National Latino Congreso 2012
May 17-19, 2012

¿Permisos para 'sin papeles'?
Así como en Arizona y Alabama se han promovido legislaciones que restringen derechos a los inmigrantes sin papeles, en California se estará impulsando una iniciativa que otorgaría permiso de trabajo legal a los indocumentados.

Se trata del "Plan California", una iniciativa que ayer se reveló en el Congreso Latino que se llevó a cabo en el Pitzer College de Claremont, con la cual se estaría desafiando a las leyes federales ante la inacción del Congreso y de la Casa Blanca respecto a la reforma migratoria.

WHEREAS Santos Reyes has been sentenced to 26-years-to-life for placing a false name on a DMV application for a driver’s license under the Three Strikes law in California; and

WHEREAS Santos Reyes has already served over seven years at Folsom State Prison; and

WHEREAS such imprisonment for a non-violent, victimless crime should constitute a clear violation of the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment"; and

WHEREAS the act committed by Santos Reyes would normally have been prosecuted as a violation of California Vehicle Code: Section 20, a misdemeanor (which states that "It is unlawful to use a false or fictitious name or knowingly conceal any material fact in any document filed with the DMV"), which carries a maximum sentence of one year and could not have been used as a "third" strike; and

WHEREAS the prosecutor abused his discretion by electing to charge Santos Reyes with a more serious offense of perjury, a violation of Penal Code Section 118 (a) a felony, that could trigger Three Strikes sentencing; and

WHEREAS Santos Reyes’ two priors strikes were a residential burglary as a 17 year-old minor (he and another youth stole a radio after visiting a house without a forced entry) and an armed robbery alleging the use of a knife committed when he was 23 years old (a charge Santos Reyes maintains he is completely innocent of); and

WHEREAS neither of these offenses occurred within the last twenty years; and

WHEREAS Santos Reyes served his jail sentences as a model prisoner; and

WHEREAS the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals has granted Santos Reyes a hearing to determine whether he should have been punished under the Three Strikes law; and

WHEREAS Santos Reyes sought only to provide for his family as a roofer by seeking to obtain a driver’s license an event totally disconnected from the previous issues and one created by peculiar and unjust juridical circumstances; and

WHEREAS Santos Reyes has become a victim and today a symbol of injustices against Mexican immigrants who only seek to provide for their family; and

WHEREAS in no other country in the world has any individual been or could be sentenced to such a prison term for falsifying a name on a DMV form; and

WHEREAS hundreds of thousands marched throughout California May First 2006 in demonstrations of which many were dedicated to Santos Reyes and where thousands gathered at San Francisco’s Civic Center raised both hands in support of clemency appealing to the Governor for mercy and showing the overwhelming support of the Latino community and others for Santos Reyes’ freedom; and the National Latino Congreso approved a similar resolution at its 1st Annual Founding event in 2006;

1. THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that organizations represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso do hereby petition the Governor of California to immediately grant a pardon and free Santos Reyes; and

2. FURTHER BE IT RESOLVED that organizations represented by delegates of the 2007 National Latino Congreso appeal, request and demand that the Assembly of the State of California and the Senate of the State of California join us in a petition to the Governor to end this great injustice by freeing Santos Reyes to return to his family.