thwart someone who is anti-immigrant from taking positions. we are in california and something special happened with proposition 187. this was an anti-immigrant initiative and it showed latinos running on the screen saying, they just keep coming. they registered, they turned out in record numbers. you will not see that happen. we have changed the state forever. we can use the right holding up immigration reform to springboard success for latinos across the country. >> all right. unfortunately, we are coming to the close of the opening session and this has put into context what this election means and what the next days of conversation will be. i will give you time to make final remarks and we will let you have the last word.

>> thank you for allowing me to be here at the conference. i hope that, in the future, this is expanding and we have to open up the walls because we have a record number of latinos coming into elected office. i will close with this. demographics are not destiny. what we have talked about throughout -- on the left and right -- about building latino political power, for it to materialize, we have to make it happen together and i want to leave you with a call to action to join us. go to our website and join us on twitter. fleas do not forget to donate. that is how we have to do this. ourave to invest in community. >> this election cycle is going to be a battle of personalities. it is not about who speaks better. it is a battle of ideas. it is about how the country

looks and the economic system. it is about how we will be as a community" or. -- and culture. -- engage in a debate and have an honest debate. no sacred cows. that is what we need. >> so, there have been a couple of tense moments between these gentlemen and this is great. out of disagreement and out of feeling uncomfortable, that is what mobilizes you and get you to vote. i want us to keep thinking about the importance of political maturation from marching in the streets. we still march and we vote more. we give money to expand this room to have more alike to officials. >> excellent. please join me in thanking the panel.

[applause] >> the annual conference of the national association of latino elected and appointed officials heard from jerry brown. this is 20 minutes. ♪ thank you. , i was pretty excited to be called the quarterback. i never play football because i was short will stop i was a junior in high school and only 5'3". that was a real complex and all of the girls were taller than me. i was on the debate team. i had a good mouth. anyways, tell for you has come back and we are coming back.

we are doing lots of important things. not the least of which is because of the leadership of the senator and others. we have the biggest latino delegation ever in california and i do not know about the rest of the country. bigger than texas, i hope. >> almost. a friendly competition. i was proud to sign the dream act. i had to sign it twice. the first one was resident tuition for undocumented students and the second was foribility for scholarships undocumented students. then, because we are still waiting for that, whatever they call that group of people in washington. undocumentedg an

law school graduate who passed .he state bar become a lawyer that is pretty good. you can practice law in california, even if the law does not recognize you. if we keep doing things like that, across the country, congress will get the message. we are not waiting. why i signed the driver's license bill. it was 10 years ago that 60% of the people were against giving undocumented californians a drivers license and that has flipped around for one big reason will stop it is the people who participate and the sheer power of the latino community. it is felt in the town, cities, and communities -- towns, cities, and communities across the state will stop it is

changing the philosophy of government. state.ss the it is changing the philosophy of government. most of thesent things. it is done by the legislature. when i sign it, everybody thinks that i did it. the legislators get jealous of the governor the case he gets all the credit will stop anyways -- the credit. anyways, you take the good and the bad. a group of employees want to organize a union and the employer calls of the immigration service to defeat the effort. we have an anti-retaliation law that says you have to be reinstated. we made that practice illegal. if you are undocumented, you have the right to organize. then, the school funding formula that the legislature passed is very important.

it is the very first time that money is being spent not equally. there used to be equal spending for all school districts. a lot of places have not done that yet. in california, we have an equal spending based on needs. families that speak a language other than english get a special consideration and the school district gets more money based on the number of non-english-speaking families that have -- that are in our schools. by the billions. it is not really justice to treat on equals equally -- unequ als equally. you have to do more for those who do not have the same skill of speaking english as others. we have done that. designated english

language learners and that means extra money for the school. that is about half of the students in california and it is pretty amazing. i do not know what the affluent families are doing. they are not producing, or something. half of the kids in the schools are from low income families. what can i say? there it is. we understand it and we are doing something about it. then, of course, water. these are all individual issues. what you represent is growing and it is growing in really important ways. that oursaid connection with mexico is so close and it was not all that long ago that carlos the third said to occupy san diego. you did not know that california started the occupy movement. to occupy third said

san diego and monterey. the father up with and the mexicans throughout the spanish in 1850. gringos, of course, the throughout the mexicans. -- threw out the mexicans. you never keep control for ever and there are always new waves coming. you have to stay ahead of the wave. that is what we call brown power. but, anyways, so, i am going to mexico next month because we want to forge an agreement. i ran for president three times and did not quite make it. five primaries twice.

you have to win 25. have 40% of latino descent and we are forming agreements with mexico, china, british columbia on trade in joint research. -- trade and joint research. scholarships. when we focus on the western hemisphere and we focus on baja california and others, we know that we are a greater family that is working together. that is my philosophy. together, i think we will have a better state. i was signing a bilingual education bill a long time ago. i called for a, market between mexico, -- not california, the united states -- and canada.

we will get to that eventually. we are all together and it makes sense. stick to it. when you get elected, do not get unelected. i have been in power and out of power. it is better to be in then out. -- than out. thank you very much. [applause] >> another historical reference for californians. 20 years ago, this year, the voters passed 187. many would argue it is a

precursor to the arizona, the georgia, and the other anti-immigrant laws in recent years. i see school board members and councilmembers. mayors and supervisors. con saturday, members of gress. we keep coming and we have a governor who embraces us when we do. thank you, governor brown. is the attorney general for the state of california. harris. are we lucky to have her in this capacity. her career began in 2003. she won election and defeated the incumbent to become the district attorney of severn cisco.

