Los Angeles Times - 13.11.2019

B4 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 LATIMES.COM

ministration has attempted
to do and to make them sub-
ject to eviction from the only
country they know as home
is not only not legally re-
quired, but it is inconsistent
with good immigration pol-
icy and inconsistent with our
values as a country.”
California plays an out-
sized role in the debate over
DACA. It has the largest
number of recipients —
more than 220,000, nearly
one-third of the nation’s to-
tal. The UC system, along
with the state and other Cal-
ifornia entities and individu-
als, led the legal challenge at
issue in Tuesday’s high
court hearing. Napolitano
was the architect of DACA
while she served as U.S.
Homeland Security secre-
tary under President
Obama.
And Californians over-
whelmingly support DACA,
including majorities of Re-
publicans and those who
identify as conservatives, ac-
cording to a 2018 statewide
survey by the Public Policy
Institute of California. The
survey found that 85% of
adults surveyed supported
the continued protections,
including majorities across
all races, ethnicities, geo-
graphic regions and political
ideologies.
Some opponents, howev-
er, also spoke out Tuesday.
Kimo Gandall, a UC Irvine
senior and chairman of Cali-
fornia College Republicans,
said his statewide organiza-
tion believes DACA is an
“overextension of executive
power” that improperly al-
lows the president to refuse
to implement immigration
laws passed by Congress. He
also said that illegal immi-
gration hurts domestic
workers and encourages hu-
man trafficking across the
border.
“I view it as a great per-
version of our republic not to
deport these individuals,”
Gandall said. “If the law
looks cruel, that’s unfortu-
nate, but that’s not a reason
not to implement the law.
The way to solve it would be
for the Legislature to create
a DACA-like program.”
Some legal experts noted
Tuesday that the high
court’s conservative justices
seemed receptive to the
Trump administration’s ar-
guments defending its deci-
sion to shut down the pro-
gram.
Becerra said Tuesday he
was “intrigued” by how
much time the justices spent
on the question of whether

courts had the right to re-

view the administration’s

actions. The attorney gen-

eral asserted California’s po-

sition that they did have

such rights.

“In America, you learn

that there’s a right way to do

things and there’s a wrong

way to do things,” he said.

“And what came forward in

this argument today is that

the federal government did

it the wrong way. The DACA

program should continue. It

was legal to begin with.”

Napolitano said UC

would continue to stand by

its DACA students regard-

less of the legal outcome.

She said the 10-campus sys-

tem would continue to offer

them student services and

free legal aid. She also prom-

ised efforts to raise private

funds to help the students,

many of whom she said were

low-income and would suffer

financially if they lost the

right to work.

She took issue with

Trump’s Twitter message on

Tuesday calling some DACA

recipients “very tough, hard-

ened criminals.”

She noted that those who

had been convicted of fel-

onies or multiple misde-

meanors were not eligible for

the program. Of those ap-

proved for DACA from 2012

to February 2018, about 7.8%

had arrest records, and

those were mostly for of-

fenses related to driving and

immigration, according to

federal statistics.

“The president’s tweet

was just wrong,” she said.

“The DACA recipients I’ve

met are hardworking stu-

dents, positive contributors

to the university community

and young people with

hopes and dreams that at

the university we want to

support.”

Many such students and

their allies were out in force

Tuesday, choosing to skip

class — a decision supported

by some L.A. Unified School

District leaders and many

college campuses.

Just before 10 a.m., doz-

ens of students silently

walked out of their class-

rooms at Garfield High

School, holding signs that

read, “Our dreams are not il-

legal” and “Rise for DACA.”

Organizers for East L.A. ad-

vocacy groups stood along

the street outside the school

in neon vests, toting wagons

of water and snacks and

handing out “know your

rights” pamphlets.

As the marchers made

their way down Atlantic

Boulevard to the Metro

train, bolstered by honks

from passersby, they roared

out their will to fight in both

English and Spanish.

Once on the train they

chanted, “Trump, escucha,

estamos en la lucha!” —

“Trump, listen, we are in the

fight!”

Samantha Barrientos, 16,

a student activist with the

Coalition for Humane Immi-

grant Rights who organized

the Garfield walkout, held a

bullhorn and led chants. As

the only U.S. citizen in her

family, the 11th-grader said

she had seen the way that

DACA status helped her old-

er sister pursue dreams

without fear. The walkout

was meant to show the

Trump administration and

Supreme Court justices that

young people care so much

about the fates of their

peers, friends and families

that they were willing to give

up a day of education, she

and others said.

