Hundreds of One LA-IAF leaders convened at Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Pacoima with candidates for Los �ngeles County Supervisor District 3, Sheila Kuehl and Bobby Shriver. Leaders leveraged commitments from both to:

• Increase funding for My Health LA if the current funding stream falls short of covering all those eligible;

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At a town hall meeting held in Ames, Iowa, Congressman Steve King was confronted by AMOS leaders unhappy with his recent votes on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and treatment of unaccompanied minors from Central America.

Shari Reilly appealed to the Catholic faith shared with King when she asked him to take a more "humanitarian approach" to the unaccompanied children arriving from Mexico and Central America. On behalf of AMOS she invited the Congressman to a public assembly to be held in September at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church.

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"Diane Vanette, a volunteer with OneLA who screens people at Obamacare enrollment events, recently informed a couple with deferred-action status that they were both eligible for Medi-Cal. "He was shocked, she was shocked," Vanette said.

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Bay Area IAF organizations have been in local action for years around issues effecting immigrants, and are getting ready for federal immigration reform. Leaders in Marin, Sonoma, Solano, and Napa counties have been organizing immigration workshops and clinics aimed at connecting immigrants with trusted legal support, educating people about immigration reform proposals, and building a constituency of immigrant and non-immigrant leaders to lay the local foundation for a successful pathway to citizenship. Since December, more than 500 people have participated in workshops and clinics focused on youth applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and over 100 native-born allies have taken part in local Immigration Action Team workshops on the history and current implications of US immigration policy.

 

150 PCIC leaders, DREAMers and their parents filled the Board Room at Pima Community College and cheered when the Board of Governors voted 4-1 in favor of in-state tuition discounts for DACA students. Currently, hundreds of undocumented local students pay five times the in-state rate and are not eligible for financial aid.

PCIC leader Melanie Nelson spoke of the six Deferred Action Civic Academies held at her church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, last fall. "These students have lawful status now, but they can't afford the high tuition. Before DACA we had several attempted suicides in our parish. Now they need an pathway to an education and a future," she said. Before the vote, Jimmy Ojeda, a homeowner and parent, from St. John's, and Monica Leon, a U of A graduate, from Casa Maria Catholic Worker shared their own immigration stories. The group's goal is now to get the University of Arizona system to follow Pima's lead.

With the promise of the California DREAM Act still a year away, COPA leaders launched a 2012 campaign to bring financial help to undocumented college students in their community. $150,000 raised from businesses leveraged an additional $150,000 from UC Santa Cruz, allowing COPA and its partners to provide $300,000 in assistance in advance of the law.