Deported for selling tamales? In California? PETITION: Governor Brown, Sign the TRUST Act

For anyone who may be insterested in continuing to be aware of these injustices or maybe get more involved, at least an opportunity to be aware that these tragedies continue unabated throughout the country and wishing that more than a few would sign the petition. Our long range hope is that in spite of the Latin-American community bitter cynicism and hurt (It can be perceived in Ruben Navarrete's piece), President Obama and progressive legislators who still have a soul, are reelected. There is much hope and fear that absent that, i.e. Romney and regressive legislators are reelected, we are left with not much else than prayers to alliviate the suffering.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. piece on this incident which goes into many details on these issue.

Don't deport the 'tamale lady'

San Diego, California (CNN) -- Juana Reyes didn't think that selling chicken, pork and chili cheese tamales would buy her a one-way ticket out of the country. But it just might.

Reyes is a Sacramento, California, woman who the media is calling "the tamale lady." A 46-year-old single mother of two and illegal immigrant, Reyes faces deportation by the Obama administration.

So what's the problem? Aren't illegal immigrants supposed to be deported?

Sure. But there are rules to the game, and the administration keeps breaking them. This case undermines the claim that the immigration crackdown is targeting hardened criminals.

Reyes' trouble started on June 28 when she was arrested outside a Walmart by Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies and charged with trespassing and interfering with a business.

What exactly was the interference? Reyes is unemployed. She was selling tamales so she could buy food and clothes for her two children -- 10-year-old Cesar and 7-year-old Montserrat, both of whom were born in the United States.

Think about it. This woman wasn't holding a handmade sign that read: "Will work for food." She was working by making food and selling it.

PETITION: Governor Brown, Sign the TRUST ActDeported for selling tamales?

Juana Reyes was arrested last month for selling tamales without a permit in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now she’s facing deportation back to Mexico, even though she’ 

s been in the country for 20 years and she’s the sole provider for her two US citizen kids.

Sounds like something that would happen in Sheriff Joe’s Arizona, right? Wrong! This happened right in California’s capital, Sacramento.

Juana was held in jail for 13 days, and her two kids, both US citizens, were put in foster care. Who knows what will happen to them if she’s deported?

California may not have a tough anti-immigrant law like Arizona or Alabama -- but for Juana and her family, we might as well.

Last year, in California alone, 75,000 immigrants like Juana were deported after being arrested for traffic offenses, selling food without permits or other trivial violations, through a federal immigration program called “Secure Communities.”

You and I both know that California is better than this. We should not be rounding up immigrants in traffic stops or for the “crime” of trying to make a better life for their kids. That’s why we’re working to pass the TRUST Act, which would keep the so-called “Secure Communities” program in California from putting hardworking moms and dads on the fast-track to deportation.

While extremists in Arizona have passed laws that make a suspect out of anyone who looks “foreign,” California is poised to take a different approach. If the TRUST Act becomes law, California would set a new bar as a state where immigrants stopped for a broken taillight or for selling tamales on the street won’t automatically be put into deportation.

The TRUST Act would maintain immigration holds for those convicted of a serious felony, but mothers and fathers who get picked up for minor reasons wouldn’t have to worry about ending up in immigration detention or deportation. Think of all those families who won’t have to live in constant fear of the police!

The TRUST Act has already passed the California legislature. Now, all eyes are on Gov. Jerry Brown.

Ask Governor Brown to sign the TRUST Act today.