Sunday, October 29, 2017

Hell Freezes Over at the SOCCCD? Update!


Rebel Girl remembers a time not so long ago when two events happening this week in our fair district would have been impossible.

On Monday evening the SOCCCD board is set to adopt Resolution 17-3: South Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees in Support of Codifying DACA into Federal Law which resolves what its title suggests:
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the South Orange County Community College District supports all of our students, including DACA recipients, and calls on Congress and the President to find a permanent legislative solution so that all of our students can continue their educational pursuits and make meaningful contributions to our state and communities.
Then on Tuesday morning, October 31 at 10:30 AM, a delegation will meet with the staff of Congresswoman Mimi Walters to lobby for the passage of a clean DREAM Act and codify DACA into federal law and provide a permanent pathway to citizenship.The delegation will be made up of one DACA student, four representatives from student government and Tere Fluegeman, the district’s Executive Director for Public and Government Affairs, who arranged the visit.

The delegation's DACA student is IVC's own Rosa Rodriguez, a familiar presence on campus as one of the Writing Center's student aides. Rosa is set to graduate from IVC this May and hopes to transfer to UCI.

While it is not uncommon for students to lobby on behalf of funding or against tuition increases, for DACA students to lobby on behalf of immigration reform is highly personal on many levels. It requires special courage, especially in these times.

In an email, Rosa wrote: "I don't mind the community knowing I am undocumented. I think it is a way to let people like me know that if I feel safe speaking up about DACA they too can speak up and see IVC as a safe place.... I have a good feeling about this meeting. I am glad I can do something for students like me and speak up. "

Rosa has asked for letters to share with Congresswoman Walters staff. In her email, she wrote "I hope that we can get a couple letters." Rebel Girl thinks we can do better than that.

So, please consider writing a letter on behalf of Rosa and the DACA students. It can be short and simple and you can email it to Rebel Girl and she will print it out for her to take. Please include your name and address so Walters can respond. If you live in the district, that’s great but you can also write a letter if you don’t.

Your letter might begin like this:
Congresswoman Walters,
I am writing in support of Rosa Rodriguez and the over 800,000 DACA students in the United States and the estimated 72,000 enrolled in California Community Colleges.
Please support the passage of a clean DREAM Act and codify DACA into federal law and provide a permanent pathway to citizenship for these hardworking young people.
As a (constituent, community college student, instructor, concerned resident, etc. Choose or create your descriptor) I feel strongly that…
Close with your full name, title, if any, and address (residence or college)
Your letter does not have to be long.

You can email your letter to Rebel Girl at lalvarez@ivc.edu or you can drop it off at her office (LA 214). Or consider dropping it off in the Writing Center where you may be able to meet Rosa and wish her well. Letters need to be received by Monday evening so they can be delivered Tuesday morning.

Now bear with Rebel Girl and imagine how Tom Fuentes or Steve Frogue or Don Wagner would have voted on this resolution, if they even let it come to the table. What they would have said about a delegation with the district imprimatur visiting a local congressional office to lobby in support of undocumented immigrants and immigration reform. We've come a long way - but still have a long way to go. Let's get there.

UPDATED: Irvine Mayor Don Wagner wrote to Rebel Girl today to say she had misstated his record on immigration issues:  He wrote: "Years ago I spoke in favor and voted for Assembly Bill 1024 (Gonzalez) specifically dealing with Dreamers who had completed their educations and demonstrated good character, precisely the kinds of immigrants who make this country flourish." He went on to cite "a letter I co-authored to Congress years ago arguing for comprehensive immigration reform."

While Rebel Girl is thrilled to know that Don Wagner is in the trenches with immigration reform, she imagines that her trench and his may differ in depth and focus.  But who knows?  Maybe he really does support the passage of a clean DREAM Act and codify DACA into federal law and provide a permanent pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers. Maybe he is about to declare Irvine a Sanctuary City. Maybe he isn't one of those who desire a kind of bracero program that creates a perpetual class of all-but-indentured forever disenfranchised low-wage workers.

How could she have gotten him so wrong? Perhaps it was his attack on the American Library Association or his support of Ted Cruz. His opposition to marriage equality. His desire to make us all bow our heads and pray at public college functions. So many things.

More later on this. Meanwhile, welcome to the fight, Don.

We are proud that the Mayor of Irvine reads our blog! Yee ha!


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Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...