SIREN has a vision of a new America where immigrants are valued, integrated, and seen as essential to our society, and where the human rights of all persons are protected and honored. SIREN’s core value is immigrant empowerment. We focus on immigrants themselves being the primary agents of change. By strengthening and deepening the participation level and leadership of immigrants, we work toward long-term systemic changes that promote social justice and equality, freedom from oppression, and an end to poverty. Through these long-term systemic changes, immigrants will have the opportunity for individual/social responsibility, self-determination and political participation. By accomplishing this, we will have a society that is compassionate, inclusive and united.
On October 6, 2022, a federal appeals court continued to leave the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program (DACA) in limbo. More than 600,000 DACA recipients across the country continue to wait for a decision…
Read MoreFor Immediate Release:
January 26 2022
Contact: Jose Servin, Director of Advocacy and Communication, SIREN
jose@sirenimmigrantrights.org, 714-728-2520
SIREN Statement on Santa Clara Board of Supervisors Decision to Build a New Jail in Santa Clara County
California - Maricela Gutiérrez, the Executive Director of the Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) and SIREN Action issued the following statement:
Yesterday’s majority decision by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to move forward with building a third jail in our community was a cruel commitment to racial injustice.
The majority of San Jose residents wholeheartedly oppose the creation of a new jail in Santa Clara County, as evidenced by the nearly unanimous opposition expressed through hours of public comment.
Despite years of community opposition and a bold proposal by Supervisor Susan Ellenberg to expand mental health resource facilities rather than build a new jail, Supervisors Otto Lee, Joe Simitian and Mike Wasserman voted in favor of expanding the carceral state in San Jose.
The recommendations in the Framework for the County’s Justice-Involved Clients report presented at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting did not reflect the reality that Santa Clara county residents live and experience. The Framework report acknowledges that the County of Santa Clara is committed to reducing the jail population and states that the proposal to create this new jail is supposed to lead to a reduction of population, but as expert advocates with 35 years of experience advocating for immigrant communities that are often the target of incarceration in both the criminal justice system and the immigrant carceral system, the SIREN team is well aware that when a county decides to expand incarceration, they are unequivocally committing to incarcerate more people of color, not the other way around. It is extremely concerning that despite nearly unanimous opposition through public comment yesterday, the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors voted to move towards building a new jail.
Yesterday, SCC County Supervisors had the opportunity to turn the tide on California’s dependence on mass incarceration as an outdated, tried-and-failed practice. What residents in Santa Clara County actually need are housing support services, wrap-around care and mental health services not rooted in the punitive carceral system.
###
It is without exaggeration that we say that the future of many people in this country depends on what will be included in the Build Back Better Plan.
Undocumented immigrants have fought for decades for legislative relief, and this past election cycle Democrats campaigned heavily on immigration reform. Now that they are in power, these elected leaders are caving to interparty pressure and robbing American’s of a once in a lifetime opportunity to rectify a key part of our broken and disastrous immigration system.
The ‘parole’ option that is now being offered to the undocumented community as ‘relief’ is restrictive, inaccessible, and costly to immigrant communities already being impacted by economic exploitation during a global pandemic. Additionally, temporary solutions like parole are a tried-and-failed tactic. DACA, for example, is a temporary policy solution with an uncertain future that has faced legal battles since its inception.
Read MoreToday, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals directed the District court to block California’s AB 32, a state law signed in 2019 which banned private prisons and private immigration detention centers in the state. This same federal district court judge, Janis Sammartino, had largely upheld the law last year, but a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit - including two Trump appointees - reversed that decision today. The State of California now has the option of either appealing the decision to a larger “en banc” panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit or asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case.
Read MoreThe Sept. 30 Mayorkas memo is an underwhelming reiteration of the interim guidelines set into place by the Biden administration back in January. The resulting memo relies on the same tired, criminalizing language that enabled the Trump administration to reign terror on immigrant communities for four years. Unfortunately for the communities we serve, the result of Mayorkas efforts to reset immigration enforcement away from Trumpian levels of targeted, racist persecution did not match the bold proclamations of Democrat leaders on the campaign trail, who, under Biden’s leadership, promised more than they have delivered.
Read MoreToday, Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled against Democrat efforts to create a path to citizenship through the budget reconciliation process, citing that the measures effect to the budget would be “merely incidental,” in a three-page memo sent to the Associated Press.
