Governor Jerry Brown's Actions on Immigrant Legislation Draws Ire from Advocates

With a midnight deadline looming, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the Trust Act yesterday calling it “fatally flawed” while singing into law legislation on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants who obtain work permits under President Obama's deferred action policy.

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network, who helped organize an Anaheim protest denouncing wage theft in the case of Jose Ucelo last month that it said underscored the need for the Trust Act, was swift to react.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement strong-armed the Governor to defend its deportation quota instead of defending Californian's rights,” the group wrote in a statement issued last night.

“On this sad day, we renew our commitment to fight to keep our families together despite the Governor and the President's insistence on seeing them torn apart.”

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The Orange County DREAM Team held a rally in support of the Trust Act outside the headquarters of the Anaheim Police Department in mid-September, but also released a position statement on Assemblyman Gil Cedillo's driver's license bill:

“Given the requirement of a social security number to receive a driver's
license in California we believe that AB 2189, which grants driver's
licenses to those who qualify for Deferred Action, is a purely symbolic
gesture at a time when California needs a comprehensive driver's license
bill.”

As the deadline to act approached, Santa Ana-based bands Cuauhtemoc and Son del Centro were present Saturday at MacArthur Park action supporting the Trust Act and the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights — which Brown also vetoed Sunday, though a publicized domestic
worker's dispute with 2010 opponent Meg Whitman helped him win election.

And for all those keeping count, Governor Brown also vetoed a United Farm Worker's sponsored bill that would have created criminal provisions for employers who failed to provide their field workers with adequate shade and water as they toil in searing temperatures.

Heckuva job, Brownie!

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