BAMN Press Release 9/29/2012:
Students and immigrant-rights supporters demand Governor Brown sign bill allowing deferred-action students to get driver’s licenses, and the TRUST Act that reduces deportations
Sunday, Sept. 30 is the last day for Brown to act
PRESS CONFERENCE SUNDAY, SEPT. 30, 2:30PM
Speakers in English + Spanish
Steps of UC-Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza (near Bancroft + Telegraph)
On the last day for Governor Brown to sign or veto bills into law, immigrant-rights supporters will speak-out at UC-Berkeley demanding that he sign bills to (1) allow undocumented immigrant students who benefit from the federal government’s deferred-action policy to obtain driver’s licenses and (2) authorize local and state police not to turn over undocumented immigrants accused of minor offenses over to ICE for deportation proceedings.
“Governor Jerry Brown needs to sign AB 2189 into law so that young people who benefit from the federal government’s deferred-action policy can qualify for California driver’s licenses now. The new civil rights and immigrant rights movement is fighting to end the second-class treatment of undocumented immigrant students and their families,” said Yvette Felarca, national organizer with the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). “Doing so will continue California’s role as leading the fight for the Federal DREAM Act and opening a pathway to leadership.”
“Latina/o, black, Asian, Arab, Native American, and white, immigrants with and without papers—we are all Californians,” said David Douglass, a UC-Berkeley student and BAMN organizer. “The TRUST Act would authorize local and state law enforcement agencies not to turn over undocumented immigrants to ICE. Currently, the federal government’s ‘Secure Communities’ law forces local and state police to turn over detainees who have no prior criminal records and are accused of minor and nonviolent offenses. This irrational, ideological policy tears apart families and does nothing to make communities more secure. Signing the TRUST Act into law would prevent the deportation of many thousands of people who deserve to be here.”
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