California Dream Network at "Right to Dream" Rally

    

 

 

 

 

 

Immigrant students and their allies gathered dowtown Los Angeles today to call on President Obama to stop deporting immigrant families and provide real administrative relief.  Members of CHIRLA's California Dream Network joined the "Right to Dream" rally and press conference at Pershing Square.

Video: Don't Ignore Us, Protect Our Rights

A wonderfully-written video produced by the Cuentame's Latino Voces in collaboration with member organizations of the California Domestic Workers Coalition.  All household workers featured in the video are CHIRLA members.  Together, we are working to educate Californians that AB889, the CA Domestic Bill of Rights, is great for workers, great for our economy, and great for California.  Watch video after this break.

Compartimos este video que fue generosamente producido por Cuentame's Latino Voces en colaboración con organizaciones miebros de la Coalición de Trabajadoras Domesticas de California.  En este video, las tres trabajadoras que son entrevistadas son miembros de CHIRLA.  Juntos estamos luchando para educar al público de California para que apoyen el avance de la propuesta AB889, el Acta de Derechos de Trabajadoras Domésticas de California.

I'm the American Dream - Angelica Salas

Angelica Salas has been part of CHIRLA's family for more than 16 years.  

 

Before CHIRLA, Angelica was already a survivor and a fighter for immigrant rights.  

 

An immigrant and a thankful daughter, Angelica is part of the American Dream.  Her moving story is well told in this video special by Univision.

 

Saying Goodbye on Mother's Day

On Wednesday, CHIRLA hosted members of the press to hear the stories of two moms who are about to be deported.  Both women have US-born children and both do not have a criminal background.  One of the moms, Carmen, must leave by June 17 and the other mom, Maria, must take care of a wheelchair-bound young man who suffers from daily seizures.  More Photos inside.

 

May Day Voices - Bamby Salcedo, LGBT Community

As part of this year's May Day pre-march rally on May 1, 2012, allies and supporters, including leaders of the faith community, unions, students, families, and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, spoke about why they were marching.  A very memorable, and well-received speech, was that of Bamby Salcedo, leader in the transgender community, an immigrant herself, and a member of the BIENESTAR family.  Here's a recollection of her powerful words.  We thank you, Bamby.

****

My name is Bamby Salcedo and I am here on behalf of the Queer Contingency.

It is important that we do recognize and understand that Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Trans people are also part of the whole. We do have families, we do get affected by all of the situations that happen in our society. It is important that we are united, that we come together and we as a community demand dignity for our communities.

CHIRLA on May Day 2012

CHIRLA, in collaboration with the Multicultural Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON), ANSWER Coalition, Center for Community Change, CARECEN, California Dream Network, Clean Carwash Campaign, Comisión Binacional de Organizaciones, COFEM, Filipino Workers Center, Full Immigrant Rights Coalition, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, IDEPSCA, KIWA, LIUNA, LACFL/AFL-CIO, May Day Queer Contingent, NDLON, National Lawyers Guild, SEIU/ULTCW, and Vamos Unidos USA, is helping coordinate the traditional May 1 workers march downtown Los Angeles.

Statement: The "Secure Communities" Emperor Has No Clothes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 27, 2012                

The “Secure Communities” Emperor Has No Clothes
Announced changes to flawed deportation program insufficient and deceptive
 
Los Angeles - The same week as the nation’s highest court hears oral arguments on the legality of SB1070, and three weeks after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a timid review of the program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced minor modifications to the deeply flawed “Secure Communities” program (S-Comm). A DHS-sponsored Taskforce on Secure Communities released a stinging report of the program in November 2011.  The modifications, which come after two years of mounting opposition to S-Comm from state and local officials, congressional representatives, advocates, and faith groups, were quickly denounced by advocates as inadequate to address the program’s failings.  The following is a statement of Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
 

“ICE’s response to the strong and mounting criticism of its star deportation program, S-Comm, offers more of the same rhetoric that only ICE can accept as truth.  On the ground, S-Comm has proven to be a seriously flawed dragnet that promotes racial profiling in line with the “attrition through enforcement” philosophy of the masterminds behind Arizona’s SB1070 and its copycat bills.

Far from targeting the “worst of the worst”, S-Comm catches anyone who happens to fit into ICE’s amorphously defined ‘priorities’.  Deplorably, it is local and state police departments that have been relegated to the unenviable role of faux immigrant wardens undermining the trust of the community, a key element to fight crime, protect victims and witnesses, and protect the community’s overall safety. 

CHIRLA Testimony: L.A. Civil Unrest - Community Blueprint for the Next 20 Years

"I want to remind everyone that in 1992 many of the organizations serving immigrant communities were fairly new and focused on the burgeoning population of immigrants, especially those fleeing war torn countries of Central America. CHIRLA and its coalition partners responded during the 1992 civil unrest by defending immigrants living in South Los Angeles and caught up in the mass arrests by police from being deported back to the very countries they were fleeing. CHIRLA staff leaders actively participated with the City of Los Angeles leadership and with other CBOs to quell the unrest and to bring a deeper understanding of the immigrant communities that had suddenly been “discovered” living in South Los Angeles." Testimony by Jorge-Mario Cabrera, CHIRLA

Statement: Ending Racial Profiling in America

STATEMENT OF Angelica Salas, Executive Director Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, CHIRLA

Hearing “Ending Racial Profiling in America”

SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
UNITED STATES SENATE
APRIL 17, 2012
 

I am honored to submit this testimony for the record on behalf of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) regarding today’s hearing on racial profiling. Formed in 1986, CHIRLA’s missions is to advance the human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles; promote harmonious multi-ethnic and multi-racial human relations; and through coalition-building, advocacy, community education and organizing, empower immigrants and their allies to build a more just society. Racial profiling is a long-standing concern of the immigrant community in California, and with the increased immigration enforcement – including the expanding involvement of local police departments and sheriffs agencies – the threat is greater than it has ever been. In addition, CHIRLA works closely with representatives of minorities, vulnerable groups and other communities of color, all of whom are also adversely impacted by racial profiling by law enforcement agencies.  

 We thank you for holding this critical and timely hearing on racial profiling and the End Racial Profiling Act. CHIRLA is particularly concerned about many policies and programs at the national, state and local level which encourage or incentivize discriminatory law enforcement practices such as racial profiling. We believe that these practices are counterproductive, waste public resources and violate the civil and human rights of persons living in the United States.

EFE: Lavinia Limon, Defender of Immigrants and Refugees

EFE News Service, April 10, 2012
LOS ANGELES – Lavinia Limon has dedicated her career to helping people in trouble, especially immigrants, and is today president and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

“The USCRI, a citizens’ committee in Washington that tries to influence immigrant and refugee policies, recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding, and our responsibilities are to work on behalf of undocumented children who come alone to this country, the victims of human trafficking and refugees from all over the world,” Limon told Efe.

“In the 1980s I was executive director of the International Institute of Los Angeles, and after the immigration reform law was enacted in 1986, founded together with other organizations the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, CHIRLA,” she said.

Born March 5, 1950, in Compton, California, Limon is the daughter of a Mexican-American father and a mother of German descent. She graduated in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

“After studying sociology I realized that my passion is to work with people and help them secure a better life,” Limon said.

At the start of her career, she began working with refugees from the Vietnam war and then “I went to serve overseas helping people in Thailand, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, among other countries,” she recalled.
 
Lavinia Limon, right, joins CHIRLA Gala 2012.

Pages

Subscribe to CHIRLA RSS