Many SEIU Local 99 members are generations away from those in our families who made the decision to leave their native country and come to the U.S. It’s hard to imagine that decision. Our families have been here for so long that we no longer identify as being part of an “immigrant community” in this nation of immigrants.

Click here to read about our May 2017 Immigration Lobby Trip to Sacramento. Click here to learn about the common myths around immigration.

Others of us made the tough decision to leave our native country and come to the U.S. A lot of us never wanted to leave home. But we had to. For some of us, we escaped violence. Others of us needed jobs. And some of us came from countries that suffer from U.S. policies that are unfavorable to their economies.

But all of us help students learn.

We want children to be safe.

During these times of fear and uncertainty, be sure to… KNOW YOUR RIGHTS! Click here for resources. Click here for special information for public sector employees (that’s most of us here at SEIU Local 99)

Most of us at Local 99 work with children every day. Our job is to keep them safe. And we want to feel safe. We want our families to be safe. What we don’t want is a sloppy and destructive way of fixing what’s wrong with our immigration system. We want thoughtful, careful solutions that protect children from aggressive deportation raids that separate them from hardworking, noncriminal parents. In January, a 5-year-old boy (an American citizen from Maryland) was detained for more than four hours, separated from his mother traveling from Iran. It’s hard to imagine who would think that was okay. Later this year, in March, a father was picked up by ICE while dropping his daughter off at school in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, even though it’s an ICE policy to avoid churches, hospitals and schools. ICE agents have been caught masquerading as local police officers.

The children are watching. The children are frightened. There has even been talk from the White House of bringing the National Guard in to militarize the process. When the tactics are this chaotic, frightened parents sometimes pull their children out of school. This harms children’s education, lowers the district’s enrollment, which in turn affects the district’s budget. No one wins.

Currently, we have closed our doors to children fleeing war. Although we have not always been consistent, the U.S. has a strong history of welcoming and civilians caught in war and other violent conflict. 24,000 civilian children have been killed in the 6-year Syrian conflict.

A few years ago, headlines reported a surge of unaccompanied children coming into the U.S. from Central America, escaping civil war and crime.

We depend on our government to prevent terrorists, both domestic and foreign, from harming us. But we need humane, commonsense approaches as we continue to seek ways to secure our borders and protect lives on both sides of those borders. This is the kind of country we are. This is the kind of people we are.

JOIN US:
…to protect families, honor hard work, celebrate the greatness of our diversity. We will resist anything that creates chaos and fear in our centers of learning.

 

We want children to feel valued.

Sadly, children are watching as certain ethnic and religious groups are publicly described as somehow being bad, criminal, radical or otherwise not welcomed. For children who identify as a part of these groups, this can erase the self-esteem we’ve worked so hard to build and any sense of safety we’ve provided. For other children, this creates a permissive atmosphere where they feel emboldened to echo some of these discriminatory sentiments that they were definitely not taught at home.

Hate crimes and bullying on our school campuses is on the rise since the 2016 Presidential campaign and election. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which has monitored hate groups for nearly fifty years, surveyed more than 10,000 K–12 teachers, counselors, administrators and others who work in schools across the country. Ninety percent of educators report that school climate has been negatively affected. Verbal harassment, the use of slurs and derogatory language, and disturbing incidents involving swastikas, Nazi salutes and Confederate flags are all on the upswing.

This is not what any of us  wants in our schools.

JOIN US:
…to make sure that hateful, intolerant comments, attitudes and behaviors will not become the new “normal” for our children.

 

We want children to be well-prepared for life.

Not one of us thinks to themselves, “I hope, after all my hard work, that this student gets a job in the shadow economy where undocumented workers have to earn low wages and hide from ‘la migra’ all the time.”

Many of us work with children who were either brought to this country or are the children of immigrants. They are good kids, working hard at school and dreaming of jobs and college. We want them to succeed. We want them to find good jobs.

Even the staunchly conservative National Review notes that it’s hypocritical to hold up two signs at the border: “Keep Out” and “Help Wanted.” Clearly, California, with the largest immigrant population of any state in the U.S., has been holding up both signs off and on for decades. Our economy has benefited from that “help.” California is the 6^th largest economy in the world. We got there, in part, through the participation of hardworking immigrants. We need an immigration system that brings workers out of hiding, out of a shadow economy. Immigrants strengthen our economy by creating millions of jobs every year, running almost a fifth of the small businesses across the U.S.

JOIN US:
…to support a pathway to citizenship for those brought here as children (often called “Dreamers”) who are working hard to become a successful, contributing part of American society.

Common Immigration Myths

Immigration…it’s complicated.

But that can’t stop us from calling on our leaders to do a better job.

Regardless of your views, join us in holding our elected leaders accountable.