California Dream Act, Farmworkers bill signed

Assemblymember Gil Cedillo, activists student organizers, and the California Legislature, and Governor Brown passed the Dream Act.

  The legislation allows  undocumented immigrant college students to receive public financial aid, marking California's relatively liberal ground in a bitter row over immigration nationwide.

The California Dream Act allows access to public financial aid, including Cal Grants, for undocumented students who came to the country before turning 16 and attended California high schools. Those students already are eligible for in-state tuition, and Brown in July signed a companion measure affording them access to private financial aid.

"Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking. The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us," Brown said in a prepared statement. 

Brown Signs compromise Farm Workers Bill.

Four months after vetoing labor-backed legislation that would have made it easier to unionize farmworkers - touching off a highly personal, late-night protest at the Capitol - Gov. Jerry Brown announced this evening that he has signed the compromise measure he helped negotiate.

Senate Bill 126, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, gives farmworkers greater protections in organizing disputes with growers, including allowing the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify a union when it determines grower misconduct affected an election's outcome.

Brown signed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, but his June veto tested his relationship with his longtime allies in the United Farm Workers union. The union and legislative Democrats cheered the compromise law.

"This change to existing law is a significant advancement," Steinberg said in a prepared statement. "The idea here is simple - if the Agricultural Labor Relations Board finds employer misconduct affected the results of the election and further determines that it cannot conduct a fair second election, the board may certify the union without further delay. I applaud the Governor for his action.