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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Gov . Jerry Brown may have approved a bill allowing some illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses, but it wasn't good enough for some immigrant advocates.
Instead of cheering the bill, they said Monday it was an easy choice for Brown and blasted his vetoes of other measures that would have expanded the rights of nannies and housecleaners and protected some illegal immigrants from deportation.
Immigrant advocates said Brown's signing of the bill to offer driver's licenses to young immigrants who qualify for two-year federal work permits doesn't have the far-reaching impact that backing the other measures could have had. They said signing those bills could have further distinguishedCalifornia as immigrant-friendly compared to states such as Arizona and Alabama, which have been cracking down on illegal immigration.
"It is disappointing that Jerry Brown doesn't want to be the anti-Jan Brewer," said Aarti Kohli, senior fellow at the Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. "The advocates feel very betrayed. They feel like the immigrant and particularly the Latino community have been behind the governor ... and that he hasn't really shown a deep understanding of these really serious issues."
Brown vetoed the so-called TRUST Act, which would have barred local law enforcement officers from detaining suspects for possible deportation unless they were charged with serious or violent crimes, and another bill to provide overtime pay, meal breaks and other labor protections to domestic workers.
Immigrant advocates questioned what drove the Democratic governor to take the positions. Some speculated that pressure from the federal government to protect its flagship immigration enforcement program, known as Secure Communities, and opposition by some California law enforcement officials — including Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca — may have played a role.
Advocates had hoped that Brown — who supported Cesar Chavez and a number of farmworker issues during his first stint as governor — would have backed the TRUST Act, which aimed to curtail Secure Communities. The program, which checks the immigration status of arrestees, is touted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a vital crime-fighting tool but reviled by immigrant advocates who say it erodes immigrants' trust in police.
Some immigrant advocates said the signing of the driver's license bill was a bittersweet victory that could help thousands of young people move around the state once they obtain work permits from the federal government but won't help their families get relief from the threat of deportation.
Juan Santiago, 24, said he was pleased he would be able to get from his home in Madera to his college classes 30 miles away once his work permit application is approved. But he said the measure does little for his mother, who brought him across the Arizona desert into the U.S. when he was 11.
"It was a happy and a sad day for us," Santiago said. "The fact that the governor vetoed the TRUST Act, it means there's nothing to protect the rest of my family members."
Angela Chan, senior staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, said the governor failed to step up and show bold leadership on immigration with his veto.
But she said she saw a silver lining in Brown's veto message, in which he offered to work with lawmakers to fix the bill's wording to include crimes such as child abuse, drug trafficking and weapons violations.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, the bill's sponsor, said he already had received a call from California sheriffs and they agreed to discuss the measure, which he took as a good sign. He said he'd like to reintroduce the bill as early as January.
Brown also took a mixed approach on other immigration-related bills. He signed a measure that aims to keep families together when a parent faces deportation and vetoed a bill to strengthen regulations requiring growers to protect farmworkers from extreme heat.
Louis DeSipio, a political science professor at University of California, Irvine, said making these decisions on deadline is a sign the bills were among the tougher issues Brown faced in a state where immigration has, at times, played a critical role in politicians' fate. He cited former Gov. Gray Davis, who saw a recall effort spurred after he supported driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.
"He hasn't been a strong immigrant advocate," DeSipio said of Brown, but added that perception could change if he works with advocates on revamping the TRUST Act. If not, he questioned how Brown might fare among Latinos in a future election.
"Would he have that same level of Latino support should he run for re-election?" DeSipio said. "I don't think so."
___
Associated Press Writer Gosia Wozniacka contributed to this report from Fresno.
October 2, 2012 @ 7:12 am
The article keeps using the words “immigrant” and immigrant advocates. We aren’t talking about immigrants here. This is about ILLEGAL aliens who have by-passed the the system and are breaking the law. The thinking in this country has become so screwed up I don’t even know what to say about this ridiculous rhetoric.
October 2, 2012 @ 10:15 am
It’s an AP story. What do you expect? The term “illegal alien” is no longer PC. Kind of like the phrase “war on terror” and the word “terrorist.”
October 2, 2012 @ 10:31 am
gary brown what a loser,i think he is an alien that escaped from area 51.
October 2, 2012 @ 9:55 am
Hispanic advocates will NEVER be satisfied with anything. Even when Reconquesta finally succeeds and Hispanics, legal, illegal…, take over completely and are in charge, they will be unhappy. Just look at Mexico! In Mexico, they blame their problems on the US.
When I traveled Mexico with a backpack, that is all I heard, that ALL of Mexico’s problems are due to the US… . I pretended to be, usually, anything other than from the US.
The 29th President of Mexico, Porifirio Diaz, sagely observed, “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” Eventually, when we here, in the US are replaced, who will be blamed?
October 2, 2012 @ 10:13 am
Poor Moonbeam. These people are like ungrateful, spoiled children. I don’t know why anyone would pander to them.
October 2, 2012 @ 9:58 am
Since WHEN do illegal aliens or their advocates get to set policy in California??
“Would he have that same level of Latino support should he run for re-election?” DeSipio said. “I don’t think so.”
Nonsense. They’ll vote for the Democrat every time! As Pat Buchanan said, “They’ll vote themselves services.”
California is on an unsustainable course, no thanks to illegal aliens and the pols in Sacramento who favor them over taxpayers:
From the Economic Collapse Blog:
Illegal aliens:
*California houses an estimated 25% of all of the country’s illegal immigrants. The tax paid by one legal citizen is equivalent to the taxes paid by nearly ten illegal immigrants in the given industry.
