On Sept. 30, with midnight approaching—the last possible moment to sign or veto bills passed during the 2012 legislative season—California Gov. Jerry Brown struck down not one, not two, but three different pieces of pro-immigrant legislation waiting to be signed into law.
The Democrat Brown presents himself as a fighter for immigrants’ rights. On his website bio, under the words “Jerry’s Career Highlights,” he has on proud display a touching picture of himself walking down a dusty road with Mexican American farmworker organizer Cesar Chavez.
Under “Jerry’s Career Highlights” (maybe near the image of the late co-founder of the United Farm Workers), we can now add Brown’s latest “achievements.”
Gov. Brown vetoes shade and water for farmworkers
AB 2676, “The Humane Treatment of Farm Workers Act,” would have made it a crime for landowners not to provide shade and water to farmworkers. Brown vetoed this. Why? According to his veto message, because California’s outdoor heat standards are already “the most stringent in the nation.” Apparently, you can have the “most stringent” standards in the country for outdoor workers and still make no provisions for elementary protection from extreme heat—like shade and water!
He goes on to say that enforcement would unfairly “single out agricultural employers” for punishment. While Brown appears to have a profound moral apprehension about “singling out” farm bosses who abuse their workers, he has no moral apprehension about letting 400,000 California farmworkers continue to toil in extreme heat, unprotected. At least 16 farmworkers have died due to heat illness since 2005.
Gov. Brown vetoes overtime, rest and meal breaks for domestic workers
There are 200,000 primarily foreign-born domestic workers in California. AB 889, “The Domestic Workers Bill of Rights,” would have required overtime pay; adequate sleeping conditions; and meal and rest breaks for nannies, housekeepers and health aides. Brown vetoed this as well. His veto message states that guaranteeing these very basic rights to domestic workers might increase the cost of their labor and have an adverse “economic and human impact” on their employers. The adverse “economic and human impact” of being underpaid, overworked, underfed and sleep-deprived for domestic workers and their families merits no mention in Brown’s statement.
Gov. Brown vetoes restricting cooperation between local police and ICE
AB 1081, “The Trust Act,” would have restricted California’s cooperation in the Secure Communities Program, a creation of the Obama administration that relies on local police to assist ICE in deporting immigrants with “criminal records.” This racist weapon against immigrant communities has helped the Obama administration continuously break deportation records year after year, with the largest number in U.S. history deported in 2011 with 396,906.
According to Brown’s veto message, he vetoed The Trust Act partly because he believes “it’s unwise to interfere with a sheriff’s discretion. …” One look at Arizona, where sheriff’s officers have gone rogue and racial profiling and abuse of immigrant communities is rampant, is enough to rip the mask off Brown’s insincere ramblings.
Immigrants have to wait for their rights … after all, it’s an election year?!
The real reason why Brown vetoed The Trust Act and the other substantial pro-immigrant reform bills is that they would have brought California’s Democratic administration into confrontation with powerful sections of the ruling class—industrial farmers, landowners, rich capitalists of all sorts, local sheriffs and police departments, and so on—just a few weeks before the presidential election.
The Democratic Party knows that the capitalist elections will be won or lost, not by winning the hearts and minds of millions of immigrant workers, but by proving to the capitalist class that they can properly manage their affairs.
This is why the Democratic Party’s implicit message to every oppressed community in the United States, especially during election years, is to not struggle, but rather to postpone any fight indefinitely, to put every hope and aspiration for change on hold, to simply wait for the politicians to come through for us. That is, just be patient. No doubt this is what Brown and his administration are running around telling California’s immigrant communities, as an excuse for vetoing their rights away.
Meanwhile, the fact that the Democratic majority in the legislature passed these bills helps the Democrats prop up for awhile longer their increasingly shaky progressive facade, even as they along with the Republicans serve the ruling rich and not the people.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Lindsay/Osorio presidential campaign has the exact opposite program from the Democrats’ program of waiting around eternally for our rights.
Our campaign is about fighting for full rights and legalization for all immigrants now, not later, and advancing the interests of all working people.
