Los Angeles City Council votes to make August “Immigrant Pride Month”

All council members present decided the city’s 1.6 million immigrants that make up 40 percent of the population deserved to be recognized.

The resolution deems Los Angeles a “global city” that represents many cultures and languages. In the past, the city has also voiced its disapproval of Arizona’s adoption of SB1070 as well as other copycat illegal immigration laws springing up in many other states.

“Anti-immigrant legislation like SB 1070 in Arizona and other ‘copy-cat’ measures now circulating across the nation inherently cause racial profiling and discrimination against certain ethno-racial groups that 'look and sound' like immigrant populations,” the resolution reads.

Los Angeles Council members have recognized several pro-immigrant advocates in California who are actively engaged to repeal Arizona's anti-immigrant laws, as well as prevent anti-immigrant legislation from passing in other states as a reason to adopt the resolution.
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The council clearly indicated they supported the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act even though it failed at the federal level last year during the lame-duck session in Congress.

“In 2011 important efforts are unfolding in California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and other states to enact pro-immigrant policies, as well as withdraw from ineffective and/or heavy-handed federal enforcement polices like Secure Communities.”

However, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) just announced they are rescinding the Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) on Secure Communities with states like California, Illinois, New York and Massachusetts that want to withdraw from the program. DHS maintains that the Secure Communities program is mandated by federal law and said it will implement the program nationwide by 2013.

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