She had a message for

the justices who carry the

fate of Dreamers in their

hands: “Take into consider-

ation that these recipients

have families now. They are

very welded into their com-

munities. They are parents,

they are siblings; they are

our community, they are our

people.”

By about 11:15 a.m., the

Garfield students reached

the federal building in down-

town L.A., where hundreds

of others were already gath-

ered. A Garfield history

teacher played an Aztec

drum to the beat of student-

led chants. Speakers in-

cluded students, a teachers

union representative and

LAUSD school board mem-

ber Monica Garcia.

After, as the hundreds of

teens marched west through

and past downtown, es-

corted by police who

blocked off one city block at

a time, Angelenos stood on

the sidewalks of Spring

Street, some filming, others

cheering and honking in

support.

Jazmin Ramirez Mor-

ales, a 28-year-old master’s

student in social work at Cal

State L.A., told her professor

and classmates that she

would be missing class Tues-

day to support the high

school students walking out

of their classrooms — and

they came with her. She ex-

pressed concern about

Dreamers who will have to

hustle for cash-only jobs and

lose educational opportuni-

ties like she did before

DACA.

The Cal State L.A. stu-

dent came to the United

States from Mexico at age 3,

driven across the border by a

family friend. After graduat-

ing from high school in

Lennox in 2009, she lived at

home with her parents and

found jobs that would pay

her in cash, mostly in fast-

food restaurants.

With the California

Dream Act and DACA in

2012, she was able to get a

stable job at T-Mobile and

some financial aid to finish

college.

The authorization al-

lowed her to work as a foster

care case manager, and

eventually enroll in the mas-

ter’s program, funded by a

government stipend.

“I want people to know

that we matter,” she said.

California vows to help ‘Dreamers’

DACAsupporters rally at the Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. In Washington, a Supreme

Court majority appeared to signal support for the Trump administration’s attempt to end the program.

Photographs by Al SeibLos Angeles Times

L.A. COUNTY Supervisor Hilda Solis joins other leaders in L.A. and statewide

promising to protect DACA recipients regardless of the high court’s decision.

[DACA, from B1]

recommendations concern-
ing all marine casualty in-
vestigations, and we work
closely with them to identify
ways to improve the safety of
the maritime industry,”
chief spokesperson Lt. Amy
Midgett previously told The
Times in a statement.
“When NTSB makes recom-
mendations, the Coast
Guard carefully considers
the proposed measures and
is required to weigh the ben-
efits and impacts of imple-
mentation.”
In September, a fire
broke out on the Conception
during a weekend diving ex-
cursion in the Channel Is-
lands, killing everyone who
had been sleeping below
deck. Since the accident, in-
vestigators have cited some
of the same deficiencies
pointed out by the NTSB in
other boat fires: lack of crew
training and inadequate
safety measures and main-
tenance.
A preliminary NTSB in-
vestigation found that the
Conception had violated a
requirement that it have a
roving watch during the
night, saying the five crew
members who survived
awoke to discover the
flames. The agency also has
raised concerns about the
functionality of the two exits
in the area where passen-
gers slept in stacked bunks
beneath the waterline.
The results from the
NTSB investigation into the
Labor Day disaster could
take 18 months to complete.
Agents from the FBI and the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives are
trying to determine what
sparked the blaze.

Glen Fritzler, owner of

the dive boat, cautioned

against the rush to judge his

Truth Aquatics company.

“You must take me as a

fool to request me to talk to

you who has only gotten the

facts wrong and has done

nothing but try and destroy

my good name,” Fritzler said

in a statement. “Do your

homework in the future be-

fore your poison pen re-

leases more disinformation.

Remember, not all of the

crew was interviewed.”

Still, members of the

boat industry contend that

the Conception fire could fi-

nally trigger safety rules that

the NTSB has been propos-

ing for years.

In a number of accidents

going back almost 20 years, a

review of federal records

shows the NTSB found that

issues such as an electrical

malfunction, a poorly main-

tained fuel line and a failed

cooling pump had caused

fires aboard small vessels.

But the safety panel also

concluded that a lack of pre-

ventive maintenance and

fire training for crew mem-

bers had contributed to the

blazes.

The NTSB repeatedly

has called on the Coast

Guard to require small ves-

sels to establish procedures

for conducting regular in-

spections and reporting

maintenance and repair

needs for all of a boat’s sys-

tems — including the hull

and mechanical and electri-

cal operations. This, the

NTSB said, would better en-

sure safety on vessels be-

tween Coast Guard inspec-

tions, which occur every one

to two years.

