Insights: Push to Protect Dreamers; Chemical Abortion Bill Advances

DACA Recipients – Keeping the American Dream Alive

Since 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, has granted work permits and protection from deportation to young undocumented immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as children. Today, more than a quarter of DACA’s 800,000 recipients, often referred to as “Dreamers,” live in California. Although their paths to the United States may have been different, the dedication to the community in which they live is quite similar.

(Download a PDF file of this story suitable for use as a bulletin insert or send a message to Congress.)

One such Dreamer is Jesus Limón, who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico when he was eight-years-old. Limón said his time growing up in California was filled with moments of fear and uncertainty due to his residency status. But, Limón credits his faith in God for helping him through hard times.

He also believes giving back to the community is paramount. In the past, Limón worked as a grant writer and as a volunteer tutor. “I learned the way literacy can empower communities,” he said. After DACA was enacted, Limón earned his Master’s degree and began working as an Assistant Professor and English Lecturer at Sacramento area colleges.  “There was a tremendous shift in terms of economics,” he said.

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No Big Surprises in Governor’s Budget Proposal

Governor Jerry Brown, announcing the final budget proposals of his four terms as Governor of the Golden State, appears to be mixing savings with investing and insuring his legacy while “wrapping up” loose ends.

In what has been typical for him of late, the Governor cautioned that the current economic recovery might soon become one of the longest in the State’s history but that recoveries do not last forever. 

In addition to the amount mandated by voters in Prop 2, he added $3.5 billion to the rainy day fund which will bring it to 100 percent of its target by the end of 2019.  The new Federal tax law added uncertainty to the State’s fiscal future noted the Governor, in further justifying the supplemental contribution to the fund.

In what amounts to a “maintenance” approach, Governor Brown highlighted increased funding for K-12 education; continued funding for the Children’s Health Insurance and Medi-Cal programs despite the uncertainty at the national level; and “investment” in such areas as infrastructure (e.g. road maintenance through the new gas tax), high-speed rail which he characterizes as “commuter’ corridor enhancements and housing programs which the legislature approved last year.

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College Chemical Abortion Bill Advances

In the continuing quest of advocates to promote abortions, SB 320 (Leyva, D-Chino) cleared the Senate Education Committee this week and is headed to the Senate Appropriations Committee. This bill would require the on-campus health centers of public universities in California to offer abortion-inducing medication or arrange transportation for students to a nearby abortion provider.

Click here to send a letter to your California State Senator and tell him or her that there should never be an incentive to abort any child, and that you oppose this one-sided bill.  Click here for more information on SB 320.

 

Bishops Launch “9 Days of Life” Campaign on Jan. 18

On January 18, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will launch the national “9 Days for Life” campaign calling Catholics and the faithful together for a 9-day “digital pilgrimage” focusing on cherishing the gift of human life from conception to natural death.

View a list of the major life events upcoming in California.

The campaign surrounds the annual Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children, which occurs on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade—the Supreme court decision that made abortion legal in the United States throughout pregnancy. Participants are called to both prayer and action unified around each day’s specific intention and can subscribe to receive daily messages atwww.9daysforlife.com. Leaders’ resources, including a press kit, are available at www.usccb.org/9-days-for-life-toolkit

 

Bishops Speak Out on Salvadorian TPS Termination

On January 8th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it is terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvador. TPS is a temporary, renewable, and statutorily authorized humanitarian migration program that permits individuals to remain and work lawfully in the U.S. during a period in which it is deemed unsafe for nationals of that country to return home. The vast majority of TPS recipients in the U.S. are Salvadoran.

In a released statement, Archbishop José H. Gomez lamented the travesties this decision will induce saying, “Now these families face a hard decision about their future — either stay together and go back to El Salvador to face likely violence and exploitation or separate possibly permanently so that the children can remain here in safety, with all the benefits of U.S. citizenship.”

“This is an inhumane choice that no one should have to make,” he said.

There are currently 200,000 residents with TPS status living in the U.S. who have 193,000 children who are U.S. citizens.

According to Bishop Kevin Vann of the Diocese of Orange, “This is yet another ill-conceived decision by an administration that ignores the immense contributions to our country by immigrants and that has lost sight of the United States’ long history as a safe haven for people who flee danger abroad.”

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 January 12, 2018
Vol. 11, No. 2

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