Read MoreThis past Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives released draft language for a much-needed immigration proposal to be included in the budget reconciliation process. The draft bill includes language that would put millions on the pathway to citizenship, including DACA Recipients, TPS Holders, Farmworkers and Essential Workers. Now, we await a complicated political showdown where the Senate Parliamentarian must approve this bill for the budget reconciliation process. This process is intended to get around the obstructionist filibuster, used by Republicans for years to block progressive legislation.
Read MoreOn July 16, 2021, a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival Program (DACA) was illegal, and barred DHS from approving new applicants to the program. Though the decision is likely to be appealed in courts, the emotional toll taken on the undocumented community by these constant attacks to their stability and livelihoods is incalculable.
Read MoreFor Immediate Release:
June 29, 2021
Contact: Jose Servin, Communications Manager, SIREN
jose@sirenimmigrantrights.org, 714-728-2520
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) chosen as a
2021 Nonprofit of the Year
NONPROFIT HONORED BY ASSEMBLYMEMBER ALEX LEE
San Jose, June 29 – SIREN is proud to announce it has been selected as a 2021 California Nonprofit of the Year by Assemblymember Alex Lee representing California's 25th District.
SIREN is one of more than one hundred nonprofits that will be honored by their state senators and assemblymembers for their tremendous contributions to the communities they serve.
At SIREN, we provide free legal services related to immigration, refugee, and asylum cases to protect our community from detention and deportation. We also engage in policy advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement. Every year, we assist thousands of clients with affirmative and defensive legal services, including DACA renewals and citizenship applications.
“The team at SIREN works everyday to try and improve the lives of immigrants in our community who are directly impacted by a prejudiced immigration legal system. We do this work out of experience and passion. It's truly a humbling honor to be recognized by Assemblymember Alex Lee as a 2021 Nonprofit of the year,” comments Maricela Gutierrez, SIREN’s Executive Director.
“The pandemic and shelter-in-place orders of the past year and a half have put nonprofits – usually hidden in plain sight – in the spotlight,” explains Jan Masaoka, CEO of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits). “California Nonprofit of the Year is an opportunity for our elected officials to celebrate the good work they see nonprofits doing in their districts, and for everyone to appreciate the collective impact of nonprofits in our communities.”
Additional Background
California Nonprofits Day, now in its sixth year, was formally recognized by 2021 Assembly Concurrent Resolution 80, authored by Assemblymember Luz Rivas, and co-authored by Senator Monique Limón. Each year legislators from across California have chosen a Nonprofit of the Year in their district.
Traditionally, honorees and legislators are invited by CalNonprofits, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector Senator Monique Limón (Santa Barbara), and Chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Nonprofit Sector Assemblymember Luz Rivas to a celebratory luncheon on California Nonprofits Day. This year, like 2020, the luncheon was canceled in response to pandemic restrictions, but legislators moved forward with honoring nonprofits doing great work in their districts.
According to “Causes Count,” a 2019 report commissioned by CalNonprofits, the nonprofit sector is the 4th largest industry in the state, employing more than 1.2 million people. Each year, California nonprofits generate more than $273 billion in revenue and bring in $40 billion in revenue from outside of California. The unpaid labor contributed by volunteers at nonprofits is equivalent to 330,000 full-time jobs every year.
###
For Immediate Release:
June 15, 2021
Contact: Jose Servin, Communications Manager, SIREN
jose@sirenimmigrantrights.org, 714-728-2520
9 Years of DACA: Temporary Solution Continues to Leave Too Many Out, 11 Million Waiting on A Permanent Solution
California – Today is the ninth anniversary of the landmark Executive Action enacted by the Obama administration in 2012 intended to protect certain young, undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work legally in the US. Since its inception, the executive order has faced legal threats and charged rhetoric from Republicans and Democrats alike. On its ninth anniversary, 634,000 DACA-recipients anxiously await a ruling by U.S District Judge Andrew Hanen that could strike down the action entirely. DACA has become a contentious policy that, on the one hand, is a lifeline for many young immigrants, who are grateful for the opportunity to work and provide for themselves and their families. On the other hand, the majority of undocumented people in the United States are left out of any form of relief, and are subject to targeting, detention and deportation by an Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agency designed to ruthlessly dehumanize individuals and separate families.
At SIREN we believe that the only solution lies in all-inclusive, comprehensive immigration reform that provides citizenship for all 11 million undocumented people in the US, without any carveouts for individuals affected by the criminal injustice system. Undocumented people are a part of our social fabric, and they deserve the ability to exist with dignity, and to access the resources necessary to survive.
