Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles

Day Laborers Take Malibu Relief efforts by Storm!

Nearly One hundred twenty Jornaleros or immigrant Day Laborers joined in the relief effort of the fires in Malibu in mid November. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a CHIRLA organizational member, took the initiative to organize volunteers from immigrant and labor groups like CHIRLA and the Malibu Community Labor Exchange (MCLE).

“We [the jornaleros] realized we did not have money to help these people but we did have our hands. Day Laborers want to give to this country, not take away from it,” said Antonio Bernabe, CHIRLA’S Day Laborer Organizer.

Volunteers cleared dead plants, stumps, and trees in front of and around Webster Elementary School, as well as carried sandbags to secure the local church, Our Lady of Malibu, that was damaged in the fire. Dressed in their uniform handed out by CHIRLA, the Day Laborers were mistaken as a professionally hired crew!

Los Pereda’s Bilingual Experience

College student Damaris Pereda, a new CHIRLA member, and her family were featured on the Los Angeles Times’ front page California section on November 30, 2007. The story explored the importance of language in integration to American society. Bilingual Damaris is busy studying at Azusa Pacific University, interning in the community education department at CHIRLA, and learning from her Filipino host family in East L.A. Damaris also finds time to support her Mexican parents in their determined effort to build their English speaking skills as many doors have opened for her as a result of her bilingualism.

For the full story go to: www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-english30nov30,1,196667.story?ctrac=1&cset=true

CHIRLA Represents in Heartland Presidential Forum

At the historic presidential forum in Iowa, held on December 1, 2007, Tam Tran, member of CHIRLA and the California Dream Network, shared before five thousand grassroots leaders and five presidential candidates, the story of her family who fled war-torn Vietnam as boat people. After twelve years of living in the United States and graduating with honors from UCLA, immigration officials raided Tran’s home and separated her family. “I believe in an America that doesn’t separate families, in an America that allows immigrants, undocumented or not, to contribute to their communities,” remarked Tran. Senator Christopher Dodd personally thanked her for her “courage to speak from the heart,” and added that he hoped the DREAM Act, which he has always supported, would eventually pass. Thanks to Tran and other speakers, most candidates made positive commitments on national television to pass comprehensive immigration reform in their first one hundred days of office.