Wednesday 05/27/2026
Hike in the Baylands with Joanne and Martha. After lunch I had a good guitar/singing practice session.
Early in the day Rhonda had announced an special meeting for 4pm. The reason was that our US Rep, Sam Liccardo, had held a press conference about the issue of the slow processing of work permits and residence permits for immigrants. Pretty obviously the current administration is deliberately slow-footing all that paperwork as a tactic to force immigrants to leave.
The human and economic costs are great. Rhonda had been asked to participate in this press event, speaking as an employer who has been losing staff. It seems we’ve had to let 9 people go, out of our employee roster of just over 100, when their work permits were not renewed. Not denied or canceled, just never renewed after they had applied.
The resident meeting was to describe what she had said, and then to let three of our staff — Yadira (brought to the US by her parents at age 3; has a masters degree in senior care administration), Izveth, our director of nursing (another dreamer, waiting for her DACA renewal), and Priya, our director of HR, another immigrant who has to counsel employees on these issues. They described the emotional pressure of waiting for the bureaucrats to respond to their application for extension. How they can never make long-term plans; don’t dare buy a house, etc. It’s really a cruel system made more so by current policies.
After supper I helped David G set up for an event. I won’t try to explain but the AV was unusual and we both messed it up. Fortunately the speaker was tolerant. That lecture event dragged on because my neighbors asked a bunch of dumb questions in the Q&A. Oh well.
Codgerville 