As the federal government and ICE escalate in their attacks in our community, it’s up to us to stand up and protect ourselves and our neighbors. This year, our migrant rights committee has mobilized in response to an anti-sanctuary cities bill (SB554) proposed by local politicians, the TRUTH Act forum, the ICE raid on Buona Forchetta, and hosted a know your rights workshop for our members in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee. We are also pushing our local electeds to actively take steps to protect our communities under attack.
In our last update we discussed how the committee voted to focus specifically on school boards as local electeds we demand to step up and meet the moment. After learning more about school boards across the county we have identified the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) as the first school board we are targeting in this campaign. To mark this focusing of targets we are officially launching the next part of our Migrant Rights campaign, Education Not Deportation.
East County community members are particularly vulnerable to the Trump regime’s aggression because of the attitudes of city council members and mayors. Specifically Bill Wells, Phil Ortiz, and Steve Goble of El Cajon passed a resolution to have police comply as much as the state law will allow them with ICE, effectively inviting ICE to conduct raids in their city and to deputize the police there. This decision directly puts children and families in the Grossmont Union High School District at risk as schools have been stripped of their status as safe spots from ICE raids by the federal government.
We will be pressuring the Grossmont Union High School District to adopt similar policies as passed by the San Diego Unified School District to protect immigrant students, including training teachers, staff and parents on the updated policies.
Over the next couple of months we will be organizing for the Education Not Deportation campaign. We are looking for members to join us in attending the GUHSD board meetings, to join canvassing for the GUHSD recall campaign, and to help reach out to our community in East County.
Join us in protecting our schools and calling for Education Not Deportation!