San Diego School Board Denounces Arizona's SB 1070

Below is a copy of the formal resolution passed (5-0 vote) by the San Diego Unified School Board, the second largest K-12 school district in California. There are 130,000 students enrolled in the district of which 75 % are from ethnic communities. Latino enrollment is 44% and growing.

-Patricia


BOARD OF EDUCATION

SAN DIEGO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

In the Matter of Denouncing Arizona )

Laws SB 1070 and HB 2162 and Warning ) RESOLUTION

San Diego School Children and Their )

Families of the Risk of Traveling to Arizona )


WHEREAS, on April 23, 2010, the Governor of Arizona signed into law SB 1070, permitting state and local law enforcement officials to engage in racial profiling, thereby turning the clock back on a generation of civil rights gains;

WHEREAS, on April 30, 2010, the Governor of Arizona signed into law HB 2162 which modifies SB 1070 to prohibit racial profiling but still criminalizes unlawful presence; still requires state and local law enforcement to engage in immigration enforcement; still requires police to question people they “reasonably suspect” of being in the country unlawfully in the course of any “lawful stop, detention or arrest”; and still grants police the authority to arrest individuals without a warrant for federal civil immigration violation;

WHEREAS, the law undermines fundamental civil rights and civil liberties, and poses a special threat to people of color who live in and travel through Arizona;

WHEREAS, public officials in Arizona are asserting that undocumented immigrants can be identified by the clothes they wear and the way they speak, and are using stereotypes as proxies for race which will inevitably lead to racial profiling;

WHEREAS, the State of California and the City of San Diego prohibit the unequal treatment of its residents and, furthermore, prohibit racial profiling of any kind;

WHEREAS, an estimated 75 percent of San Diego Unified school children are people of color and 44 percent are of Hispanic or Latino origin who potentially could be targeted and harassed by law enforcement officials in Arizona as “reasonably suspect” if they fall into a stereotype held by law enforcement officers;

WHEREAS, the Major Cities Chiefs of the United States stated in 2006 [http://www.houstontx.gov/police/pdfs/mcc_position.pdf] that when police engage in immigration enforcement, community members are less apt to call them when they witness or suffer a crime, thereby undermining the ability of police to protect the community and threatening public safety;

WHEREAS, to the extent the Arizona laws threaten public safety in Arizona, they also threaten public safety in neighboring California and could potentially undermine trust between police and the communities they serve in San Diego and in California;

WHEREAS, civil rights leaders, constitutional rights scholars, elected officials, and police chiefs across the country are repudiating the new law;

WHEREAS, on May 3, 2010, the City of San Diego passed a resolution condemning the Arizona laws;

WHEREAS, we need humane and workable solutions, not an irrational and irresponsible response to our broken immigration system, and we need solutions that help our state and our country move forward together rather than divide us apart;

BE IT RESOLVED, by the San Diego Unified School Board, for and on behalf of the school children and the families served by the school district, that the school board condemns Arizona State Law SB 1070 and HB 2162, and urges the State of Arizona to repeal both;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the San Diego Unified School district develop a policy restricting travel and participation in conferences in the State of Arizona;

BE IT FUTHER RESOLVED, that we call upon U.S. Congress members to develop comprehensive immigration reform that will be applied consistently throughout our nation;

Adopted and approved by the Board of Education of the San Diego Unified School District at the regular meeting held on the 11th day of May 2010.