San Jose State’s Human Rights Institute and many other community activism organizations led a march from Hedding and First streets to city hall Saturday morning, demanding that marginalized communities be included and prioritized in a new U.S. $3.5 trillion spending bill.
William Armaline, associate sociology professor and director of SJSU’s Human Rights Institute, a research and policy institute, said Saturday’s march and rally were an opportunity for marginalized communities to come together in solidarity.
Armaline said the way in which the $3.5 trillion spending plan is realized will determine how invested Congress is in creating a more viable future for everyone.
Protest sponsor South Bay Progressive Alliance, which raises awareness of and promotes progressive candidates and policies at a local and state level, stated the march is a call on Congress to provide a path to citizenship for all, free community college and pre-K education, expansion of Medicaid and Medicare, and equal labor rights, in the event flyer.
“This is going to be a statement on whether or not we take seriously the overlapping economic and climate change issues of our time,” Armaline said. “And, frankly, if we're not willing to make this petty downpayment on what actually needs to be invested, it's a real signal to us as to what we're dealing with with the state.”
Senate Concurrent Resolution 14 was introduced on July 13 through the Senate Budget Committee by its chairman, Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, according to an Aug. 9 memorandum to Democratic Senators.
The $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation resolution is designed to be offset by new tax revenues, healthcare savings and long-term economic growth as part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” Agenda, according to the same memorandum.
The Build Back Better Agenda aims to create jobs, lower taxes and cut costs for the working class by raising tax revenue, reforming the tax code and taxing wealthier individuals and corporations, according to the White House website.
While the resolution aims to create a “lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants,” it also includes border security measures and investments in the Community Violence Intervention initiative which according to the White House CVI webpage increases funding for hiring new law enforcement officers and enhancing policing.
Under the Biden-Harris Community Violence Intervention plan, the Justice Department will allocate $11 million in competitive grants toward programs that prevent and reduce youth violence.
It will also allocate $156 million to its “Cops Hiring” Program and an additional $8 million to its Smart Policing program, which assists law enforcement in using data and technology in policing, according to the same White House webpage.
Local activists including Veronica Guzman and Crystal Calhoun said they want marginalized communities to be centered in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation because they’re “underfunded and overpoliced.”
Guzman’s brother died by suicide at age 21. She said San Jose Unified School District failed him by neglecting to provide mental health services and basic accommodations for him as an autistic student.
Guzman runs Yo Soy Tu Voz, an organization that helps monolingual Spanish-speaking parents navigate the school system.
She said many undocumented parents and children are afraid to seek help or services and often have their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act and privacy laws violated by the school district.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990 as a civil rights law that prevents discrimination against people with disabilities and mandates accommodations for disabled people in all areas of public life. This sweeping legislation also mandated reasonable accommodations for disabled students in schools, according to the ADA National Network website,
Privacy laws include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, which was created to protect sensitive medical information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge, according to the CDC’s website.
“Right now, the process for a parent asking [for] a petition to stay based on their child's disability is a long process,” Guzman said. “It's very embarrassing. It is inhumane.”
Guzman said for undocumented parents and students, a clear path to citizenship would eliminate the fear surrounding resource access.
Guzman said her brother, Francisco Blanco, would have been 50 years old this year.
Crystal Calhoun volunteers with the San Jose Unified Equity Coalition. Retired with 14 grandchildren, Calhoun said she worries about them growing up in a school system where Black children are policed rather than served.
Although Calhoun and other advocates succeeded in removing police from San Jose Unified School District campuses in June, the school district voted six weeks later to allow police back on campuses for after-school events.
“This is why I don’t just say ‘defund the police,’ I say ‘upfund the students,’ ” Calhoun said during an interview.
Calhoun said she would like to see funds that are used to police children on San Jose campuses reallocated to provide resources for students living in poverty and experiencing homelessness.
According to the last homeless census of San Jose conducted in 2019, 6% of San Jose’s 6,097 homeless individuals were minors. Taken before the coronavirus pandemic began, this figure represented 365 children experiencing homelessness in San Jose.
Sameena Usman, council on American-Islamic Relations government relations coordinator, said standing in solidarity with immigrants in the greater community is crucial to the group’s work.
With the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a new wave of Afghan refugees is expected to seek safety in the nation, according to a Sept. 3 New York Times article.
“It’s absolutely important to be able to stand side by side with our community, with our greater community to fight for worker rights, to fight for immigrant rights, to ensure that there's comprehensive immigration for all, especially in light of the refugees that are coming in,” Usman said in an interview.
Luis Angel Reyes-Savalza, an immigration attorney representing undocumented indviduals with Pangea Legal Services, said he is concerned about the 3 million undocumented immigrants who are excluded from being able to access a path to citizenship under the spending plan.
Pangea Legal Services, based in San Francisco, provides representation to immigrants in complex immigration and legal matters including asylum and cancellation of removal, according to its website.
“The House of Representatives have presented a proposal that unnecessarily and unfairly excludes 3 million undocumented immigrants, some of the most marginalized in our community,” Reyes-Savalza said during an interview.
Reyes-Savalza said in addition to excluding disabled and elderly people who cannot work, the proposal excludes people convicted even of minor crimes who’ve completed their sentences, using a “good immigrant, bad immigrant dichotomy” to decide who is worthy of pursuing citizenship.
In addition to petitioning President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Reyes-Savalza said he and others including the organization Papeles Para Todos are petitioning California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who was directly involved in drafting Senate Concurrent Resolution 14.
Papeles Para Todos is pushing for immigration policies that would grant citizenship to all undocumented immigrants,
“Next week, the Senate parliamentarian, who is an unelected person in Congress, is going to decide the fate of millions of undocumented immigrants,” Reyes-Savalza said.
The deadline for budget reconciliation is September 30, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Reyes-Savalza stressed the importance of mobilizing through contacting representatives and through in-person protesting before and on Sept. 30.
He also said he fears Senate Democrats will use the decision of the parliamentarian as an excuse for disenfranchising millions of immigrants living in the U.S.
“This lands with the democrats and this ends with the democrats, and they can override that parliamentarian and they need to override that parliamenta rian to provide legalization for all like they promised in their campaign,” Reyes-Savalza said. “We can no longer wait.”
