Meeting, March 22, 2018 Deportations, DACA & Questionable Behavior of the Sheriff

Spojmie Nasiri, Immigration Attorney

Deportations and the DACA Experience
Thursday, March 22, 2018
6:00 Networking & Sharing Ideas
7:10 Program
Crow Canyon Country Club
711 Silver Lake Drive, Danville
Please RSVP president@srvdems.org

Within the past month in the Bay area, ICE has detained more than 150 undocumented individuals, some of whom have no felonies. For example, an undocumented person with merely a 10 year old DUI on their record has been deported. It is true that individuals with felonies can be legally deported, but it reaches the absurd when a San Rafael business owner was deported when something was found on his record that happened 20 years ago. Families are being broken up indiscriminately. It has touched our nearby community as a woman from San Ramon’s Windemere Ranch put out a plea on Next Door for people to donate to a “gofundme” page. Her daughter is married to a man who was deported and he was the breadwinner for the family with three children.

Immigration Attorney Spojmie Nasiri will tell us about the process of ICE detention. What happens to the undocumented individual? What can an immigration attorney do? She can highlight this information with the examples of the lives of her clients, trying to gain “due process.” She will give us a brief history of DACA, what it means and what are the benefits, in addition to what DACA means under Trump administration.

Spojmie Nasiri is a first generation immigrant herself who understands through personal experience how difficult and emotionally draining American immigration process can be. She received her B.A.in Political Science from the University of California, Davis and her J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law. Nasiri is a member of the California State Bar and is admitted to practice before the California Supreme Court. Nasiri is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. In addition to her practice, she served as a pro bono attorney with the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of California, Davis.

Arturo Fernandez, UC Berkeley DACA graduate student

Arturo Fernandez is a 5th year PhD candidate in the Statistics Department at UC Berkeley. His research ongoing projects include the statistical modeling of tropical cyclone genesis and algorithmic techniques for modeling earthquake aftershocks. Arturo was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, grew up in Pittsburg, California, and has been living in Berkeley, CA for nearly a decade. Arturo is undocumented and a DACA beneficiary. Arturo dedicates time, energy, and soul to fighting for pro-immigrant policies. With the undocumented community and other marginalized communities consistently being attacked, he sees the current political climate as a call to action. He has participated in community organizing as well as issue and legislation campaigns that include sanctuary city, sanctuary state, rapid response networks, and more. Local politics are the most important politics!

Rodrigo Torres, volunteer for CIVIC

We will also hear from Rodrigo, Torres a volunteer with CIVIC, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement. He is an advocate for the rights, dignity and wellbeing of immigrants in detention. He is a US Citizen, a Mexican Citizen, and is deeply concerned about the human rights of those who choose to immigrate. CIVIC Bay Area is a group of volunteers that visits and assists people in immigration detention at the West County Detention Center in Richmond, California. People held not on criminal cases, but solely due to their immigration status.

Jeff Landau, Public Defender in Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County Deputy Public Defender Jeff Landau will address the issues surrounding the Contra Costa County Sheriff, David Livingston, who has implemented policies and rules with adverse effects on detainees and incarcerated individuals. He will discuss the Sheriff’s recent rejection of community volunteers from West County Detention Facility.

Jeff Landau has been a public defender in Contra Costa since 2008 and a co-founder and organizer with the Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition (CCCRJC), that is committed to eliminating racial inequalities in Contra Costa. With the coalition, Jeff organized advocacy that helped end juvenile fees in Contra Costa and create a county Racial Justice Task Force. Jeff created his office’s first racial justice externship and is a training committee member of Public Defenders for Racial Justice. He graduated from the University of Michigan with two bachelor’s degrees and a law degree.

Then we will shift the discussion to the June election. Do you know why the June election is so important? The election of county-wide candidates can be determined in June! It is THE election for Contra Contra County District Attorney and Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools.

Becca Barrett, Campaign Consultant, Campaign Fundraiser, Progressive Fighter

Rebecca Barrett, Campaign Consultant, Campaign Fundraiser and Progressive Fighter, knows what it takes to make a campaign successful. Rebecca will tell us how grassroots organization can make a difference.

Rebecca’s experience is impressive. She has constructed and implemented an in-district fundraising plan for Congressman DeSaulnier that raised nearly $200,000 in 2016. She has effectively managed all aspects of a campaign, including fundraisers and events, candidate messaging, donor pledges plan, direct mail, op-eds, and field campaign work.

With over ten years of campaign experience, Becca has worked to elect State Superintendent Tom Torlakson, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, Supervisor Diane Burgis, Lynn Mackey for County Superintendent, and most recently Rebecca Bauer-Kahan for State Assembly. She is She has recently been elected as President of the Contra Costa Young Democrats, and when she is not campaigning you can catch her behind her camera or watching Netflix.

Please join us at 6:00 pm to talk about the latest political news and network.

Our dinner buffets are wonderful and please remember members will always get $5 off!

Members: $27 per person
Nonmembers: $32 per person

Please Brodie Hilp or just hit reply to this email to let us that you are coming by Thursday, March 15 (we need a ‘head count’ for the dinner). Thank you for your help.

RSVP to make certain you have a dinner. To reserve a dinner, please send a check for $27 or $32 payable to Brodie Hilp, 130 Bridgeside Circle, Danville, CA 94506