Job Opportunities Available in Sonoma County!

Our partner, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa, is currently offering multiple job positions at their locations in Sonoma County. Catholic Charities is a thriving non-profit — and the largest human services provider in the North Bay. They serve the most vulnerable regardless of their religious, social, or economic background. They challenge poverty, counsel immigrants, and care for our seniors by supporting the dignity and independence of all they serve.

Click on the button below for available positions and call the front desk at 707-308-4766 for additional information.

Governor Newsom Rejects Farmworker Voting Bill

United Farm Workers (UFW) organized a 335 mile 24-day march, starting on August 3rd and ending this past Friday, to push Governor Newsom to sign a voting bill that would allow farmworkers the option to vote by mail in union elections. 

Current state law requires farmworkers to vote in person on sites owned by the their employers. However, this creates an environment of intimidation and causes them to not participate in order to avoid retaliation from their employers. Majority of these workers are undocumented and are often subjected to numerous threats such as deportation, sexual harrassment, wage theft, and negligent or lack of safety protocols.

The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act would have changed that in-person voting requirement and would also prohibit growers from encouraging or discouraging union membership. Under the new bill, growers could also face fines of up to $25,000 for certain specific labor rights violations, and up to $10,000 for general labor rights violations.

Consisting of 19 farmworkers, they endured triple-digit temperatures as they marched from Delano to Sacramento on the same route as the 1966 march led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. By the end, thousands rallied with the group in front of the State Capitol Building to urge Newsom to sign.

Unfortunately, the governor's office issued a statement hours before farmworkers started their last mile that Newsom would not support the bill, citing concerns over how the mail-in process would be administered. However, his office stated that he remains open to negotiations. 

LexisNexis’s tools bring together data on millions of individuals from a wide variety of sources, including credit agencies and utility providers. However, the widespread use of the tools has raised serious questions about guarantees it's only used to identify individuals with dangerous criminal records. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has maintained a contract with the company since at least last year, and recent details of how the agency has utilized that multimillion-dollar contract to identify, pursue and deport undocumented immigrants have begun to emerge.

A coalition of immigration advocacy groups, including Mijente and Just Future Law, started the #NoTechForIce campaign to urge tech companies to sever ties with ICE and have recently filed a lawsuit against LexisNexis in Illinois for "creating a massive surveillance state with files on almost every adult U.S. consumer". In California, the data broker Thomson Reuters faces a similar lawsuit (filed in 2020) that accuses the company of violating state law by collecting and selling residents' personal information to corporations, law enforcement and government agencies. 

Documents obtained by Just Future Law via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) revealed that ICE agents had used LexisNexis' database more than 1 million times in a span of several months in 2021. The documents also confirmed that federal officials were skirting around the "santuary city" laws, which prohibits city employees from using funds or resources to assist ICE in the enforcement of Federal immigration law unless such assistance is required by federal or state law.

The revelations about the use of data brokers like LexisNexis to circumvent sanctuary city policies have brought more parties into the push to have the firms drop work with ICE. In Cook County, Ill., local officials held a public hearing on July 27th to investigate how data brokers like LexisNexis ICE to skirt sanctuary protections and possibly violate the rights of county residents. Because Cook County has a separate contract with LexisNexis, the company has access to real-time jail booking details (including incarceration and release data). This means that ICE agents can also obtain such information and pick up immigrants targeted for deportation who are arrested, even if they are not ultimately found guilty of any crimes. 

Librarians, one of LexisNexis' larger consumer bases, have also come out to protest against ICE's use of the company search tools. The Library Freedom Project (LFP) is one of several librarian associations and aimed at increasing privacy and resisting the "surveillance state" recently staged action at the American Librarian Association Conference in Washington, D.C. in June.

"The company is on notice: Librarians and lawyers across the country are calling on them to stop working on deportations and stop terrorizing immigrant communities," Cinthya Rodriguez, a national organizer with Mijente’s #NoTechforICE campaign, said in a statement. 

• Maintains the current criteria for DACA
• Retains the process for DACA recipients to receive work authorization
• Affirms the longstanding policy that DACA is not a form of lawful status, but are considered "lawfully" for certain purposes.

With this summer reaching record-breaking temperatures, today's dish will bring a cool touch to your palate. Gazpacho (also called Andalusian gazpacho) is a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables and originated in the southern regions of the Iberian peninsula. Its refreshing taste makes it a popular dish during the summer months in Portugal and Spain. Not only is this soup full of veggie goodness, but it's also simple to make!

Updates from Our Partners

The Clinic remains open for “remote” client consultation. Attorney Jacqueline Brown Scott maintains frequent communication with all clients and continues to update them on COVID-19 as it pertains to their case and its ramifications such as court date postponement. USF remains available for over-the-phone consultations.

For more information, please call (415) 422-3330.
 

Catholic Charities provides over 3,000 legal services to immigrants across Northern California each year. With 10 Department of Justice-accredited counselors on staff, clients know the services they receive will help them accomplish their goals safely and legally. Services include: Family-Based Petitions, DACA, Citizenship/Naturalization, Green Card renewals, VAWA (including U Visa and T Visa), and more.

For more information, please call (707) 528-8712.