UpFront

Walter Cruz-Zavala has won his immigration case twice, but ICE refuses to release him – why?; Plus: The real impacts of PG&E power shut-offs are still unknown, advocates want answers and accountability

Walter Cruz-Zavala has been detained by ICE for more than 3 years, and is currently at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield, CA. (Photo: Courtesy of Raha Jorjani)

0:08 – Chile votes to replace dictatorship-era constitution

Naomi Larsson Pineda (@naomilars) is a British-Chilean freelance journalist covering Chile for Al Jazeera, the Guardian and the Telegraph UK. She’s currently based in London.

0:34 – After wining his immigration case twice, 30 year old asylum-seeker Walter Cruz-Zavala is still incarcerated by ICE – why? The Alameda County Public Defenders Office is fighting for his release

Walter Cruz-Zavala has been in immigration custody since July 2017, fighting deportation back to El Salvador where he faces violence and possibly death by gangs. Despite winning his case twice, he remains locked up in the Mesa Verde Detention facility in Bakersfield, CA, where he caught COVID-19.  

Raha Jorjani is Supervising Immigration Defense Attorney with the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office.

1:08 – The impacts of PG&E power shut-offs are largely unknown, now advocates are demanding the data and accountability

Shalanda Baker is Professor of Law, Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University and Co-Founder and Co-Director, Initiative for Energy Justice advocating for a just transition to renewable energy. 

Pete Wiowode is with the Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign, advocating for a “a safe, reliable, community-and-worker-owned energy system that benefits all Californians, especially the people most harmed by PG&E.”

1:34 – San Francisco Prop E explainer

Joe Eskenazi (@EskSF) is managing editor and columnist at Mission Local, based in San Francisco.

1:43 – KPFA News: After waves of historic protests shook the nation following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, modest police reforms are being sought across the Bay Area. Police reform measures are on the ballot in Sonoma County, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Berkeley. Nearly all of them seek to strengthen civilian oversight of law enforcement through additional staffing and legal changes to grant oversight bodies additional authority in police misconduct investigations. KPFA’s Chris Lee (@chrislee_xyz) reports.

1:51 – KPFA News: Now back to Proposition 22, the initiative that a handful of tech companies put on the ballot to make their drivers classified as contractors–and keep them getting some of the rights and benefits the law extends to employees.  The money that Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Postmates, and Instacart are spending on Proposition 22 has shattered records for ballot initiatives in California. KPFA’s Ariel Boone (@arielboone) reports on how they’re spending it, and why that has good-government groups concerned.