Maricela Gutierrez, Executive Director at Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), issued the following statement:
“Every day that we do not put forward a truly permanent immigration solution, we allow families to be separated, communities to be terrorized, and fear to spread. For those that can benefit from it, DACA is always under threat. For those that can’t, it is a moving target they cannot reach because of arbitrary restrictions, like age. We’re at a pivotal moment in history where anything less than full citizenship for all 11 million undocumented individuals in the U.S is, frankly, a political failure.”
At SIREN, we provide free legal services related to immigration, refugee, and asylum cases to protect our community from detention and deportation. We also engage in policy advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement. Every year, we assisted thousands of clients with affirmative and defensive legal services, including DACA renewals and citizenship applications.
###
For Immediate Release:
June 3, 2021
Contact: Jose Servin, Communications Manager, SIREN
jose@sirenimmigrantrights.org, 714-728-2520
SIREN Celebrates Fed's Decision not to House Unaccompanied Minors at Toxic Camp Roberts Military Base - a Huge Win for the Immigrants’ Rights Community
Today, SIREN and community advocates from the #ShutDownCampRoberts Coalition are celebrating the news that, after months of community-led advocacy and resistance, the department of Health and Human Services has announced they are no longer considering Camp Roberts military base in San Miguel, CA as a site to detain unaccompanied minors.
SIREN expresses its deepest sympathy to the children seeking care, compassion and relief from economic and natural disaster at the southern border. As such, we have consistently advocated against the proposed use of Camp Roberts to house up to 5,000 unaccompanied minors on the grounds that a military base with active military members and a history of toxic waste disposal is a completely inappropriate location for housing children. SIREN condemns the use of any facility that deprives an individual of the freedom of movement and contributes to the U.S’s damning legacy of family separation. We continue to advocate for a better way to exercise our duty to support the international community in times of need.
“We celebrate today because we don’t have to worry about the danger and damage that 5,000 children would have surely faced at Camp Roberts. The fight continues until our demands are met. SIREN and our partners will continue to oppose child detention - at Camp Roberts and anywhere else. There is a better solution for these children that is not rooted in the immoral and unnecessary expansion of the carceral system,” said Maricela Gutierrez, Executive Director of SIREN.
We call on our local representatives to urge the Biden administration to take the following steps:
Rescind provisions in the Title 42 Health Code that expel asylum-seekers and result in institutionalized family separation
End the use of large-scale ‘intake’ and ‘influx’ for holding children, especially those that exist on military bases
Implement policies and protocols that expedite the reunification of children with trusted family members, relatives, and/or caregivers
Abolish all detention centers, jails and prisons
###
SIREN’s mission is to empower low-income immigrants and refugees in Santa Clara County through community education and organizing, leadership development, policy advocacy and naturalization services. We believe that all people regardless of legal status or nationality are entitled to essential services, human dignity, basic rights and protections, and access to full participation in society.
Help us fight for immigrant and refugee rights. Please make a donation or become a monthly donor. Your support will help us provide legal services, advocate for more just and humane laws, and train our future community leaders!
Ayúdanos a luchar por los derechos de los inmigrantes y los refugiados. Por favor, haga una donación o conviértase en un donante mensual. ¡Su apoyo nos ayudará a proporcionar servicios legales, abogar por leyes más justas y humanas, y capacitar a nuestros futuros líderes comunitarios! ¡Muchisimas Gracias!
For faster access and client conviance, we offer clinics via the phone. Free telephonic legal consultations are available by appointment only. Call us at (408) 453-3003 to set up a consultation for potential affirmative relief. If you are in removal proceedings, call (559) 840-0005 to set up an appointment.
To sign up for an upcoming DACA clinic, email daca@sirenimmigrantrights.org. To sign up for an upcoming naturalization clinic, email natz@sirenimmigrantrights.org.
Para mejor acceso y facilidad para el cliente, hacemos las consultas via telefono.. Las consultas legales telefónicas gratuitas solo están disponibles con cita previa. Llámenos al (408) 453-3003 para establecer una consulta para un posible alivio afirmativo. Si está en un proceso de deportación, llame al (559) 840-0005 para concertar una cita.
Para inscribirse en una próxima clínica DACA, envíe un correo electrónico a daca@sirenimmigrantrights.org. Para inscribirse en una próxima clínica de naturalización, envíe un correo electrónico a natz@sirenimmigrantrights.org.
