¡Ya Basta!
Learning about the history of immigration rights in San Francisco.
Last Monday night, I attended ¡Ya Basta! ("enough already!"), an online panel discussion about the fight for immigrant rights in San Francisco by the Northern California Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NCCIR) during the decade between 1986 and 1996. There were three speakers, all of whom were heavily active during that time period: Emily Goldfarb, former director of the NCCIR, Clara Luz Navarro, who co-founded Mujeres Unidad y Activas (MUA), and Ignatius Bau, an immigration lawyer.
The events and issues covered in this talk were a world away to me when they were happening—I was still a kid in Seattle. The world wasn't as connected back then, and issues like immigration weren't on my radar much growing up—even though probably half of my school friends were immigrants (mostly from Southeast Asia). I should have been more aware! But I wasn't.
As soon as I moved to California twenty+ years ago, it became clear to me that I had a lot to learn about immigration issues. I have strong feelings in support of immigrants. I don't understand how one can look at the history of borders and immigration and not see a steady drumbeat of fear, greed, and race-based exclusion—attitudes that seem obviously best left in the past but keep getting revived, only with new targets. I am boggled at the mindset of wanting to put up fences and limit who can join us as neighbors.
Hearing about the specific stories from the late '80s and mid '90s from the panel was illuminating. I greatly appreciated having this particular gap in my understanding filled in a bit.
Because I'm just learning about the events of this time period, it would be inappropriate for me to try to convey all of what I learned from the panel; the risk is too high that I'll misrepresent things. Instead, I'll share some of the notes I jotted down as things to read up on more. This represents only a fraction of what was presented. I'm still likely to make mistakes here and get things wrong, but we've got to start somewhere.
Emily Goldfarb, director of the NCCIR in the '80s & '90s
I'm ashamed to admit that the acronym IRCA was totally new to me. That's the immigration law, signed by Reagan in 1986 (I was in the 6th grade), that did two big things. First, it provided amnesty to (most of) those who had come to the U.S. prior to 1984 and didn't have documentation. Second, this was the act that made it illegal to hire an immigrant without documentation.
I have much more to learn about the IRCA, which seems important as we're obviously still dealing with the ripple effects today. I want to better understand the state of things that led up to the IRCA, and the backlash that followed.
Emily Goldfarb mentioned that back in those days, a huge part of their effort was "Know Your Rights," "Conozca Sus Derechos." Just as today, there was a big push for making sure that people understood how to protect themselves in situations with immigration authorities. She also said they had to do a lot of education about "notario" abuse: people who say they can provide legal assistance to vulnerable and desperate immigrants, but in reality fleece them, taking their money but not actually working on their behalf. (Wanda and I just read a book, When the Angels Left the Old Country, where this sort of scamming is a central story element—only the targets were Jewish immigrants in New York City in the late 1800s. An age-old problem.)
Clara Luz Navarro, co-founder of MUA
Next we heard from Clara Luz Navarro about her early work with NCCIR. She was brought in to help the NCCIR with a study to interview undocumented immigrant women, to better understand their specific experiences and difficulties. She met with quite a few women here in San Francisco, and through the study they learned about the particularly tenuous and vulnerable situation undocumented women were (are) in. They were more likely to be experiencing abuse, and had nearly no recourse or support because of the fear of being deported.
As Clara Luz met with these women, they asked her what would happen after the study was completed. These women felt supported and empowered even just that someone was wanting to hear their experiences. They asked to keep in contact after the study was complete. They did continue to meet, in parks because they had no venue that could host them. That grew into Mujeres Unidad y Activas (MUA) ("united and active women"), an organization that is still working on behalf of immigrant women's rights today.
Ignatius Bau, immigration lawyer
Ignatius Bau then spoke about some of the legal events of the era. I hadn't known about the raid on Club Elegante at 30th & Mission in 1989 (Club Malibu is there today). INS (which later became ICE) went to the club with people from the California liquor control board, under the guise of a crackdown on "underage drinking." They blocked the exits in the crowded club, and made everyone show their paperwork in order to leave. The undocumented immigrants in the club were deported that night. Aside from being a horrific display of needless cruelty, this was a massive violation of the legal rights of everyone in the club.
The outcry that came after that night led to San Francisco strengthening its official position as a sanctuary city. Ignatius said that local immigrant rights activists worked with the SFPD to help them understand why their cooperating with INS would have a detrimental and chilling effect on the entire immigrant community, regardless of their documentation status.
Ignatius also talked about the huge effort in fighting against Prop 187 in 1994, which called for prohibiting undocumented immigrants from using public services such as health care and public education. The prop passed, but was pretty swiftly overturned in the court system, and support for the idea fell out of favor. A huge number of undocumented immigrants pay taxes, and many more would if they weren't driven to under-the-table work. I had learned about Prop 187 thanks to reading the Front Desk book series with Wanda; it's a major plot point in the second book.
Call to action
I believe the main organizing group of the panel was the Center for Political Education. I was impressed with how they handled presenting simultaneously in both English and Spanish. They had two translators, each was on a separate language channel. I didn't catch the names of the translators, but the woman who was translating into English did a stellar job of working fast, clear, and emotively. Very cool!
At the end of the talk, they encouraged folks to connect with people in their neighborhoods to look out for each other, and to find ways to support each other. They pointed attendees to Bay Resistance to connect with local neighborhood groups.
A common thread throughout the panel was that you need to be ready to work together with groups and people that might surprise you. Immigrants, regardless of their paperwork status, form a big part of our collective social fabric. Ripping them out of that fabric leaves holes that impact all of us, which means there's a lot of common ground to be found in supporting them.