We envision a valley where all members of our diverse community are welcomed, respected and valued. No immigrant should live in fear or in the shadows, and we honor the dignity and the significant contributions of immigrants by organizing to protect the their rights to participate fully in community life. Click here for news and stories with latest updates, media coverage, videos and reports about our immigrant rights work. To get involved to protect and promote immigrant rights, contact Esmeralda Virelas at esmeraldavirelas@pactsj.org URGENT: Know Your Rights! It is more important that ever that you know your rights as an immigrant. PACT is offering Know Your Rights Forums so that we have the best information to keep ourselves and our neighbors protected. Check our calendarfor upcoming forums and click on links below for resources. COMMUNITY ALERT: VIETNAMESE COMMUNITY VULNERABLE FOR DEPORTATION MATERIALS ON ICE HOME RAIDS AND COMMUNITY ARRESTS (ESPAÑOL E INGLÉS) THE LATEST ON DACA/DAPA FROM THE IMMIGRANT LEGAL RESOURCE CENTER WHAT ALL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD KNOW POST ELECTION 2016 SOLIDARITY WORK Join our Solidarity Network to pledge your support for our brothers and sisters who are targeted – especially immigrants and Muslims – and to provide leadership to stop the hate and fear-mongering that hurts us all. Click here to learn how you can act in solidarity and sign on to be part of PACT’s Solidarity Network. SANTA CLARA COUNTY RAPID RESPONSE NETWORK Become a rapid responder to protect our community! We are training hundreds of volunteers to be rapid responders to calls from community members concerned about immediate ICE actions. The hotline is now available in San Jose. We need your help to engage and train many more community volunteers to expand across Santa Clara County! IMMIGRATION TEAM We believe in the inherent dignity of the human person and we practice welcoming the stranger and protecting the poor and marginalized. We believe that every human being has sacred worth, which demands that we view people as people—not as workers, commodities or criminals. PACT fosters immigrant integration – a two-way process in which immigrants and non-immigrants work together to build a vibrant and cohesive community for everyone. PACT brings people together from all walks of life – immigrants and non-immigrants, poor and middle class from many ethnic backgrounds – through shared concern about the well-being of their children, families and communities. We build bridges of understanding, respect and support between immigrants and non-immigrants to breakdown stereotypes, build common ground and develop new relationships.Key Strategies: Training immigrant leaders on local immigration issues, with non-immigrants included as partners and allies, with non-immigrants included as partners and allies. Strengthening local policies that address immigrant rights and public safety by separating local police agencies from federal enforcement, Organizing for policies that promote healthy, stable lives for immigrant families, and Promoting a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented aspiring Americans. LA RED: LIBERATION. ACTION. RESPECT. EQUITY. DIGNITY. PICO National Campaign At the national level, the focus is to end the criminalization of communities of color specifically undocumented immigrants and the detention and deportation machine. As the largest grassroots faith based organizing network in the country, a large portion of our families are undocumented or members of mixed status families. LA RED recognizes that there are people and corporations profiting off of the suffering of immigrant families, which must end. Furthermore, immigrant families are constantly under threat of permanent family separation as a result of an antiquated unjust racist system focused on criminalization. LA RED calls for the end to all policies that criminalize and deport immigrants. IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS VICTORIES Immigrant Integration in San Jose: PACT was instrumental in creating the Santa Clara County Task Force on Immigrant Community Relations. When our local community saw a rise in ICE raids, PACT secured the City Council and San Jose Police Department commitment to not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. County Detainer Policy: Santa Clara County has long been a national leader in promoting immigrant integration and promoting public safety by clearly separating ICE from local police. In 2011 PACT Leaders, along with our partners, led the campaign for the nation’s first detainer policy that ensures that county resources are not used for ICE enforcement. When that ordinance was threatened in 2013, PACT Leaders again secured the County law enforcement policy protecting civil rights of immigrants and public safety for all. Towing Policy: When immigrants were being disproportionately affected by local policy to impound vehicles for 30 days after minor traffic violations, PACT Leaders led the fight that changed the Santa Clara County policy to allow alternatives to automatic impound. STATEWIDE VICTORIES California Drivers’ Licenses: PACT Leaders supported AB 60 which reinstated drivers licenses to all California residents who meet licensing requirements regardless of immigration status.