VACOLAO’S LEGISLATIVE UPDATE AND CALL FOR ACTION/CONFERENCE CALL REMINDER
Dear colleagues,
Please see the below reminder for VACOLAO’s weekly conference call as well as the legislative update and call for action.
CONFERENCE CALL
Please note that this is not a toll free call. Also, this call is
for immigrant advocates only and all information discussed during the call is to
be kept confidential and to be considered off the
record. If you want to participate, please send us an e-mail to VACOLAO@gmail.com with your full information.
LEGISLATIVE VICTORIES
As VACOLAO reported last week, HB 183 and SB 586, the bills to expand Medicaid coverage to legally present immigrant pregnant women and children who have been in the country less than five years, have passed their respective houses and are moving quickly to final passage.
HB1060 (the Prince William legal status inquiry bill) is dead for this year, as it failed to report from the Senate Courts of Justice Committee last week, and it was not brought up for reconsideration today..
HB958 is no longer the same bill as the one originally introduced. This morning, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee passed a dramatically amended HB958 which was reported out and will come before the full Senate. As passed today, HB 958 now just specifies that the magistrate judge look at criminal history information that includes information on criminal immigration warrants in both the VCIN and NCIC databases. The bill no longer contains the two provisions that caused VACOLAO to oppose this bill when it was first introduced. Specifically, the bill does NOT require any new inquiry into immigration or citizenship status for those individuals who are not committed to jail. Second, the amended bill does NOT give arresting officers any additional authority to conduct immigration inquiries or ask about citizenship. VACOLAO remains firmly opposed to legislation that would increase state enforcement of federal immigration law, as immigration enforcement is a matter for the federal government. VACOLAO considers the amendments to this bill to be a victory for the immigrant communities in Virginia. As it now stands, this bill DOES NOT give local and state law enforcement officers any new authority to make inquiries into a person’s immigration status, and makes no meaningful changes to current practice under existing Virginia law. We will continue to monitor HB958 to ensure that it does not change again, but VACOLAO no longer sees any reason to oppose HB958 in its current form.
CALL FOR ACTION
Despite these successes, there is much work left to do. HB 1001, a bill that we thought was dead after a vote in the Committee last week, was brought back before the Senate Courts of Justice Committee this morning and voted out of committee on an 8-7 vote. HB 1001 (sponsored by Delegate Ramadan) is a bill that would require the Superintendant of the State Police to seek to enter into a 287g agreement with the federal Department of Homeland Security.
This bill will now go before the full Senate for a vote either Tuesday or Wednesday this week.
VACOLAO is asking everyone to contact their Senate representative to vote no against this bill.
ACTION:
E-MAIL or CALL YOUR SENATOR RIGHT NOW AND ASK HIM/HER TO VOTE NO ON HB 1001 WHEN IT COMES TO THE FLOOR THIS WEEK!
If you do not know who your state senator is or need his or her contact information, please see this link http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
VACOLAO opposes HB 1001 for five key reasons:
First, it overrules a longstanding tradition and a Code section, http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+2.2-114 that provide for the Governor to be the person who communicates on behalf of the Commonwealth with the federal government on behalf of the state. This bill mandates that one of his employees do something that the Governor may or may not want him to do. If the Governor and the state superintendent of state police disagree about this policy issue, the Governor can fire the superintendent but the superintendent remains subject to the "shall" in this statute.
Second, it requires the state superintendent to "seek" to enter into an agreement with respect to a program that the federal government has decided is ineffective and is phasing out in favor of the Secure Communities program that Virginia already participates in on a statewide level. The U.S. President has proposed to reduce the budget for the 287g program by $17 million and the administration has said it won't sign any more task force agreements of the sort contemplated in this bill, and will phase out the ones that it currently has. So, passage of this bill would require a state official to do something in perpetuity that may not make sense in real life, i.e., he must "seek" to participate in a program that no longer exists in fact.
Third, contrary to what most people understand about the 287g program, the memorandum of agreement required by the program turns responsibility for supervising the officers who are part of a task force agreement like that contemplated in this bill over to a federal ICE official. Their boss for purposes of the immigration enforcement authorized by the 287g agreement is a federal law enforcement officer not their own state police supervisor.
Fourth, the language of the bill indicates a lack of understanding about how the 287g agreements work. They do not and have never provided for every officer in a department to become the equivalent of ICE officers able to enforce civil violations of immigration laws anytime they are going about their business. In fact, 287g agreements typically involve the deputization and training of a very small number of officers, usually involved with enforcing serious violent crimes and interdicting gang violence, whose immigration enforcement activities are then actively supervised by federal officers, not their own departments.
