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.