Redistricting commission must respect immigrants

Angelica Salas
The Sacramento Bee
April 10, 2011

Drawing lines on a map may strike some Californians as an academic exercise. But for immigrant families -- often divided by national borders and the different opportunities they shape -- boundaries hold huge significance. The importance extends to line-drawing within California, as the new Citizens Redistricting Commission holds the fate of our communities in its hands.

The politically balanced 14-member panel held its first public hearing Saturday in Redding. It has begun the once-a-decade task of carving up our vast state into districts of equal population. That means 80 newly crafted Assembly districts, 40 new state Senate districts, and 53 new districts in the U.S. Congress, from which voters will elect our representatives starting in 2012. Immigrant neighborhoods, whether newly created or long-standing, should be sustained, not split up, as the commission sets district boundaries.

Weighing strongly on the commission is the mandate to keep intact, as much as possible, "communities of interest." According to the panel's own legal guidelines, a community of interest is a closely grouped cluster of residents who share "common social and economic interests" that should be preserved "within a single district for purposes of its effective and fair representation."

More than 10 million immigrants reside in California but are not equally distributed across its geography. Small towns or urban neighborhoods with heavy concentrations of immigrants who share distinct religious or business traditions occur throughout the state.

Some, like historic Chinatown in San Francisco, are more than 150 years old. Others, like Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles, barely date back two decades.

The culture of our state pays tribute to these immigrant hubs -- from "Yokohama, California," the groundbreaking literary collection by Bay Area Japanese American author Toshio Mori; to El Teatro Campesino, the mecca for music and stage performance in San Benito County; to the Armenian Center and genocide memorial in Montebello, east of Los Angeles.

Immigrant enclaves help drive the integration and advancement of immigrant families and our state's economic engine. The danger in any district-drawing is that new lines chop up a place that functions as hub for immigrant families, diluting and weakening our voting strength.

In the past, state lawmakers were in charge of drawing the lines for their own districts and those of congressional districts they might later compete for. Incumbents often saw immigrant families as a threat and deliberately divided our voting bases in order to withstand shifting demographics, ward off potential challengers and prolong their own careers.

Small in votes and lobbying power, with few of our own in elected office, immigrant communities had little recourse when line-drawers muted our voice. The memory of powerlessness helped forge the unlikely coalition that passed Proposition 11 three years ago. That measure took line-drawing out of elected officials' hands.

In the new era of nonpartisan redistricting, there is no excuse for ignoring immigrant families as communities of interest -- or splintering an immigrant population center into multiple districts.

My organization is watching the commission this spring and the maps it creates this summer. We expect the new lines to respect the integrity of immigrant families and our neighborhoods.

Skeptics argue that immigrants face no dilution or deterrence in a state as diverse and tolerant as California. After all, our state attorney general is the daughter of an Asian immigrant mom and a Jamaican American dad. Our representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives include leaders of at least eight immigrant traditions. Two are Japanese Americans who overcame the oppression of domestic internment camps in the 1940s to win seats in Congress.

But that tragic episode, depriving more than 100,000 children and adults of their livelihoods and civil liberties, is a lasting reminder of the perils of anti-immigrant stigma. Some of those internees went on to become the most decorated servicemen of World War II, a reminder of many immigrants' readiness to sacrifice even when denied the full respect of their homeland.

To achieve just that, immigrant families have taken to heart the power of voting, advocating for civil rights and becoming candidates. Leveraging the cohesive force of our communities in district elections is possible only when we are not fragmented.

Our 120-person Legislature holds just a handful of immigrants, from both parties. Since the passing in 2008 of Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, California has no immigrant member in its 53-person delegation to Washington. Last year, one member of that delegation, Duncan Hunter, actually called for the deportation of immigrants' children who are U.S. citizens.

In an era of misguided attacks on immigrants and our contributions, Californians need more of immigrants' own voices in politics. Maintaining the cohesion of immigrant communities in our state's new districts will help ensure that immigrants stand a chance at representing ourselves in decision-making at all levels.

The eyes of America are on California. In the most populous state of the union, with the largest population of immigrants, our new process of drawing political boundaries could produce districts that respect the integrity of immigrant hubs. And what if the commission does not respect our communities of interest? Well, that is where we draw the line.

Angelica Salas is board chair of the Californians for Humane Immigrant Rights Leadership and Action Fund.