Stop the Hate, In Our State – No on Measure 105

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) has been working with immigrant populations in Oregon for over 40 years. As the largest Latino union in the state, many of our members would be impacted if Measure 105 passes.

The group responsible for getting Measure 105 on the ballot, Oregonians for Immigration Reform, has been officially designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC says this about them, “For almost two decades OFIR has demonized immigrants while working closely with nationally recognized anti-immigrant groups and figures.”

One of the reasons we were founded was the stop raids and discrimination in Oregon. We want our families to feel safe, welcomed and not racially-profiled in the state we all call home. We don’t want to go back to the days when law-abiding Oregonians and their kids were dragged out of their homes.

We need to protect Oregon’s values. We need to vote NO on 105 this fall.

September 23, 2018

2018 General Election

It’s finally here. Election Season. And PCUN has made its endorsements.

We’ll be knocking 15,000 Latinx voter doors this elections cycle for Kate Brown for Governor, Teresa Alonso-Leon for HD 22, and of course to defeat Measure 105. .

Every vote counts — and this election cycle, Latinx voters can and will make a difference. Click here to join our people-powered effort and sign up to knock doors with our bilingual, bicultural team today.

Below are the candidates we interviewed and endorsed. We make endorsement decisions based on candidates’ stance on issues that affect farmworkers, their pro-immigrant ideals, and their support for Latinx working families in Oregon. We endorsed these candidates based on their commitment to farmworkers, immigrant rights, and Latinx working families, in addition to how strongly their values align with ours — which are “si se puede”, dignity, and respect.

Teresa Alonso Leon for HD 22 (Woodburn/NE Salem)

Shelaswau Crier for Marion County Commissioner position 1

Mike Ellison for HD 19 (SE Salem)

Paul Evans for HD 20 (West Salem, and Independence)

Rachel Prusak for HD 37 (West Linn/Tualatin)

Anna Williams for SD 52 (Hood River)

Andrea Salinas for HD 38 (Lake Oswego)

Kate Brown for Oregon Governor (Statewide)

Charles Gallia for SD 20 (Oregon City)

Check out the rest of our positions on the other measures you’ll see on the November ballot:

April 20, 2018April 20, 2018

May Day, Stand in solidarity with Immigrant Workers!

Our immigrant community is under attack. We must stand up a fight for what is right. We must stand up for our community. This may day we will be marching for Driver’s Licenses, to defend worker’s rights to organize, and to make it public that we condemn any and all efforts to take Oregon’s sanctuary state status away on the ballot.

Please join us on May 1st from 11:30AM-3:30PM at the Oregon State Capitol on 900 Court Street, Salem, Oregon.

Please contact PCUN if you need transportation from Woodburn to Salem. Click image below to share the May Day bilingual flyers, or use these text links:

May Day 2018 Spanish Language Flyer

May Day 2018 English Language Flyer

February 12, 2018July 28, 2018

PCUN has a new Executive Director

Dear PCUNista,

We are proud to announce the arrival of our new Executive Director, Reyna Lopez! Reyna is no stranger to the movimiento, having worked in our sister and partner organizations in various leadership positions. She is transitioning to PCUN from Organizing Director at Family Forward Oregon, where she ran the organizing program for Paid Family Medical Leave, and National Campaigns focused on Safety Net Programs and the Federal Budget. Jaime Arredondo our Secretary/Treasure of PCUN, was acting Director of PCUN & APP. He is now the Executive Director at CAPACES Leadership Institute (CLI). Reyna is stepping in with a consolidated title, and to take over many of the roles that he played these last few years. It is an exciting time of reorganization at PCUN. We wish Jaime much success at our sister organization.

Reyna is a leader and proud daughter of immigrants from Mexico, who came to Oregon in the late 80’s to do farmwork in the Marion County area. Reyna grew up in Salem, Oregon and graduated from Willamette University with her BA in Political Science and Sociology. For over 12 years, she has been a fierce leader and advocate for the Latinx community in Oregon, receiving the Immigrant Award from the American Association of Immigration Lawyers of Oregon, and Willamette University’s Young Alumni of the Year Award for her work in social justice causes, campaigns, movement and coalition building.

Reyna’s passion for organizing and community is reflected throughout her career from her position as Civic Engagement Director at Causa, where she lead the Yes on 88 (Safe Roads), Oregon’s first bilingual bicultural ballot measure campaign! She founded the organization’s New American Voter’s Project and worked tirelessly to win Tuition Equity after 13 years of fighting for Oregon’s Dreamer population. In recent years, Reyna was the Outreach Director at Our Oregon, where she led the Fellowship Program and organization’s base building efforts for the A Better Oregon Campaign, a ballot measure demanding corporations pay their fair share in taxes.

