OCCCO community leaders met Santa Ana Deputy Police Chief Rojas to follow up on the impact made by the hard work of the immigration committee and allies to reform towing and checkpoint policies in Santa Ana.  Great news!  Towing incidents have reduced from 400 to 80 a month!  In dollar amounts, at approximately $1,000 per car, that means that $320,000 a month stays in the pockets of community members Glad to see our hard work is making a positive impact! 

To learn more, contact Miguel Hernandez at miguel@occcopico.org, or at (714) 470-8178.

 
 
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Father/son OCCCO duo Enrique and Luis Bravo joined leaders from other PICO California efforts to meet with Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office to discuss immigration policies in California.  As the top law enforcement official in the state, leaders hoped to learn how they see the Secure Communities, or SCOMM bill functioning or not functioning in California.  The office agreed with PICO leaders that SCOMM has targeted non-criminal immigrants, and committed to working together down the road to fix how the program is operating. 

To learn more, contact Andrew Hausermann at andrew@occcopico.org, or at (714) 931-6041.
 
 
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Luis Bravo, OCCCO leader from St. Joachim Catholic Church in Costa Mesa, travelled to Sacramento with organizer Andrew Hausermann to join with twelve leaders and staff from other federations in PICO California to engage in research meetings to help PICO CA determine its legislative agenda for 2012.  

The St. Joachim Local Organizing Committee, before delegating Luis to the Capitol, worked to shape these agendas for the state committee.   The team met with Aaron McGuire, Deputy Legislative Aide for Governor Brown in issues related to public safety, Chief of Staff for Assemblyman Gil Sedillo, and Bay Area Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. The team explored two legislative agenda topics: the TRUST Act, a bill that would allow counties to opt out of Secure Communities (SCOMM), and a bill allowing undocumented immigrant adults to have a California Driver’s License.   SCOMM is a program designed to deport high-level felons, but instead has deported thousands of non-felon immigrants who have no criminal record. Ammiano is the author of the TRUST Act and will introduce the bill by January 20; he is close allies with OCCCO’s sister organization in San Francisco, giving 

PICO CA leaders an opportunity to be at the decision-making table in determining how the final bill will look. Sedillo plans to introduce the license bill in the early months of 2012, and expressed his desire to continue to work with PICO leaders towards positive policies for immigrant integration. Luis and Andrew came back ready to share what they learned with others in OCCCO, and think through how to build power in OC for bills in Sacramento that help immigrant families in 2012. 

To learn more, contact Andrew at (714) 931.6041 or at andrew@occcopico.org.
 
 
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The 2011 Immigration Assembly was a collaborative effort by more than 18 community organizations to help inform, support and empower the immigrant community to make local policy change in Orange County.  More than 150 community members attended the November 19th event at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Santa Ana.  The information sessions covered a wide range of topics including the changing Latino demographics in O.C., parent involvement in education, know your rights, Santa Ana’s towing policy and safe zones in High Schools.  One attendee commented on the event, “I learned more so much at the Immigration Assembly. I was surprised by the wealth of information here.” The coalition members will continue to meet and hope to organize another Immigration Assembly in late 2012. 

Please contact Miguel Hernandez at 714.470.8178 or miguel@occcopico.org  for more information. 
 
 
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The OCCCO Immigration Committee launched a campaign this spring to reform the towing policies in the City of Santa Ana, which unfairly target immigrants and undocumented families.  In partnership with the May Day Coalition of Orange County and other key allies, the committee gained commitment from the Police Department and City Council to create a just policy that will establish new guidelines to result in a more fair treatment of the residents in Santa Ana.  Representatives of the committee sat down with Police and Fire Chiefs and three City Councilmembers to determine the parameters of the new policy.

Univision Video: Habrán menos decomisos de autos en Santa Ana
OC Register: Council can't dictate how impound policy changes
OC Register: Council reviews impounds from unlicensed drivers

For more info: Miguel Hernandez, (714) 470-8178, miguel@occcopico.org
 
 
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With over 700 people in attendance, our candlelight vigil brought the issue of immigration reform from the shadows into the light.  Our message to policy-makers was three-fold.  Stop the raids and separation of families.  Acknowledge that our immigration system is broken and begin the conversation about how to fix it.  Treat all members of society with dignity and respect. 

 
 
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There is only one way to describe what happened in D.C. today and that is HISTORICAL. After waking up at 3am on Friday to catch an early flight to D.C. from Denver, we had a lay over in Chicago and arrived in D.C. at around 4:30pm. As I arrived before the pilgrimage bus did I helped take care of logistics and check people in to their rooms. Going into Saturday, after getting only 2 hours of sleep we started out taking about 80 PICO leaders to a press breakfast where allies and elected officials gathered to share testimonies and support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. After the breakfast we split up with half of our delegation going to a mass at St. Aloysius and the other half heading to the staging rally before heading to the main rally. I took a group of leaders to the staging rally where Reverend Jesse Jackson, Dr. Cornell West, and other community members shared testimony including a leader from PICO which was by far the best testimony of all. As we left, I went with Sandy Diaz a leader from BOCA in Berkeley and Mabel from BOCA in order to prep them for their role on stage at the main rally. Over 500,000 people gathered to participate in this rally including a diversity of ethnic communities as well as geographic communities. While at this same time the healthcare discussion in the building just across the way was heating up and getting ready to come to a vote. At the end of the day we saw healthcare reform finally passed and witnessed one of the largest and diverse immigration rallies we’ve seen since 2006. After this long journey that took less than a week I am ready to go home and share my experience with others and continue to battle locally for CIR. I will attach more pictures when I get home but for now here are a few.

Eddie Carmona, Lead Community Organizer, OCCCO