And the team keeps moving …

*Anther article written by NewsTaco’s friend Raul Lomeli, published in Spanish in a Mexico City Newspaper. When it comes to Latino civil rights in the U.S., he says “sigue la yunta andando … ” VL

By Raul Lomeli, NewsTaco

The first weeks of 2015 have not necessarily been the best for the Latino community in the United States. The news of the moment leads us to this: from amendments offered by the new members of the House of Representatives in their attempt to cancel and reverse the protective measures against the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, to the recent news that since 2012 the State of New Mexico has wrongfully withheld millions of dollars from undocumented workers who have filed their tax returns and have not received the refunds they had coming.

Memories of the lyrics of “El Barzón” come to mind: “The plow was buried, buried to its apron, the rudder is plucked, the yoke is buckling, its ring is chafing …”

Ah, but many of us are part of the yoked team and we know where we’re going, and as a community we continue walking! So, as is the custom of this op-ed, I would like to focus on the positive events that should give us the strength to continue “sowing and fertilizing.”

Last year, after nine attempts in 15 years, California State Representative Gil Cedillo finally got his bill was passed and signed by the Governor of California, and as of January 2nd of this year  driver’s licenses are issued by the state, regardless of the immigration status of the applicant. And even when the law is a major legislative triumph, the victory is for the immigrant community that demonstrates once again that it wants to be “within the law” and fulfill the civic obligations that American society requires and demands.

The results are visible and indisputable. In a scant six weeks since this law was enacted, more than 500,000 people in California have begun the process of applying for a driver’s license, and more than 76,000 undocumented immigrants already have their license after successfully passing the written and driving test.

Let this serve this as an example of the value of the undocumented community in the United States, when given the opportunity to obey the law, they will … even when, as in the case of driver’s licenses, they are forced to risk their stay in the United States by disclosing their identity through their home address and fingerprints as part of the administrative process.

The risk seem huge at first sight, but it’s not so in practice. In the United States there is a fourth power that helps modulate the ever controversial but healthy relationship between the executive, legislative and judicial powers … this fourth power is in the hands of civil society. I share the example of MALDEF (the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund), a nonprofit organization dedicated since 1968 to ensure civil, electoral and labor rights of the Latino community in the United States. They do this through litigation, always armed by the United States Constitution, and with these they formalize complaints and suits in order to combat unfair and unconstitutional laws.

I could share many of MALDEF’s victories throughout the years with you, but better than that, I’ll give you an example of the most recent complaint that this organization raised against the Executive Branch of the State of New Mexico, the same demand which is now being discussed before the courts of law. In the following weeks I will continue reporting to you on the legal process of this claim, but I assure you MALDEF will be victorious, and thus more than 15,000 undocumented residents in New Mexico who have met state law to declare their income will receive their fair return for withholding tax on income.

In a press release last Thursday, February 12, MALDEF, through its legal counsel Rubén Hinojosa, presented a direct and forceful statement, saying that the State of New Mexico has trampled on the constitutional rights of its immigrant residents, and assured that the intimidation tactics will be offset by the court and the Constitution. Which brings us to the end of this column with the last phrase of the melody played by Amparo Ochoa, which I prefer to the end interpreted by Luis Perez Meza: “The plow ring busted and I kept sowing”.

This article was originally published in Spanish in Crónica, a Mexico City newspaper.

Raul P. Lomeli-Azoubel-Raul is a proud son of migrant workers. He worked in the agricultural fields in California during the summers of his youth all the way through to his first year of college. He is lead author of 18 tutorials on topics of finance, health, technology and citizenship- with more than nine million copies distributed in the United States. He is currently Chairman of the Board of SABEResPODER, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of the Latino community in the United States.

[Photo by US Department of Labor/Flickr]

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