Good Evening Mayor and Councilmembers,
My name is Lata Murti, and I am a local educator and member of several community organizations, including All About YOUth-Santa Maria-Lompoc (formerly Women's March Santa Maria Valley) and NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)-Santa Maria-Lompoc. I am also a proud resident of Santa Maria-Orcutt, in Santa Barbara County.
I am writing to you today to strongly urge this Council to formally create an immigrant legal defense fund, among other critical resources and policies that support the undocumented community in the City of Santa Maria, due to the significant increase in immigration enforcement activities that have generated fear and instability within our communities, especially among our farmworking families, youth, and children.
I stand with the 805 Immigrant Coalition in their request for this city council to allocate $500,000 in immigrant legal defense, to join and enter into agreement with the Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem lawsuit with the ACLU--which challenges immigration enforcement practices in Southern California, specifically discriminatory stops and unlawful arrests without sufficient reasonable suspicion--and adoption of legislative policies that protect immigrant communities and all Californians.
I myself am the daughter of immigrants of color who sees how scared my own parents are in this current political climate of anti-immigrant sentiment and racial profiling. At my father's request, I have been carrying a copy of my birth certificate in my purse for nearly the last year. If my parents, both naturalized citizens who immigrated to the U.S. more than 50 years ago, live in fear in Santa Maria every day, how much more so our city's vulnerable undocumented farmworkers and their families?
Demonstrating unequivocal support of undocumented immigrants helps all immigrants in our community feel safe, no matter their status. I urge the Santa Maria City Council to take a strong and principled stand just as your neighboring cities--Lompoc, Guadalupe, Carpinteria, and Goleta-- have taken in support of their undocumented residents.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Dr. Lata Murti
--
Lata Murti, Ph.D.
Consultant, Climbing Vine~DEI Consulting & Training~Editing~Tutoring in Writing, Spanish, & Social Sciences
Co-Host, Central Coast Voices, KCBX Public Radio
Collaborator, Cultural Creations Collaborative, LLC
Project Assistant, Our Roots, Our Routes: Living Histories of California's Central Coast