ACLU/SC client Osfel Andrade wasn’t looking for attention when he blew the whistle on years of exploitation and discrimination of largely immigrant workers by his employer. In fact, attention is something Andrade was hoping to avoid. But this Saturday, June 18, Public Interest Projects will honor his bravery by awarding him its Freedom from Fear Award, given to 15 individuals nationwide who have committed extraordinary acts of courage on behalf of immigrants at great personal risk.

Following an immigration raid on his workplace in June 2010 in which 43 workers were arrested and placed in deportation proceedings, Osfel took the brave step of filing a class-action lawsuit against his employer, Terra Universal, Inc., in Fullerton, California for years of wages owed to him and approximately 500 other factory workers. He did it knowing that if he filed suit, he could attract the notice of immigration authorities and face deportation proceedings.

But Osfel was determined that his employer pay for the years of exploitation and discrimination he and his colleagues faced because they were immigrants. The company required employees to work as many as 14 hours a day without overtime pay and placed a red sticker on the personnel files of all undocumented employees to single them out for half the salaries of documented or citizen employees. Osfel believed that it was his obligation to take a stand on behalf of his colleagues who were now facing deportation and separation from their families.

One morning in November 2010, two months after Osfel filed suit, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents did indeed show up at Osfel’s apartment, arrested him and placed him in deportation proceedings. He spent two weeks in detention before he was released on bond.  The ICE agents told Osfel that they learned he had not been arrested during the immigration raid from a Terra Universal manager.

Although employment and labor law protects all workers, regardless of immigration status, unscrupulous employers often use the threat of immigration enforcement to quell worker demands. And they commonly refer their workers to immigration authorities after they exercise their labor rights. In Osfel’s case, Terra Universal management referred him to ICE in retaliation for his filing a lawsuit against them.

Under its own rules, ICE isn’t even allowed to act on tips from employers who are in the midst a labor dispute. That helps ensure that immigration enforcement is not used to stifle workers’ rights in the workplace, such as collective bargaining efforts or the ability of workers to complain about hazardous conditions or to demand wages. When undocumented workers can’t demand their rights in the workplace because of fear of immigration retaliation, they can’t ensure basic employer compliance with wage and hour laws.  Such rampant substandard conditions affect all workers by driving down working conditions across industries and sectors.

Osfel Andrade is the type of individual that our country should honor and value, not deport. He embodies Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous “Four Freedoms” speech, proclaiming that each of us has the right to freedom from fear. ICE should immediately terminate deportation proceedings against him, and send a message to workers like Osfel that they need not fear deportation for exercising their rights on the job.

Tehachapi Teenager’s Suicide Underscores Urgent Need for Schools to Uphold Legal Obligations to Protect LGBTQ Students from Harassment

LOS ANGELES – The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California today announced the launch of the Seth Walsh Students’ Rights Project (“Seth Walsh Project”) — a major new initiative aimed at combating bullying and discrimination in California schools, particularly harassment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students.

The creation of the Seth Walsh Project was prompted by the September 2010 suicide of Seth Walsh, a thirteen-year-old eight-grade student at Tehachapi’s Jacobsen Middle School.  Since coming out as gay in the sixth grade, Seth was subjected to severe verbal harassment based on his sexual orientation and refusal to conform to traditional gender stereotypes. 

“No mother should ever have to lose their child to intolerance and anti-gay harassment, especially when it occurs in a place that should be providing them with an education and putting them on a path to a promising future,” said Wendy Walsh, mother of Seth.  “I am so proud and think it is phenomenal that the ACLU of Southern California has chosen to name their students’ rights project after my beautiful, loving son, Seth.”

Attorneys, community organizers, and policy advocates in the Seth Walsh Project will investigate incidents of harassment and discrimination; educate administrators and teachers of their responsibilities under both state and federal law to make sure all students have a safe learning environment; and work closely with LGBTQ students and their parents to ensure they have the same educational opportunities as their peers.  The ACLU/SC’s Seth Walsh Project will also work with other civil rights organizations in California to conduct community education events about pending legislation aimed at curbing anti-gay harassment and discrimination, including the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Seth’s Law.

“As a gay man who attended public schools in rural Tennessee in the 1970’s and 80’s, I know firsthand how painful anti-gay bullying can be; for such harassment to continue against LGBTQ students thirty years later is unthinkable,” said James Gilliam, deputy executive director of the ACLU of Southern California and director of the newly-established Seth Walsh Project.  “School districts, teachers, and administrators have a legal obligation to ensure that LGBTQ students are safe at school, and we intend to hold them to that duty.”

According to recent studies, as many as nine in ten LGBTQ students have been the victim of harassment based on their real or perceived sexual orientation or nonconforming gender identity.  Nearly two-thirds of such students reported feeling unsafe at school.  Seth’s was one of at least eleven LGBTQ teen suicides that occurred last fall that captured enough media attention to push anti-gay bullying and “bullycide” into the national conversation.

“All students have a right to attend school in a safe learning environment, and their parents have a right to know their children will come home unharmed,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “Far too often, teachers and administrators discount—or worse, ignore entirely—incidents of violence happening right under their noses.  The Seth Walsh Project aims to correct this crisis and will save lives,” said Villagra. 

The ACLU of Southern California’s Seth Walsh Project is generously supported in part by donations from the David Bohnett Foundation and the It Gets Better Project.

The Seth Walsh Project: The Bullying Stops Here!

The ACLU of Southern California joined advocates and community members at a rally at the Governor’s downtown Los Angeles office today urging California legislators to pass a fair and humane budget that includes crucial revenue solutions. On the constitutional deadline to pass the state budget, ACLU/SC Executive Director Hector Villagra called on legislators to “stand strong and support Californians by voting for a budget with revenue solutions that respect human life and dignity.” One important revenue solution includes passing safe and sensible sentencing reforms that save California money.

To balance the budget, we need to balance our priorities. Slashing funds for education and health care, while billions in prison spending remains untouched is morally bankrupt.

Read Villagra’s full statement here.