What We Do: Advocacy
Immigrant Day of Action
Each year in the spring, the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC) holds its annual "Immigrant Day of Action."
In 2022, Allies for Immigration Justice joined more than 400 community members, constituents, advocates, friends, and allies to participate in more than 50 in-person and virtual legislative visits to urge our elected representatives to support the Immigrant Equity Budget.
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In 2023, we advocated once again for budget proposals to be passed in Sacramento that would support the needs of the immigrant communities in California. We were joined by the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County (CAB) in meetings with Dawn Addis, Assembly member for the 30th district, and with Senator John Laird to discuss the budget proposals. You can read an explanation of the campaigns we advocated for and a legislative update in the CIPC Response to the Governor’s May Revise.
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Join us for the next Immigrant Day of Action in 2024 by signing up for our newsletter! We will send out details about what you can do to support legislation that supports California's immigrant population!
Meeting with U.S. Representative Carbajal
In April 2023, Allies for Immigration Justice organized local immigrant rights advocates to meet with Representative Salud Carbajal to discuss immigration issues and to advocate for action.
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Participants in this meeting included representatives from Allies for Immigration Justice, SLO County, Central Coast Coalition for Undocumented Student Success, Santa Barbara Immigrant Legal Defense Center, and Vanessa Frank, an immigration attorney from Ventura County.
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We got clarification on his stance on the asylum ban and re-instatement of family detention (he was against both). We discussed with him the long delays in the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services): paperwork that took three months under the Obama administration to process is currently taking up to four years. We asked for him to advocate with the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) to address this backlog.
You can read more about the talking points for our discussion in this letter to the congressman.
The TRUTH Act
The TRUTH Act is a State law that passed in 2016 and was implemented in 2017 to establish transparency and reduce the collaborative actions between the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement agencies.
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PAST ACTIONS:
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In 2018, we coordinated a community response to share questions and concerns during SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson's presentation to the SLO County Board of Supervisors.
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In 2019, we worked with a coalition of community leaders to tour the jail and meet with Sheriff Parkinson in an effort to ensure transparency and accountability regarding the interactions of San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Department with ICE.
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In May of 2023, immigrant rights advocates met with the SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson and Correctional Captain Stephanie Landgraf for an hour long discussion regarding the TRUTH Act, and the impact on community safety and trust when local law enforcement cooperates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A community member shared her emotional story of how her family was impacted by a local law enforcement agency's interaction with ICE.
It is important for the sheriff to know that the community is tracking this issue. We are grateful to the advocates who attended, and want to give a special thank you to Willie Lubka (Buen Vecino, Thousand Oaks) and Jehan Laner (Immigrant Legal Resource Center, San Francisco) for their help with the public records act request and with understanding the finer points of this law.
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This is a complex issue. You can read a 2022 news article from Kern County that discusses and illustrates the issues and concerns connected to the TRUTH Act here.