Knights in theElite8
Knight's men march on to thestatequarterfinals Sports, page12
CityTimes sdcitytimes.com
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Covering the San Diego City College community since 1945
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Volume 71, Number 8
March 7, 2017
DACA students fear deportation under Trump By MELISSADEPIĂ‘ERES
City Times San Diego City College DACA students sat down with City Times for an interview about r ecent fear s that Pr esident Donald Tr ump will end the Defer r ed Action for Childhood Ar r ivals pr ogr am (DACA), which pr otects undocumented childhood arr ivals to the U.S. fr om deportation. Defer r ed Action for Childhood Ar r ivals is a two year r enewable pr ogr am that allows undocumented students to go to college, wor k, and tr avel within the United States legally. However, not all students living in the
City Collegestudentsattendingaworkshopgivingby AmericanFriendsService CommitteeinMS-162, whereadvicewasgiventoDACA recipients, March2. ALANHICKEYCity Times countr y illegally ar e appr oved under this pr ogr am. One 20 year- old law student came to the US when she was a year old. Using a r elative's documents,she and her family came fr om Guer-
r er o, Mexico to seek better oppor tunities. (None of the DACA students inter viewed for this ar ticle wer e willing to be identified.) ?The fear has always been ther e, even when Obama was
in. I always asked myself, ?What if he changes his mind? What's going to happen when Obama leaves?? Now, I feel unpr otected, even when car r ying my I D all the time. I ?m always at r isk of being depor ted, being at-r isk of being taken back to the place I don't know,? said this student. A middle daughter of four kids, she was gr anted DACA, but the r est of her siblings wer e not appr oved because of missing documentation. She says the pr ocess of getting documented is not only long, but ver y expensive and difficult. ?I wor k at a sock shop to help pay my house bills. I 'm
always afr aid that my par ents might get taken away,? she said. Although the San Diego Community College Distr ict pledged in a Feb. 3 email to pr otect undocumented students by not shar ing any immigr ation infor mation with feder al author ities, some students still say they feel unsafe outside of campus. M.E.Ch.A., an activist gr oup with a chapter at City College, has joined with the Association of Cor por ate Counsel in pr oviding wor kshops and for ums for undocumented students to better pr epar e them in case of depor tation pr oceedings. See DACAon page 3
SeaWorld settlement funds reach City College The checks come after customers sue the park for unexpected renewal fees By MIKEMADRIAGA
City Times On the second and thir d week of Febr uar y, some City College students and alumni r eceived par t of their $328,333 settlement fr om SeaWor ld. ?Why did I r eceive this (check in the mail)?,? asked Patr icia, a 2014 City College alumna. ?I have no pr oblems with SeaWor ld whatsoever.? Appr oximately two year s ago, Patr icia signed her family up with an ?EZpay? option for their annual SeaWor ld passes. EZpay, descr ibed on SeaWor ld?s website as a ?simple monthly payment pr ogr am designed to make Member ships fit easily into people's budgets,? allows people to pur chase annual passes to the par k thr ough a contr actual r epayment plan of 12, or 24 months. Patr icia said she was excited to take her husband and daughter to meet at SeaWor ld with their extended family and fr iends fr om City College.
?We all did it (pur chased annual passes thr ough EZpay) ? it was cheap,? Patr icia said. ?Our payment (for a family of 3), is only, like, $30 a month.? Since 2013, however, other s who had pur chased their year ly passes thr ough the EZpay payment option on SeaWor ld?s website wer e not so happy. Many didn?t r ead the ?fine pr int? and stated on social media sites that EZpay continued to char ge their cr edit car ds after the per ceived one-year commitments wer e over. ?That was not fair,? said Andr ew Ruthenber g, a linguistics major at City College, ?and I ?ve been going ther e since I was a young kid.? Mar cos Gonzalez Rod- r iguez, 20, is a biology major at City College and wor ks at SeaWor ld as an assistant super visor for vending. ?I nstead of paying one lump sum, it is better to make monthly payments,? he said, ?especially if you have a big family.? I n 2014, Jason Her man, a Flor ida r esident, sued SeaWor ld Par ks & En-
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CityTimeseditor responds News, page2
ter tainment at his location for the EZpay issues. I n 2015, the San Diego Reader r epor ted on a L os Angeles woman, Sher y Gar gir, when she sued SeaWor ld San Diego ?for over zealous car d swiping.? On Oct. 21, 2016, the Super ior Cour t of Califor nia, County of San Diego, Centr al, handed down a verdict in the case, outlining the ter ms of the settlement as follows: ?Defendant SeaWor ld Par ks & Enter- tainment, I nc. (Defendant) will pay $500,000.00 to settle their claims with plaintiff (Sher y Gar gir ). Thus, the net Settlement Amount should be at least $328,333.? Ruthenber g, who signed up for annual passes thr ough EZpay said, ?I agr ee with this decision. I f people wer e misled or confused by the explanation (on the website), this is r ight.? Accor ding to cour t documents, the $328,333 settlement is spr ead between an estimated 88,214 member s
SeaWorld'ssettlement checkshavestartedto arrivetoCity Collegestudents. VANESSA FLORESCity Times /Photo Illustration in the EZpay pr ogr am with a California home, or billing addr ess. ?We got a check for $11.05,? said Patr icia. ?I do not even want this. How can I send it back?? On the settlement website, Patr icia said ther e ar e no dir ections to r etur n the check. Patr icia had the option to opt- out by July 6, 2016. She would have had to send in a letter to Dahl Administr ation, L L C,the class action administr ator s of the case in Minneapolis.
Women in Light Women'sphotographyexhibit at LuxeGallery Art, page6