But the Coast Guard has

pushed back on the recom-

mendation, calling it “un-

necessarily burdensome

and duplicative of existing

requirements.” The NTSB,

an independent federal

agency, has no authority to

enforce its recommenda-

tions, so regulators such as

the Coast Guard and the

Federal Aviation Adminis-

tration are not bound by

them.

Rep. John Garamendi

(D-Walnut Grove), who sits

on the subcommittee, said

the Coast Guard for too long

has ignored the NTSB rec-

ommendations after acci-

dents. One issue, he said, is

the Coast Guard doesn’t

have enough inspectors to

enforce the kind of improve-

ment sought by the NTSB.

He said he hopes the

hearing this week will help

change the oversight of the

vessels, including raising the

possibility of getting states

involved in the inspection

process. He wondered

whether the states could

regulate the businesses and

then require extensive in-

spections by the Coast

Guard or private firms.

“There are far too many

deaths in boating disasters,”

California’s former lieuten-

ant governor said. “The

Coast Guard hasn’t done

the task. The NTSB has said

it has got to be done.”

Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-

Long Beach), a member of

the subcommittee, said ev-

ery recommendation the

NTSB makes should be con-

sidered for adoption by the

relevant agency with the pri-

mary consideration being

whether the recommenda-

tions make transportation

safer.

“One of the primary re-

sponsibilities of the National

Transportation Safety

Board is to recommend safe-

ty regulations based on the

findings of their investiga-

tions,” Lowenthal said in a

statement. “Over more than

five decades, their work has

made road, water and air

transportation decidedly

safer. But too often, their

recommendations have not

been adopted by the rele-

vant agency.”

THE BURNED HULK of the Conception in September. “More needs to be done

to protect the lives and safety of passengers and crew,” Rep. Julia Brownley said.

Brian van der BrugLos Angeles Times

Calling

on Coast

Guard to

take steps

[Conception,from B1]

The widow of a passenger

who died in a fiery dive boat

disaster that killed 34 people

in the waters off Santa Cruz

Island sued the vessel’s own-

ers Monday.

Christine Dignam, whose

husband, Justin Dignam,

died when the Conception

caught fire Sept. 2, said in

the lawsuit that the boat was

unsafe.

The vessel didn’t have ad-

equate smoke detectors or

firefighting equipment, it

lacked enough emergency

exits, and a required night

watch was not on duty when

the flames broke out in the

middle of the night, accord-

ing to the wrongful-death

lawsuit filed in federal court

in Los Angeles.

U.S. authorities are con-

ducting criminal and safety

investigations into the fire

that killed all 33 passengers

and one crew member sleep-

ing below deck. The blaze’s

cause has not been deter-

mined.

The lawsuit against

Truth Aquatics Inc. in Santa

Barbara is the first from a

relative of the victims who

died. A crew member who

was injured trying to escape

the flames previously sued.

Dignam’s case is a coun-

terclaim to a lawsuit filed

preemptively by the boat

owners to protect them from

liability under a quirk of pre-

Civil War maritime law. The

limitation of liability lawsuit

put anyone with a claim on

notice that they had until

July 1, 2020, to contest the ac-

tion.

For lawsuits by families

and others to move forward,

lawyers will have to show

that the boat’s owners, who

were on shore, should have

known the boat was unsafe

at the time of the fire.

Boat owners Glen and

Dana Fritzler said in their

lawsuit that they “used rea-

sonable care to make the

Conception seaworthy, and

she was, at all relevant

times, tight, staunch, and

strong, fully and properly

manned, equipped and sup-

plied and in all respects sea-

worthy and fit for the service

in which she was engaged.”

Coast Guard records

showed the boat had passed

its two most recent safety in-

spections without viola-

tions, but authorities said all

six crew members were

asleep when the pre-dawn

fire started. That goes

against Coast Guard regula-

tions requiring a “roving”

night watch.

While the fire’s cause re-

mains under investigation,

the new lawsuit hints at the

mess of electrical wires and

cables where passengers

charged their phones, video

cameras, strobe lights and

other battery-powered

equipment. The equipment

was in the galley above the

guest sleeping quarters.

The lawsuit said the boat

was not equipped with a safe

electrical system.

Truth Aquatics voluntar-

ily suspended its fleet last

month.

Lawyers for the boat

company did not immedi-

ately respond to emails seek-

ing comment on the lawsuit.

Justin Dignam, 58, of An-

aheim Hills has a teenage

daughter and son. He was a

veteran water polo player

and coach who was chief exe-

cutive at a payroll company

he founded.

Widow of victim

of boat fire sues

owner of vessel

associated press