We’re excited to have such passionate and dedicated mujer leading PCUN through the next phases of our movement! Please join us in welcoming Reyna Lopez, PCUN’s New Executive Director for a community gathering on:

Wednesday, March 14th, 2018 from 6:30 PM-8:30 PM:
RSVP here

We will be celebrating with food and music at PCUN 300 Young Street Woodburn Oregon! Thank you for your support throughout the years.

Ramon Ramirez

President of PCUN

December 11, 2017July 28, 2018

Some things haven’t changed and some have

First off, thank you for your ongoing commitment to our work. 2017 took our movement back to our roots…to 1977—eight years before PCUN was born. The stratospheric fear of ICE arrest has put resistance at the center of our community organizing once again.

As we look at head to 2018, we are going in with momentum—a strong community response and growing electoral energy. But they have momentum, too. Trump’s ICE activity and barrage of policy attacks on our community have them believing 2018 is their moment to roll back progress. So we’re—again—planning to give our all to re-doubling the community’s resolve and organizing community power to fend off attacks and to make progress, especially on the state and local levels.

A few weeks ago, on November 2^nd, PCUNistas gathered at the SEIU Local 503 hall in Portland to celebrate some of our movement’s work’s transformational impacts. PCUN President Ramón Ramírez related a story that powerfully encapsulated a striking contrast of Woodburn, then and now:

“In 1978, we caught Woodburn Police in the act of leading INS agents to houses on our block. We later confronted the Police chief; he walked out of meeting when we told him we’d sue if we caught them doing that again. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Plain-clothes ICE agents came to a home in Woodburn with an arrest warrant. ‘He no longer lives here,’ the residents told them. ‘Do you have documents?’ the agents asked. One resident called 911. Woodburn officers arrived and asked ICE agents to wait outside while they searched for the individual ICE had come for. ‘He’s not here,’ a Woodburn offer told ICE. ‘We suggest you leave now.’ The ICE agents drove off. That day, we saw a fulfillment of Woodburn Chief Jim Ferraris’ commitment to ‘community policing’.

Clearly, 2017 was terrifying. But here are a few examples of how it was also terrific:

With our sister organization, APP, we helped elect a Latin@ majority to the Woodburn School District board—a first for Oregon—including one seat decided by 87 votes out of 1,905!
We helped pass several pro-worker pro-immigrant policies including: Cover All Kids, Fair Work Week, Protect Immigrant’s Privacy, End Racial Profiling, Reproductive Health Equity Act, and Ethnic Studies Standards.

In 2018, we will build on these victories. We’ll campaign all-out, if needed, to defeat a looming anti-immigrant ballot initiative, to help win permanent status for Dreamers and “TPS” holders and to grow the ranks of progressives—especially Latin@s–in public office.

Our movement has always drawn strength from looking ahead. Our goals and plans in 2018 also include some important shifts to better position us for today and tomorrow. One of these major shifts is my transition to the CAPACES Leadership Institute as its new Executive Director. The political moment we are living—our electoral victories and resistance of the administration—has invigorated and broaden our base like no other time we’ve experienced. This calls for a greater focus on boosting our leadership development work to maximize our collective impact. Concurrently we are working on restructuring PCUN to more strategically activate our growing base of leaders to continue building real political power that brings justice and equity for our Latino, immigrant, and farmworker community. Stay tune more on this in the new year.

We deeply appreciate you commitment to our work and we’re hoping we can count on your continued support to sustain the fight, insist on progress, and to draw strength from our shifts.

Adelante!

Jaime Arredondo
PCUN Secretary-Treasurer

PS: Because we are a union, donations to PCUN are not tax-deductible. You can support PCUN’s education, research, and legal-defense work via a tax-deductible contribution to the Willamette Valley Law Project.

November 9, 2017

A Night in Solidarity with PCUN featuring Tish Hinojosa..Nov. 20th

November Photos for Thought: A Night in Solidarity with PCUN featuring Tish Hinojosa..Buy tickets here

Where? SEIU Ballroom 6401 SE Foster Portland, OR 97206, Admission: $15 donation, Time: 6:30pm

PCUN team at 2017 Annual Celebration: Celebrating 40 years of movement building. Thank you all for coming.

Event at Anahuac Produce farm with representatives from the indigenous communities of Apache, Purepecha, Mixtico and Tarahumara people. Anahuac Produce uses PCUN’s Union Label.

Adelante!
PCUN

October 3, 2017

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Buy tickets here ($40)!

PCUN’s Annual Celebration is the place to catch up with friends and allies of the farmworker movement, enjoy authentic Mexican food and Latin music, & learn about what we’ve been up to.

