CLUE SB is working with PUEBLO and other local organizations to begin a campaign to change the way our immigrant community is portrayed in local media. PUEBLO recently did an eight week study on media coverage in Santa Barbara County, and they found that – unlike other outlets like the LA Times and the Sacramento Bee – our newspapers had almost no reporting on immigration issues. What they did have was a lot of editorials, most of which were anti-immigrant and very hostile in tone. For example, this letter, which was printed last week in the Independent.
CLUE will be sending a letter in response. This represents the first in a series of letters we will be sending to local newspapers. We’ll also be working with PUEBLO and others to try to encourage our local media to do more balanced coverage on immigration issues in the future. Here’s the text of our first letter:
I am writing on behalf Santa Barbara’s Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE SB) in support of the California Dream Act (SB 1301). This bill will give young people with undocumented immigration status the opportunity to apply for financial aid at our public colleges and universities if they have graduated from a California high school after at least three years of attendance.
These kids should not be held responsible for our country’s broken immigration system. They were brought here as children, often when they were too young to even know what was happening, and many of them have been members of our community for most of their lives. Most of them will live out their adult lives here with us. These are not “aliens”—these are the kids our children grow up with in school, the men and women who stand in line with us at the grocery store. These are our neighbors.
It is in our own best interest to help talented young people pursue better lives for themselves and their communities. If we want them to thrive, we have to assist them when they make positive choices and seek ways to use their talents to give back to their neighborhoods. We can’t pull the rug out from under them when it comes to financing higher education.
When addressing the needs of individuals with undocumented immigration status, it is understandable that many of us worry about losing out on opportunities for ourselves and our loved ones. However, as people of faith, our organization believes that we must approach these issues from a perspective of compassion and fairness for all people, rather than fear or alarm. Helping kids pursue positive goals is a good idea for our state, for our communities, and for our families. Being fair to our neighbors is also the right thing to do.
Would you like to help? We need people who are willing to speak out once in a while by writing short letters to the editor of our local papers. Let’s let our community know that we support our immigrant neighbors and desire fair and just immigration reform!
