immigration Archives - Page 3 of 5

Teens lead Chico immigration policy protest

High schoolers worry that "history will repeat itself"

by Leslie Layton | Posted July 28, 2019

photo by Leslie Layton

Students from PATCH (Politically Active Teens of Chico High) staffed a voter registration booth.

In matching teal-colored T-shirts, a group of Chico teens Saturday led some 100 people on a downtown march to protest immigration policy and conditions for refugees at the border.

The teens, all of whom are students at Chico High and Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, said they chose teal to reflect the color in the Statute of Liberty torch-holder for a protest designed to recall the conditions that led to the Holocaust.

The protest was titled “March for Freedom: Never Again is Now,” and opened with student and parent speakers at City Plaza downtown.

Jordan Michelena, an organizer who is an Inspire student, said the protest “turned out pretty well for such short notice.” read more

Citizenship gives Santa Rosa dad sense of security

Green-card holders seek protection through citizenship

by Lindajoy Fenly | Posted June 25, 2019

photo by Lindajoy Fenley

Joel Verdejo Flores with children David and Gabriela.

Joel Verdejo Flores worked without authorization for nearly five years in California before obtaining a green card that made him a permanent resident in 1995.

He was 20 years old, Bill Clinton was president and moving beyond residency to citizenship didn’t seem like a pressing matter. But that changed in 2016 with the election of President Donald Trump.

As Trump’s supporters continued shouting, “Build that wall,” the Santa Rosa father of two U.S.-born children heard that immigration enforcement was becoming more rigorous. He stopped wavering.

“When the new president entered, I think that a lot of residents got worried and began to look for a way to become citizens,” he told ChicoSol in an interview in Santa Rosa’s Bicentennial Park, a neighborhood playground his children enjoy. “In the airports, they check your record more and detain you more frequently,” he added. read more

Chico’s “undocumented” attorney earns U.S. citizenship

Sergio Garcia says family-based migration is crucial

by Leslie Layton | Posted June 19, 2019

photo by Karen Laslo

Salvador Covarrubias (left) brought his young son Sergio Garcia to Chico, knowing that the boy would qualify for residency.

It took Sergio C. Garcia longer to become a U.S. citizen than it took for his native country, Mexico, to win independence from Spain.

It took longer than it took for him to win the right to practice law, becoming the nation’s first, so-called undocumented attorney.

Garcia will be sworn in as a U.S. citizen in a ceremony today in Sacramento – the end of a journey that began in 1994 when he was brought to the country as a teen who knew even then that if he was going to live in the United States, he wanted to belong as a participating citizen.

That it took Garcia 25 years to arrive at the belonging he longed for shows how cumbersome the immigration machine can be for people like him who qualify. His story also shows how family ties – one of several ways to qualify for a green card – can be weakened or broken by distance. read more

Protesters oppose policy that hurts children

People line the Skyway to call for migrant family unification

by Leslie Layton | Posted September 7, 2018

Almost 50 people showed up for a protest Thursday in Paradise to oppose the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of the people passing by on the Skyway honked in support of the protesters.

“I never thought I would be a person outside with a sign,” said one of the organizers, John Tackitt (pictured above behind the banner.) “But even if it’s just doing a little something, it’s something.”

Almost 500 children remain in government-run shelters, and it was reported today that the Trump administration wants to eliminate restrictions on the length of time minors can be held in detention centers. Under new regulations, children will be held indefinitely while their parents’ cases are pending in immigration court. read more

Dreamers worry Trump could end DACA

Republican leaders urge Trump to act by Sept. 5

by Gabriel Sandoval | Posted August 31, 2017

Aldo is worried, indeed afraid, that President Donald Trump may soon end or phase out a federal deportation-relief program, making it harder for him to live, work and study in the United States.

“My plan of getting my master’s, my plan of getting my doctorate, now looks very unrealistic,” said Aldo, a senior anthropology major at Chico State who requested that ChicoSol omit his last name.

Aldo is one of nearly 800,000 immigrants who benefit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which grants temporary deportation relief, work permits and Social Security numbers to law-abiding people who were brought to the country illegally as children. read more

Red Bluff man fights deportation

Immigration raids rattle North State communities

by Leslie Layton and Kate Sheehy | Posted March 31, 2017

Sandra Jimenez never expected that she’d have to visit her husband in 30-minute spells at an Elk Grove jailhouse. Or that only a few days after their one-year wedding anniversary, he would be fighting deportation and she would be wondering whether she’d have to leave her country — the United States — to be with him.

But that’s where it stands after the operation conducted last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in rural Northern California. Jimenez’s husband, Oscar Oseguera, 26, was detained by ICE officials March 21 as he left his Tehama County apartment in Red Bluff at daybreak to report to his job at a Driscoll strawberry plant. read more