*Nearly 1 million undocumented immigrants live and work openly in California with little or no fear of deportation
*Entitlement programs, education, health care, and public services including institutional expenses combine to equal $10.738 billion.
*According to a Fox News report dated January 19, 2011, immigration watch dog groups have estimated the total cost to California’s economy to be as high as $21.8 billion.
This as businesses and productive tax payers — tired of being fleeced by the likes of Brown and his cronies — flee the state:
*Just 1 percent of California taxpayers are already providing 45 percent of the state’s income tax revenue, such income taxes now fund half the budget.
*The number of upper-income earners in California has shrunk by a third between 2007 and 2009. Wealthy Californians are fleeing to nearby no-income-tax states
What happens when you run out of other people’s money?
Bon
October 2, 2012 @ 10:16 am
And California will expect the rest of the country to bail them out when they end up like Greece. Why should I have to pay for their “compassion”? I already pay for enough of it with all the federal benefits these unwelcome vistors receive.
October 2, 2012 @ 10:21 am
I recall California a Glorious, emerging 3rd World Country. The very rich, in well patrolled and gated communities just like in Mexico. Areas that once were Wally & Beaver, June & Ward communities, now barrios, slums, dangerous, dirty… , well, like in Mexico yet again. But who cares! Cheap labor abounds, and that is what it is all about. Just ask, The “American” Chamber of Commerce.
The curious thing is, that all of those Californians that leave, take with them their Liberal JumbleF of thinking. In Colorado, natives there now find expat Californians much less desirable than Texans! Good for me.
The Pacific North West, are safe areas for Obama, just chock full of Californians.
When Uncle Sugar Sam goes broke, just get a good safe seat, to watch super riots burn Lost Angels down. The mountains West of LA are a nice spot. (The Media will likely not show much, as it might make The Sheeple nervous, or worse, start thinking.)
October 2, 2012 @ 10:36 am
And a lot of them are headed to Texas with their liberal ways, LWesson. Frankly, I would rather pay more for produce than pay for the costs incurred by illegal aliens and their progeny.
October 2, 2012 @ 11:43 am
“Mountains West of LA” LOL! That would be the Pacific Ocean! Lovely Mountains EAST of LA. I just have WEST, on my mind all of the time.
My Texas History Professor, told me that it was all over, that we are deader than a beaver hat. Advised me to go West, North West, Alaska…
The Californians that are here, well like down the street, shun us, and everyone. My cousin, who has been in S. California, for over 30 years, is so Californian, that he has nothing to do with me.
As per produce, we have such a, False Economy, of what products should cost, but don’t, you would hear high pitched screams of horror, if they had to pay Real World costs. The Californians down the street in their nearly 1 million dollar new house, would be outraged if actual Americans had built their dream home. Far better to use cheeeep Alien labor. There was a time that actual Americans built houses… imagine that! The horrors!
October 2, 2012 @ 3:30 pm
lwesson: The Santa Monica Mountains are West of LA.
October 2, 2012 @ 3:41 pm
With all the liberal Hollywood actors, directors, producers having billions of dollars of income, they can step up and increase their tax rate, donate directly to California instead of Africa, Haiti and 3rd World countries – problem solved.
October 3, 2012 @ 8:02 am
Mach37, I recall fondly, the Angeles Mountains, pretty much East of LA, seeing buildings rise up out of the smog. (Native Americans said of the area, constant smoke.) A friend went to Angeles, to retreat from her house near the riots, and watched LA burn. Instant Conservative from then on…
Amfer Freg: Worked in The Machine, of Hollywood. Maybe I am being unfair, but the word, CHEAP, comes to mind. Certainly not all, as Clint Eastwood said, but the more liberal, the cheaper, and more manipulative. Never will forget the day, that THEY hid the lobsters from us, as we ate with the crew, being CORE horsemen, some 8 of us! How petty but most memorable.
I recall suddenly assisting a Director, (a nice person) directing… as the Assistant Director stormed off, and instantly I became a Human Being, to the Crew! WOW! Interesting, revealing, and creepy. No, they will not donate, but will live in their special, selective, universe.
October 2, 2012 @ 10:26 am
Here in Texas about 1/3 of the inmates in the prison system are illegal aliens. The cost to the state is staggering. Remember, all of these are in prison for state felonies not federal crimes.
October 2, 2012 @ 10:38 am
Add to that the costs of health care (free ER visits) and education (why “Robin Hood” is necessary here) and they are a horrible drain on the Texas economy. It would be cheaper to pay more for nannies and housekeepers and even construction work that it is to pay all the taxes required to care for the illegal aliens.
Notice I keep using that non-PC term. It is the one I grew up hearing.
October 2, 2012 @ 11:56 am
Several years ago, my Sister was taken to The Emergency Room, in a nearby Houston, little town. Hours, ghastly long hours past, as Aliens jabbered on, not in English…, waiting for free treatment… . She survived, but left the hospital a changed person. Nurses were way beyond exasperated, she said.
No, the powers that be, want their cheeeep labor. They will gleefully pass the hidden costs off to you, me, what is left of The Republic. The Republic, a quaint subject…
As Senator Phil Graham said in a speech here in Houston, taking his wallet out and pointing to the cash, “It is all about the money.” The Founders would run Graham out on a rail. He lives NOW, on an beautiful little island with his Wife, a former head accountant of ENRON, off the New England coast, away from the lowly lowly people of Texas, of which, there are less of, every day.
October 2, 2012 @ 12:33 pm
The illegal aliens are mad because Governor “Moon Beam” didn’t do enough to help them? Too bad, how sad! Or to put it another way… screw ‘em!