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ICE raids on immigrants meet quick resistance
hazem2 | 10/22/2008 - 03:56
Union and community fightbacks around the country check government offensive
by Monica Hill
From Freedom Socialist Newspaper
Has La Migra gone berserk! Renamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, it is on the warpath, terrorizing as many immigrant workers and their families as possible.
Why? They are not terrorists or human traffickers. They are workers. U.S. Congress and companies want to force immigrants into guest-worker programs where they become “guests” in the U.S. and are entirely dependent upon their employer.
Raids and roadblocks are exploding everywhere, especially in small towns where there are fewer people to raise the alarm and counter-organize. But outraged community activists, unions and civil liberty groups are putting the federal government’s feet to the fire anyway. Here are just a few of the stories.
Iowa protest. One thousand marchers took to the streets in July to denounce ICE raids and hideous labor conditions at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa — population 2,500. In May, ICE arrested 389 workers, tricked them into pleading guilty to criminal charges, and deported them to Guatemala.
United Food and Commercial Workers was in a union drive when the raid took place. Now, the company wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 1984 ruling that undocumented workers are protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
Many of the marchers came from Chicago and Minneapolis. Law professors and the union exposed the lack of due process and unionbusting tactics in special Congressional hearings. Somali workers with refugee documents were hired as replacements and are reporting the same plant atrocities. They are not alone in their struggle as the union and local immigrant rights activists continue to organize.
Virginia and Maryland rallies. The National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC) was quick to respond to two more attacks by picketing ICE’s office in Fairfax, Virginia, rallying in Baltimore and holding press conferences. NCIC demanded that ICE let detainees talk to lawyers, and not be jailed miles from home. In both cases, ICE charged them with immigration violations, not crimes. The Feds apparently learned after Postville’s protests to be less cavalier about inventing criminal charges and denying due process.
Mississippi fightback. In August, Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) warned that ICE was circling above — readying courtrooms and reserving hotel space. MIRA assembled attorneys and identified possible raid targets. Employees at Howard Industries, producing electrical equipment in the small town of Laurel, turned out to be the mark. Nearly 600 were detained in the largest single-plant raid in history.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union was negotiating an expired contract at Laurel when ICE hit, and many immigrants had begun to join the union. Said Jim Evans of the Mississippi legislature’s Black Caucus, the ICE invasion was “an attempt to drive a wedge between immigrants, African Americans, white people and unions.”
Checkpoints in Washington. Residents of the Olympic Peninsula were incensed when they learned in late August that the U.S. Border Patrol had set up highway roadblocks, and arrested and deported a 15-year-old, and an 18-year-old who had been in the U.S. since infancy. Within days, nearly 100 people demonstrated their dissent in Forks, a logging town of 3,200 where the boys lived.
Soon, there were more arrests and entire communities living under a cloud of fear. Port Angeles Radical Women called a meeting and scores showed up from Port Townsend, Sequim, Forks and Port Angeles to plan a rally and march for September 20. Native Monica Charles of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe told the crowd, “This is a test case. If they can get away with these checkpoints here on the Peninsula, they will try it everywhere.”
Union resolve. Indispensable in the defense of immigrant workers are unions. Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS), multiracial, multicultural labor activists in Seattle, wrote a profoundly humane and encompassing resolution in defense of immigrant rights. It pulls no punches. Several union locals passed it, as well as did the state convention of the Washington State Labor Council. San Francisco and Los Angeles locals have also approved it. The full text of this powerful organizing and educational tool is available at www.wslc.org/2007res.htm#5.
Breaking news! As in Postville and Laurel, Somali workers replaced Latinos raided in 2006 at the Swift company in Greeley, Colorado. Just last month they walked off the job for the right to conduct Muslim prayers. This shows that full amnesty and legalization for all immigrant workers is what’s needed to put them in a better position to join unions and fight back.
by Monica Hill
From Freedom Socialist Newspaper
Has La Migra gone berserk! Renamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, it is on the warpath, terrorizing as many immigrant workers and their families as possible.
Why? They are not terrorists or human traffickers. They are workers. U.S. Congress and companies want to force immigrants into guest-worker programs where they become “guests” in the U.S. and are entirely dependent upon their employer.
Raids and roadblocks are exploding everywhere, especially in small towns where there are fewer people to raise the alarm and counter-organize. But outraged community activists, unions and civil liberty groups are putting the federal government’s feet to the fire anyway. Here are just a few of the stories.
Iowa protest. One thousand marchers took to the streets in July to denounce ICE raids and hideous labor conditions at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa — population 2,500. In May, ICE arrested 389 workers, tricked them into pleading guilty to criminal charges, and deported them to Guatemala.
United Food and Commercial Workers was in a union drive when the raid took place. Now, the company wants the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its 1984 ruling that undocumented workers are protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
Many of the marchers came from Chicago and Minneapolis. Law professors and the union exposed the lack of due process and unionbusting tactics in special Congressional hearings. Somali workers with refugee documents were hired as replacements and are reporting the same plant atrocities. They are not alone in their struggle as the union and local immigrant rights activists continue to organize.
Virginia and Maryland rallies. The National Capital Immigrant Coalition (NCIC) was quick to respond to two more attacks by picketing ICE’s office in Fairfax, Virginia, rallying in Baltimore and holding press conferences. NCIC demanded that ICE let detainees talk to lawyers, and not be jailed miles from home. In both cases, ICE charged them with immigration violations, not crimes. The Feds apparently learned after Postville’s protests to be less cavalier about inventing criminal charges and denying due process.
Mississippi fightback. In August, Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance (MIRA) warned that ICE was circling above — readying courtrooms and reserving hotel space. MIRA assembled attorneys and identified possible raid targets. Employees at Howard Industries, producing electrical equipment in the small town of Laurel, turned out to be the mark. Nearly 600 were detained in the largest single-plant raid in history.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union was negotiating an expired contract at Laurel when ICE hit, and many immigrants had begun to join the union. Said Jim Evans of the Mississippi legislature’s Black Caucus, the ICE invasion was “an attempt to drive a wedge between immigrants, African Americans, white people and unions.”
Checkpoints in Washington. Residents of the Olympic Peninsula were incensed when they learned in late August that the U.S. Border Patrol had set up highway roadblocks, and arrested and deported a 15-year-old, and an 18-year-old who had been in the U.S. since infancy. Within days, nearly 100 people demonstrated their dissent in Forks, a logging town of 3,200 where the boys lived.
Soon, there were more arrests and entire communities living under a cloud of fear. Port Angeles Radical Women called a meeting and scores showed up from Port Townsend, Sequim, Forks and Port Angeles to plan a rally and march for September 20. Native Monica Charles of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe told the crowd, “This is a test case. If they can get away with these checkpoints here on the Peninsula, they will try it everywhere.”
Union resolve. Indispensable in the defense of immigrant workers are unions. Organized Workers for Labor Solidarity (OWLS), multiracial, multicultural labor activists in Seattle, wrote a profoundly humane and encompassing resolution in defense of immigrant rights. It pulls no punches. Several union locals passed it, as well as did the state convention of the Washington State Labor Council. San Francisco and Los Angeles locals have also approved it. The full text of this powerful organizing and educational tool is available at www.wslc.org/2007res.htm#5.
Breaking news! As in Postville and Laurel, Somali workers replaced Latinos raided in 2006 at the Swift company in Greeley, Colorado. Just last month they walked off the job for the right to conduct Muslim prayers. This shows that full amnesty and legalization for all immigrant workers is what’s needed to put them in a better position to join unions and fight back.
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