Members Lobby Legislators on SEIU CA Immigrant Solidarity Day

CFA members and Students for Quality Education (SQE) interns showed up for immigrant rights at the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) California Immigrant Solidarity Day on August 20 at the State Capitol.

The event brought together SEIU members from across the state for a rally and day of lobbying for five bills designed to ensure that basic protections and safety in our communities remain fundamental rights, not privileges tied to immigration status. CFA is affiliated with SEIU as SEIU Local 1983.

Michelle Ramos Pellicia, CFA Vice President and CSU San Marcos professor, gave a speech during the rally. She said CFA unequivocally defends immigrant rights, especially the right to education in a space that is free of intimidation, unfair investigation, and deportation.

“CFA members know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” Ramos Pellicia said. “We are union. So, we continue the fight to protect and advocate for the rights, the dignity, and success of our immigrant students, staff, faculty, and our families.”

Thad Gifford, a CSU Sacramento SQE intern, focused on lobbying for Senate Bill 81. The bill would require health care providers to prohibit immigration authorities from accessing a facilities’ nonpublic areas without a valid judicial warrant or court order. It would also prevent health care providers from disclosing immigration status and place of birth to immigration authorities.

“I care about those because if this isn’t in place, it makes immigrants scared to go to the hospital,” Gifford said. “It makes them scared to receive life-saving health care.”

Andrea Terry, CFA Sacramento Political Action and Legislation Chair and CSU Sacramento professor, said she was especially excited about SB 580. The bill would strengthen the Attorney General’s Office model policies and database guidance for state and local agencies on immigration enforcement.

Overall, Terry said the package of bills CFA members and SQE interns advocated for are important amid the national situation where ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is terrorizing communities.

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“All of the legislators we talked to were very positive,” Terry said. “A couple of them had some really thoughtful questions about how the bills would be enforced, but I think overall they were very happy and willing to do what’s needed to support our communities feeling safe.”

The other bills CFA members and SQE interns advocated for were SB 805, SB 627, and SB 578. SB 805 requires law enforcement to display identification when performing their duties and prohibits bounty hunters from using their positions for immigration enforcement.

SB 627 bans law enforcement from covering their faces while conducting operations in California. SB 578 would require the Department of Industrial Relations to establish and run the California Worker Outreach Program to promote awareness of and compliance with workplace protections that affect workers.

Susan Chen, CFA member and San Francisco State counselor, said all these bills are important because they are trying to ensure that people can go about their lives without living in a state of fear and terror.

As a counselor, Chen said she and her colleagues have seen students who have been strongly impacted by the current national political climate on immigration. But she added that some of the most affected might not be accessing counseling support and may be suffering in isolation. She brought these experiences and concerns to legislators and said it was refreshing to participate in the lobbying process.

“Supporting our immigrant communities is critical,” Chen said. ”Every single person deserves the right to speak freely, to protest injustice, and to access education and healthcare safely and equitably without fear of violence or silencing, incarceration or deportation.”