Fifth, and, most importantly, for members of the immigrant communities in Virginia, this is a "message" bill that sends a strong anti-immigrant message throughout the Commonwealth where ever State Police are represented and will limit the effectiveness of our state law enforcement officers in immigrant communities even if no State Police 287g agreement is ever signed. If the request for a 287g task force agreement mandated by HB 1001 were successful, it would do nothing but shift our limited state law enforcement resources away from fighting crime and jailing those who present a real danger to our communities, and towards interrogating and jailing hardworking immigrants who pose no danger to our communities. This is not a policy shift that Virginia can afford. Moreover, this is unfunded mandate on the State Police, since the federal government pays for training and some equipment related to the 287g program but not the ongoing cost of the officers who implement the agreement.
For more information on the 287g program, see the fact sheet CLICK HERE
Tell your Senator that the real answer to our country’s immigration concerns is comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level – not short-sighted and ineffective state laws or policies.
Together we can make Virginia a safe and inclusive place for its residents. Thank you for all of your support.
Best regards,
Edgar Aranda-Yanoc
Chair of the Board of Director of VACOLAO
Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations
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Virginia General Assembly 2012
VACOLAO would like to thank all those who participated during VACOLAO’s Advocacy Day in Richmond last Tuesday, January 17. Your participation helped make the Advocacy Day a huge success! We had over one-hundred advocates from across the Commonwealth visit their legislators and advocate for just immigration policies that welcome and respect the rights of all of Virginia’s residents.
VACOLAO will be holding WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE conference calls. If you would like to participate, please send us an e-mail to vacolao@gmail.com providing us with full contact information. Please note that these calls are strictly for immigrant rights advocates only and all information discussed during these calls are to be considered off the record and to be kept confidential.
For your convenience, VACOLAO would like to share with you documents that were distributed to our legislators and related to our legislative agenda. These documents are found below. Please note that some of these documents have been updated due to changes in the status of certain pieces of legislation.
VACOLAO 2012 Legislative Agenda and Talking Points
VACOLAO Supports the following:
VACOLAO supports legislation that would allow taxpaying undocumented students to be eligible for in-state tuition if they have graduated from Virginia schools, have been in Virginia more than three years, have paid taxes in Virginia for more than three years, and have applied for adjustment of status or will do so as soon as they become eligible. (HB 779, Lopez). For the talking points, CLICK HERE
VACOLAO supports legislation to expand Medicaid eligibility to pregnant immigrant women and their children who have been lawfully present in the United States for less than five years. (HB 183, O'Bannon; HB 782, Lopez; SB 568, Ebbin; Senate Budget Amendment Items #306 1s and 307 1s, Ebbin; House Budget Amendment Items 306 1h and 307 2h, O'Bannon). For the talking points, please CLICK HERE and HERE
VACOLAO supports legislation to raise awareness of human trafficking, to give police and prosecutors additional tools to prosecute and punish human traffickers and to provide services and assistance to victims of human trafficking. (HB 546 Comstock, HB 1200, Bulova, HB 1188, Watts; SB 259, Ebbin)
VACOLAO supports nondiscrimination legislation that would, for the first time, codify as statewide policy a prohibition against discrimination based on ethnicity and national origin (and other protected categories) in state and local workplaces. (SB 263, McEachin/Ebbin)
VACOLAO opposes the following:
VACOLAO opposes legislation that would deny undocumented students who are taxpaying Virginia residents the opportunity to seek to qualify under current state law for in-state aid or other financial assistance. (HB 1282, Cline). For talking points, please CLICK HERE
VACOLAO opposes Alabama-style legislation that would require local schools to collect information on citizenship or legal presence from every parent registering a child for school and report information on parents not lawfully present to the state even if the child is a citizen. (HB 138, Cole) (This bill has been tabled and is no longer under consideration in the 2012 Session).
VACOLAO opposes legislation that would erode further the relationships between immigrant communities and law enforcement thereby placing said communities at greater risk of becoming victims of crime as well as potentially becoming subjects of racial profiling. Such bills include legislation to give arresting officers the responsibility or authority to check the immigration status of any person lawfully stopped regardless of whether they are arrested and legislation to require any jurisdiction to enter into a 287g agreement. (HB 89, Albo; HB 320, Ingram, HB 472, Albo, HB 958, Bell, HB 1001, Ramadan, HB 1060, Anderson, HR 10, Cole; SB 460, Black) For talking points, please CLICK HERE
VACOLAO opposes so-called anti-sanctuary legislation that would undercut the ability of local police departments to have policies that protect immigrant victims and witnesses to crime from routine inquiries about their immigration status. (HB 108, Albo)
VACOLAO opposes legislation to require criminal defendants to pay for the services of interpreters who are essential to fair access to the courts. (HB 173, Loupassi; SB 184, Stuart) For talking points, CLIK HERE
VACOLAO opposes any legislation that imposes unnecessary, unjustified and burdensome additional regulatory or administrative requirements on Virginia residents, Virginia businesses, Virginia agencies or Virginia nonprofit organizations without any proof of need or corresponding proven positive benefit for the taxpayers or the community, including voter ID and proof of citizenship requirements for voters, requirements to participate in E-Verify; requirements for Virginians to make legal presence determinations. (HB 569, Marshall, HB 828, Albo, HB 895, Marshall; SB 1, Martin)
ADDITIONAL links to secondary documents that will assist advocates as they communicate with their elected representatives about the above legislation.
