Whereas, the CFT has a strong record of advocating for the rights of undocumented students and workers and of reaffirming solidarity with immigrant students, families, and communities; and

Whereas, President Obama took executive action to grant conditional and temporary status to 800,000 undocumented youth, granting them the right to work legally, by implementing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012; and

Whereas, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) provides temporary legal status, including the ability to work legally, to approximately 325,000 TPS recipients across the country; and

Whereas, 70 percent of immigrant families are mixed status, meaning there is at least one undocumented family member who may benefit from DACA or TPS; and

Whereas, President Trump rescinded both DACA and the TPS program, putting all recipients at risk of losing their ability to work or study and putting them at risk of deportation; and

Whereas, more than 100 undocumented people previously covered under DACA lose their status every single day; and

Whereas, Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency using demeaning and inflammatory language, emboldening the political will for attacks on the immigrant community, and continues to do so with increasingly hostile rhetoric; and

Whereas, the Trump administration has increased domestic enforcement, targeting immigrants with low-level criminal offenses or no criminal record at all, while ICE officers have targeted, detained and deported DACA and TPS recipients and activists despite assurance that they are targeting only those with criminal records; and

Whereas, President Trump’s decision to rescind these programs and increase enforcement, including workplace raids, has created a climate of fear for undocumented workers, families and their communities; and

Whereas, there are approximately a quarter million DACA recipients and 55,000 TPS recipients in California alone; and

Whereas, CFT members are willing to make workplace demands of their employers in support of their colleagues and students who are under attack;

Therefore, be it resolved, that the California Federation of Teachers will work to support and advocate for all union members who are DACA and TPS recipients, and who are either detained or put in removal proceedings, to receive legal and social services; and

Be it further resolved, that CFT will support union members who advocate for undocumented members who are directly impacted by anti-immigrant measures; and

Be it further resolved, that CFT will actively support organizing efforts and campaigns involving undocumented members who may stand to lose their ability to work and earn a living or are put in removal proceedings; and

Be it further resolved, that CFT will support contract language or memorandums of understanding in local union collective bargaining agreements that broadly support and protect the rights of DACA and TPS recipients at their places of employment; and

Be it finally resolved, that CFT will support local, state, and national legislation to reinstate TPS, preserve DACA and pass a Clean Dream Act that does not include increased domestic or border enforcement.
 

• Passed as Resolution 25 on March 25, 2018
• Submitted by the University Council-AFT