and a briefing last week from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who had just returned from a meeting with top officials in Mexico.

In an effort to combat the idea that Trump’s tweets were merely more semi-coherent ramblings, the White House held a conference call with reporters on Monday to outline its new legislative push on immigration. But as CNN reports, the laundry list of tough immigration policies they highlighted on the call was essentially what they’ve been unsuccessfully pursuing for months. These proposals included changing the law that protects unaccompanied minors entering the country so they can be deported more quickly, limiting the number of people who can apply for and be granted asylum, and changing “catch and release” policies to allow families to be detained for longer periods of time while waiting for decisions on their immigration status.

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Next Up….(I wonder if he told the Pentagon first?)

Looking for some action? Check out the Weekly Progressive Calendar, published every Friday in this space, featuring Demonstrations, Rallies, Teach-ins, Meet Ups and other opportunities to get your activism on.

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Doug Porter

Doug Porter

Doug Porter was active in the early days of the alternative press in San Diego, contributing to the OB Liberator, the print version of the OB Rag, the San Diego Door, and the San Diego Street Journal. He went on to have a 35-year career in the Hospitality business and decided to go back into raising hell when he retired. He won numerous awards for his columns from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Doug is a cancer survivor (sans vocal chords) and lives in North Park.

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