· If you are unsure about how to go about contacting your representative, please see our document, “5 steps to contact to your representative”. CLICK HERE
· For statistical information concerning the growing economic impact of immigrants currently residing in the Commonwealth, please see the following:
o New American in Virginia: (Immigration Policy Center) CLICK HERE
o New Virginians in America CLICK HERE
VACOLAO ANNUAL VIRGINIA IMMIGRANT ADVOCACY DAY
Organized by VACOLAO in conjunction with Virginia interfaith for Public Policy’s Day for All People
Tuesday, January 17, 2012, Richmond, Virginia
Join VACOLAO during its annual Immigrant Advocacy Day during the 2012 Virginia General Assembly! We will be meeting in Richmond this coming January 17th to make our voices heard concerning the rights of immigrants.
WHAT: Virginia Immigrant Advocacy Day to meet with elected representatives and discuss proposed legislation and issues important to Virginia’s immigrant communities.
Our goals:
Ø To educate ourselves on proposed legislation that could affect immigrant communities in Virginia including bills similar to laws already passed in Alabama and Georgia;
Ø To meet with our elected representatives during the day; and
Ø To evaluate the day’s events and plan for next steps.
SUMMARY: The day will begin at the Holocaust Museum with coffee and policy briefings. Shuttles will then take participants to the General Assembly building where you will have the opportunity to meet with your legislators, attend committee hearings and watch the General Assembly in action on the House and Senate floors. We will return to the Holocaust Museum for lunch, an afternoon speaker and a debriefing.
WHEN: Tuesday, January 17 2012 from 8.00 to 3.00 p.m.
THE BUS IS NOW FULL. WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING REGISTRATIONS FOR THOSE PROVIDING THEIR OWN TRANSPORTATION.
For those who have already registered, a bus will leave from Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, 2700 S. 19th Street, Arlington, VA 22204 at 6:15am that morning. Please arrive by 6am. We will be returning to northern Virginia around 5:30pm.
WHERE: Virginia Holocaust Museum, 2000 East Cary St., Richmond, VA 23223.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
You can register for the Advocacy Day and pay by credit card or check on-line by CLICKING HERE..
The registration fees for VACOLAO participants are the following:
Ø $25 for those requiring transportation from Arlington and program registration, OR
Ø $10 for those paying only the program registration (no transportation to/from Arlington)
CONTACT: Please contact Edgar Aranda-Yanoc, Chair of VACOLAO with any questions at vacolao@gmail.com or by phone at 703-772-1555.
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Coalition of Asia Pacific Americans of Virginia (CAPAVA), Centreville Immigration Forum (CIF), Jews United for Justice (JUFJ), Legal Aid Justice Center’s Immigrant Advocacy Program, Social Action Linking Together (SALT), Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (UUCA) and Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations (VACOLAO)
SECOND ANNUAL VIRGINIA IMMIGRANT ADVOCATES SUMMIT 2011
When: Monday, October 24, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:10 p.m.
Where: Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (UUCA) located at 4444 Arlington Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22204. For directions, click here.
The Summit’s Agenda includes:
1. Combating Fraud Against Immigrants (how to identify, avoid and fight types of fraud: predatory lending, legal consultant fraud “notario”, mortgage fraud and others)
2. Worker’s Rights.
3. Health Care Reform’s Impact on Immigrants
4. Dreamers and the Dream: Building Bridges Among Communities.
5. Federal and Local Immigration Enforcement and Their Impact on Crime Victims’ Abilities to Access Police Protection.
6. Immigration Rights are Human Rights.
7. Virginia Legislative Update 2011/2012.(Discussion of organizing techniques and plans for how immigrant rights advocates can push to change the tone on immigration in Virginia)
8. Redistricting, Demographic Change in Virginia and Voting Rights.
For more information please contact Edgar Aranda-Yanoc edgar@justice4all.org or call 703-772-1555