-- san francisco. in 2010, she was elected the attorney general and became the first african-american and to hold the post. a powerful job and a busy job. it speaks volumes of her commitment and her values. it is her relentless fighting against financial institutions to provide justice and restitution for families, latino families, who were impacted by the foreclosure crisis in america. i will let her talk about that. a lot of people call her a rising star in californian politics will stop she is a rock star for us in california. -- californian

politics. she is a rock star for us intel for you. -- in california. please welcome kamala harris ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> thank you. welcome to california and thank you to my dear friend. i am proud to support you as you in oure in leadership great state. we have an embarrassment of riches, to be sure. we have a latino pro tem. we have an embarrassment of riches. all of us are elected or appointed and we know how this profession can be. i tell you that we are fortunate to have a lot of stars in this state who work together and are truly friends, committed to collective responsibility of

serving the people. thank you for the introduction. welcome. there is so much i want to say. i have been given seven minutes. i will keep it brief. it is important to recognize the significance of the reason for being. in appreciating the reason for it hasnd the purpose assumed. we know that all of us have many things in common, in spite of the fact that we have diverse interests and priorities. we have at least two things in common, all of us. , wemost of us in the room are one of the first or the first to do what we do. room, weof us in this do what we do because we believe

in the magnificence of our country and we are committed to fighting for the highest ideals at every step of the way. when i think about the purpose and the reason for being and the commonality that we share, i think of it in the context of something we will commemorate or celebrate next week. the 50th anniversary of the civil rights act in 1964. in thinking about the civil rights act of 1964 50 years later, we know it and remember a to be a product of coalition of people who came together to fight for the ideals of our country and for the promise that we made in 1776 that we should all be treated as equals. we know the coalition around that movement.

there were some who fought hard and died to make it true. many reasons,for that document is not just a piece of paper signed into law 50 years ago. it is very much a living and breathing document. ,t is a document that outlined for our country, and reminds people of the great promise that indicates that there are some fundamental rights that must always be protected. there are fundamental rights that relate to education, givingc opportunity, human beings and the people who live in this country the ability to live a productive life with dignity. when i think about the work we are here to dedicate ourselves to doing and the 50th anniversary of the civil rights

i cannot help but reflect on where we are today. education, we of look at this country and we know that the graduation rates from high school for communities of color are embarrassing. we look at the graduation rates and we see that, for white students, it is 79% and, for 68%.os, it is oflook at an issue elementary school truancy. kindergartners and six traders are missing from 60-80 days of school. among latinos in california, they are absent 4.5 times more than their white counterparts. relates tot, as it that fundamental right of having

equal access to education, that there is a lot of work to be done. we look at the issue of economics and the right and ability that everyone should have to work hard. to and live aspire the american dream. in terms of equal access, there is a lot of work to be done 50 years later. we can look at the statistics that tell us that white women dollar compared to white men. earn $.64erican women on the dollar. $.53 in thatd comparison. we have a lot of work to do. we look at the fundamental theciples underlying motivation of a creation of the

civil rights act. it was not designed with the understanding that, in this great country of ours, there should never be an underclass. a definedld never be group of people who are forced to live in the shadows and are considered second class. we look at what is not happening in washington around comprehensive immigration reform, we know that we have a lot of work to do. we can look at this in terms of what my office and i have worked on in the last two years, relating issue of immigration reform to an issue that our constituencies have, public safety. to aan connect that s policy of secure communities. i mapping out how it works,

issued a bulletin to say that it is not working as it was intended and designed to. theact, it allowed immigration service to pick up 30% ofain -- detain undocumented immigrants who definition,'s non-criminal. we let them know the research we had done that makes it clear that the requests are a request and not mandatory. let us leave it up to the discretion of law-enforcement leaders in those communities to make the decision for what is in the best interest of public safety in their community, instead of allowing them to use limited resources to make sure that we have a country that is stable and great. in particular, let us not be

-- ined and something something. we designed our system of government in a smart way. we all know that there are responsibilities of the federal branch and the state branch. there are responsibilities of the local branch. public safety was designed as a responsibility of the local branch. prosecutor who has prosecuted everything from low-level offenses to homicides, i can tell you that allowing victims of crimes to live in the because a predator has convinced her -- smart public policy decision and is not true to the ideals of our country, insane that we will not have an underclass or those who live in the shadows.