This year’s celebration falls on the famous Mexican holiday “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). It also happens to be Ramon Ramirez’s (PCUN President) birthday. And to cap it off, 2017 is our 40th year of movement building work. So come and enjoy the Woodburn High School Mariachi Band, some pan de muerto (bread of the dead) with champurrado (warm thick Mexican drink), tamales (no translation needed), great music and stories, and most importantly great company.

A summary of 40 years of movement building

40 years ago this summer we embarked on a journey towards justice and equality for Oregon farmworkers. We’ve made tremendous progress, but some things remain the same. It was 1977 when we founded our movement’s first organization, the Willamette Valley Immigration Project (now the Farmworker Service Center), in response to an increase of ICE activity. At the time the WVIP provided community organizing, legal advice and legal representation to undocumented workers. This work has become a priority once more. And this time around, thanks to you we have a strong movement resisting and rising above the hate.

What you need to know about Trump’s 9/5/17 DACA decision

Frequently Asked Questions: Rescission Of Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA)

Release by: Department of Homeland Security

Release Date:

September 5, 2017

The following are frequently asked questions on the September 5, 2017 Rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program.

Q1: Why is DHS phasing out the DACA program?

A1: Taking into consideration the federal court rulings in ongoing litigation, and the September 4, 2017 letter from the Attorney General, it is clear that program should be terminated. As such, the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security rescinded the June 15, 2012 memorandum establishing the DACA program. Please see the Attorney General’s letter and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security’s memorandum for further information on how this decision was reached.

Q2: What is going to happen to current DACA holders?

A2: Current DACA recipients will be permitted to retain both the period of deferred action and their employment authorization documents (EADs) until they expire, unless terminated or revoked. DACA benefits are generally valid for two years from the date of issuance.

Q3: What happens to individuals who currently have an initial DACA request pending?

A3: Due to the anticipated costs and administrative burdens associated with rejecting all pending initial requests, USCIS will adjudicate—on an individual, case-by-case basis—all properly filed DACA initial requests and associated applications for EADs that have been accepted as of September 5, 2017.

Q4: What happens to individuals who currently have a request for renewal of DACA pending?

A4: Due to the anticipated costs and administrative burdens associated with rejecting all pending renewal requests, USCIS adjudicate—on an individual, case-by-case basis—properly filed pending DACA renewal requests and associated applications for Employment Authorization Documents from current beneficiaries that have been accepted as of September 5, 2017, and from current beneficiaries whose benefits will expire between September 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018 that have been accepted as of October 5, 2017. USCIS will reject all requests to renew DACA and associated applications for EADs filed after October 5, 2017.

Q5: Is there still time for current DACA recipients to file a request to renew their DACA?

A5: USCIS will only accept renewal requests and associated applications for EADs for the class of individuals described above in the time period described above.

Q6: What happens when an individual’s DACA benefits expire over the course of the next two years? Will individuals with expired DACA be considered illegally present in the country?

A6: Current law does not grant any legal status for the class of individuals who are current recipients of DACA. Recipients of DACA are currently unlawfully present in the U.S. with their removal deferred. When their period of deferred action expires or is terminated, their removal will no longer be deferred and they will no longer be eligible for lawful employment.

Only Congress has the authority to amend the existing immigration laws.

Q7: Once an individual’s DACA expires, will their case be referred to ICE for enforcement purposes?

A7: Information provided to USCIS in DACA requests will not be proactively provided to ICE and CBP for the purpose of immigration enforcement proceedings, unless the requestor meets the criteria for the issuance of a Notice To Appear or a referral to ICE under the criteria set forth in USCIS’ Notice to Appear guidance (www.uscis.gov/NTA). This policy, which may be modified, superseded, or rescinded at any time without notice, is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law by any party in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter.

Q8: Will USCIS share the personal information of individuals whose pending requests are denied proactively with ICE for enforcement purposes?

A8: Generally, information provided in DACA requests will not be proactively provided to other law enforcement entities (including ICE and CBP) for the purpose of immigration enforcement proceedings unless the requestor poses a risk to national security or public safety, or meets the criteria for the issuance of a Notice To Appear or a referral to ICE under the criteria. This policy, which may be modified, superseded, or rescinded at any time without notice, is not intended to, does not, and may not be relied upon to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law by any party in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter.

Q9: Can deferred action received pursuant to DACA be terminated before it expires?

A9: Yes. DACA is an exercise of deferred action which is a form of prosecutorial discretion. Hence, DHS will continue to exercise its discretionary authority to terminate or deny deferred action at any time when immigration officials determine termination or denial of deferred action is appropriate.

Q10: Can DACA recipients whose valid EAD is lost, stolen or destroyed request a new EAD during the phase out?

