Thread: Latinos hope Jerry Brown signs bills on illegal immigrants.

Latinos hope Jerry Brown signs bills on illegal immigrants, farmworkers
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By Jim Sanders
jsanders@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, May. 13, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A

Latino leaders who went to bat for Jerry Brown in last year's campaign are now counting on the governor to help them pass bills supporting farmworkers and illegal immigrants.

Latino census growth, the pending redrawing of political districts and the election of a Democrat for the state's top office create a confluence of opportunity not seen in years, activists say.

"We are turning back the ugliness of a previous period, piece by piece," Nativo Lopez of the Mexican American Political Association said of the 1990s, when voters approved a ban on public benefits to illegal immigrants that later was deemed unconstitutional.

The latest action on a Latino bill came Thursday, when the Assembly passed a measure inspired by Pedro Ramirez, student body president at Fresno State University, that would allow undocumented immigrants to receive a stipend, grant or scholarship for serving in student government at a state university or community college.

Among the other bills in the Legislature:

• AB 131 would allow illegal immigrants who pay in-state tuition to apply for Cal Grants and other public aid for college.

• AB 1389 would bar police from impounding cars at sobriety checkpoints solely because a driver is unlicensed, an action that hits undocumented immigrants hard because they cannot obtain driver's licenses.

• AB 1081 would allow counties to withdraw from a federal program that runs fingerprints of arrestees through a database to identify illegal immigrants.

• Senate Bill 104 would provide an alternative to secret-ballot elections by allowing farmworkers to obtain union representation if a majority of employees sign petition cards.

• AB 889 would give nannies, housekeepers and other domestic workers the right to overtime pay, vacation, meal breaks and other job benefits.

Barbara Coe of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, which opposes public benefits for illegal immigrants, said it is obvious that Latino leaders are striking while the political iron is hot.

"I think they will push for more and more and more," she said. "I dreaded this coming, I feared its coming, and my fears have been realized."

Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, applauded Assembly passage this month of his Assembly Bill 130, which would allow illegal immigrants who pay in-state college tuition to apply for privately funded scholarships.

"I think there is a lot that needs to be done to right the playing field for impacted communities in California," said Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar. "Hopefully, this will be one of those years where we can do that."

California ultimately needs to pass legislation allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, Lopez said. The idea has been shelved temporarily, however, after Brown spoke against it.

Gil Duran, Brown's press secretary, said the governor has strong ties to the Latino community and is "paying special attention" to key bills that affect Latinos. His priority is the state budget, however, and he does not announce positions on specific legislation until it reaches his desk.

California's weak economy and budget crisis could prompt Brown to veto some Latino-oriented bills even if he supports them personally, said Jaime Regalado, director of the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown Institute of Public Affairs at UCLA.

"There's a limit to how many fronts he can move," Regalado said.

Privately, Latino lawmakers say they're not betting on every bill getting signed this year – but several, perhaps.

On the campaign trail, Brown supported the concept of college financial aid for undocumented students, but he riled some Latino activists by favoring the federal fingerprinting check of arrestees' immigration status.

Sixty-four percent of Latino voters supported Brown and 30 percent Republican Meg Whitman last year, exit polls showed.

In Brown's first stint as governor, from 1975-83, he helped champion the cause of the United Farm Workers union by signing a historic farm labor relations law. He appointed Cruz Reynoso, a Latino, to serve as a state Supreme Court justice, and Mario Obledo, also Latino, as his secretary for health and welfare.

"I'm going to treat everybody, whether they're documented or not, as God's child – and my brothers and sisters," Brown said last year.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, said that passing bills benefiting illegal immigrants amounts to "dismantling the rule of law" and infuriates most Californians.

Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said Democrats could face voter backlash if they hike benefits to undocumented immigrants. But the risk is eased by party dominance of the Legislature and the fact that Brown won't run again until 2014, if then, he said.

"Democrats are very much aware of the political debt that they owe the Hispanic community," Pitney said.

Republican lawmakers – many of whom oppose the Latino bills – face a different political risk. Fighting the measures vehemently could backfire because the GOP may need to court that fast-growing ethnic group to win seats after new political districts are drawn this summer, Regalado said.

"They're going to need to pick off Latino votes – and they know it," he said.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/13/362380 ... z1MM6AIamD

The state is broke. Why are we having to pay for illegals in any way, shape or form I am sick of this state with it's thrid world mentality and third world citizens California USE to have the best schools, roads, etc. It has turned into a cesspool.

why don't the gov & the senate have the guy that are in jail work for th e farmer?
what do you say about that ?
they clean the road ?I see them out in PA
No amnesty

In the end the illegal population will have Mexico here in the USA poverty,corruption and killing perhaps without knowing they took Mexico in that direction.