Seventy years ago on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus, the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” Rosa Parks took a seat so that future generations could stand.
Seventy years later, at a moment when immigrant community are under siege, the work of Santa Rosa, California’s Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy and Services, or VIDAS, is standing up for them.
This coalition of Latino activists, civic leaders, and attorneys was founded in 2014 to impact the crisis facing those who’ve come to the United States to make a way out of no way.
Their desire to escape poverty and violence, while contributing to the fabric of the nation, has been met with intolerance and scapegoating. While immigration reform is needed, reforming negative attitudes is top of mind for VIDAS. Its creators included asylum seekers from El Salvador and a physician’s assistant working in a migrant farmworker’s clinic. Clearly not the “worst of the worst”.
From ending local pretextual law enforcement stops of Latino men forced into ICE custody, deportation without due process, and rounding up day laborers just trying to make honest day’s pay, VIDAS stepped in and stepped up, doing what was needed to stem these unconstitutional practices.
Under the Executive Directorship of Monica Julian, VIDAS provides a variety of services; their army of pre-bono legal professionals defend clients from deportation, have secured release for those unlawfully detained, and challenged discriminatory enforcement methods. They’ve partnered with the ACLU to take legal action against entities who’ve denied basic civil liberties and won. Their combination of strategic imparting of the law these communities, and non-violent resistance is changing the narrative of the current immigration emergency.
Families are being separated; workers are losing much-needed wages… individuals that have been in America for decades are suddenly being told they’re unwelcome. VIDAS displays compassion with staff that understands, and are from
“The Culture”.
Rosa Parks’ simple act transformed the world… VIDAS is transforming the pathway to full rights and dignity for communities that truly make America great.