A10: If an individual’s still-valid EAD is lost, stolen, or destroyed, they may request a replacement EAD by filing a new Form I-765.

Q11: Will DACA recipients still be able to travel outside of the United States while their DACA is valid?

A11: Effective September 5, 2017, USCIS will no longer approve any new Form I-131 applications for advance parole under standards associated with the DACA program. Those with a current advance parole validity period from a previously-approved advance parole application will generally retain the benefit until it expires. However, CBP will retain the authority it has always exercised in determining the admissibility of any person presenting at the border. Further, USCIS retains the authority to revoke or terminate an advance parole document at any time.

Q12: What happens to individuals who have pending requests for advance parole to travel outside of the United States?

A12: USCIS will administratively close all pending Form I-131 applications for advance parole under standards associated with the DACA program, and will refund all associated fees.

Q13: How many DACA requests are currently pending that will be impacted by this change? Do you have a breakdown of these numbers by state?

A13: There were 106,341 requests pending as of August 20, 2017 – 34,487 initial requests and 71,854 renewals. We do not currently have the state-specific breakouts.

Q14: Is there a grace period for DACA recipients with EADs that will soon expire to make appropriate plans to leave the country?

A14: As noted above, once an individual’s DACA and EAD expire—unless in the limited class of beneficiaries above who are found eligible to renew their benefits—the individual is no longer considered lawfully present in the United States and is not authorized to work. Persons whose DACA permits will expire between September 5, 2017 and March 5, 2018 are eligible to renew their permits. No person should lose benefits under this memorandum prior to March 5, 2018 if they properly file a renewal request and associated application for employment authorization.

Q15: Can you provide a breakdown of how many DACA EADs expire in 2017, 2018, and 2019?

A15: From August through December 2017, 201,678 individuals are set to have their DACA/EADs expire. Of these individuals, 55,258 already have submitted requests for renewal of DACA to USCIS.

In calendar year 2018, 275,344 individuals are set to have their DACA/EADs expire. Of these 275,344 individuals, 7,271 have submitted requests for renewal to USCIS.

From January through August 2019, 321,920 individuals are set to have their DACA/EADs expire. Of these 321,920 individuals, eight have submitted requests for renewal of DACA to USCIS.

Q16: What were the previous guidelines for USCIS to grant DACA?

A16: Individuals meeting the following categorical criteria could apply for DACA if they:

Were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012;
Came to the United States before reaching their 16th birthday;
Have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007, up to the present time;
Were physically present in the United States on June 15, 2012, and at the time of making their request for consideration of deferred action with USCIS;
Had no lawful status on June 15, 2012;
Are currently in school, have graduated, or obtained a certificate of completion from high school, have obtained a General Educational Development (GED) certificate, or are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States; and
Have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, three or more other misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.

July 28, 2017

Farmworkers Facing Disastrous Immigration Legislation

From our friends at Farmworker Justice

The threats to farmworkers and their families intensified this week. We ask your support to help farmworkers fight for a fair immigration system.

Yesterday, the House immigration subcommittee held a hearing on agricultural guestworker programs. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Chair of the Judiciary Committee, said he will introduce a bill to repeal and replace the H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program. His bill’s guestworker program would eliminate major labor protections on wages, housing and government oversight. He opposes a path to immigration status and citizenship for undocumented farmworkers.

The day before, in a sneak attack, the House Appropriations Committee inserted into a spending bill a provision that would undermine farmworkers’ wages and conditions. It would allow employers with year-round jobs to hire H-2A guestworkers. Dairies and other farms with year-round jobs should compete for workers with good job terms.

Undocumented dairy and other agricultural workers should be granted an opportunity for immigration status and citizenship.

Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that he will propose a guestworker program. And there already are several anti-immigrant, anti-worker bills pending in Congress to change the H-2A program.

Help us stop these anti-worker, anti-immigrant proposals. We must struggle for fair immigration policies and a path to immigration status and citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and their families. The Agricultural Worker Program Act of 2017 would do that.

We ask for your support for our vital work at this momentous time.

Bruce

P.S. Descriptions of legislative proposals on farmworker immigration are available on our website.

July 20, 2017

You should put November 2nd on your calendar…

July Photos for Thought- Put November 2nd on your calendar

On November 2nd, 2017, 6pm @ SEIU (6401 SE Foster Rd, Portland, OR) PCUN will hold it’s Annual Celebration: 40 Years of Movement Building. It will be fun!

Than you to everyone who worked to pass Cover All Kids this past session. Read about PCUN’s 2017 legislative priorities and victories here!

Congratulations to our newest immigration “Licenciad@s” (DOJ Accredited Reps) that can now practice immigration law through our Farmworker Service Center! Laura Galindo, Ines L Peña, y Mario Palafox