SACRAMENTO — Today, Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside), Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus, presented Assembly Concurrent Resolution 206 on behalf of the Caucus commemorating June 2024 as Immigrant Heritage Month and highlighting the need to fund many state programs that support our immigrant communities. She issued the following statement:
“California is home to 10.5 million immigrants, including 28 percent of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients (183,000 individuals), and the second largest state in the United States, with the majority of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders (53,840), many of which are Latinos.
“I want to thank our Latino Caucus members who spoke in support of Immigrant Heritage Month and amplified the need to preserve critical resources and several safety net programs for our immigrant communities, including Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D – Fresno), Assemblymember Juan Carrillo (D – Palmdale), Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D – Los Angeles), Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D – San Bernardino), Assemblymember Blanca E. Rubio (D – Baldwin Park), and Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D – Hollywood). These programs include Medi-Cal expansion for all Californians regardless of immigration status; the TPS and California State University (CSU) Immigration Legal Services programs; the Children’s Holistic Immigration Representation Project (CHIRP); and full funding for the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Program.
“Despite immigrants driving our economic growth and reducing inflation, their needs have often gone unmet. We must recognize the persistent challenges disproportionately faced by immigrants, including hampered access to health care, education, federal recovery benefits, and safety net programs that were only worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. We recognize that while our immigrant and refugee communities have incredible resiliency, immigrants should be treated with the dignity and humanity that all people deserve.
Chair Cervantes introduced several community guests from our state in honor of Immigrant Heritage Month on the Assembly Floor today:
- Iris Iraheta Miranda from Immigrant Legal Defense, the parent of San Francisco State University student Maybellyne. Through the California State University Immigration Legal Services Project (CSU-ILSP), which provides free immigration legal services to CSU students, faculty, staff, recent alumni, and their families, ILSP represented Iris in her naturalization application, and she is now a U.S. citizen. She was granted asylum in 2017 due to the persecution she suffered in El Salvador.
- Walter and Bethany from Community Justice Alliance (CJA) are both unaccompanied minors. Walter was entered into deportation proceedings as a minor after seeking asylum in the United States. Bethany of the San Joaquin Valley, like thousands of other unaccompanied children, discovered she had been ordered deported without notice to her or her caregiver. Thanks to the CHIRP project, CJA was able to offer no cost representation to assist them with immigration relief, ensuring safeguards against deportation.
- Patricia Salazar and Arturo Garcia from The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)where Patricia Salazar emigrated from Veracruz, Mexico, over 30 years ago and calls the Antelope Valley home. Through her work, Patricia has helped ensure immigrants and seniors in the Antelope are aware of their rights and connect community members to resources. Arturo Garcia is 55 years old and immigrated to the United States when he was 19 years old. He lives in Lancaster, California. Arturo has worked most of his life in California and contributed to our state's economy through his taxes. Both have supported Health4All.
- Lorena Zepeda and Jose Ramirez from the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), where Lorena Zepeda, originally from El Salvador, has resided in the U.S. for over thirty years and has been protected under the TPS program since 2001. Lorena's family were plaintiffs in the Ramos TPS lawsuit, which successfully halted the termination of TPS for over 5 years, protecting thousands of TPS holders across the country to this day. Jose Ramirez is a construction worker and TPS holder from El Salvador who has called California home for over 30 years. He currently resides in the San Gabriel Valley and has been a community leader for many years.
- In the gallery, we were joined by Barbara C. Pinto, Co-Executive Director at Immigrant Legal Defense; Kristina Mckibben Sias, Executive Director of Community Justice Alliance; Cynthia Gómez, Deputy Director of Policy and Advocacy at CHIRLA; Alejandra Morales, Director of Organizing and Policy at CARECEN.
“Our guests reflect the Legislature's ongoing efforts to ensure that the safety net programs mentioned benefit the greater good of the state's immigrant community. This directly impacts the state economy, lowers the state's inflation, and, as a byproduct, has catapulted the state to the powerhouse that it is today.”
The Assembly presentation can be viewed here:
Assembly - assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-floor-session-20240606
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