"Shut Down ICE!"
30 Arrested in Civil Disobedience at Bloomington [MN] Facility
by"Frowner," Twin Cities Indymedia
May 6, 2009
There's a signless pinkish building at the corner of American and Metro in Bloomington Minnesota. Like US immigration policy, this building is hidden in plain sight--visible to immigrants and their allies but ignored by the rest of the nation. This is the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, anondescript place where deportees are held on the last night before they're driven to the airport and sent away. Sometimes they leave behind families and children; sometimes they return to countries they last saw while still too young to remember. One woman left her autistic and medically vulnerable son.
"My father would never get to see me graduate high school," said Nick Espinosa, one of the activists who spoke at today's action in front of the ICE facility. Espinosa's father came to the US at the age of 18. Despite years of ordinary employment and participation in society, he was taken away by immigration agents in front of his family. ICE "sees immigration as a statistic," said Espinosa. "Immigration has a human face." [...]
Read the full article:
http://tc.indymedia.org/2009/may/shut-down-ice-30-arrested-civil-disobedience-bloomington-facility
Stop the Deportation at UC-Berkeley!
Free Jesus Gutierrez, Make UCB a sanctuary campus
From: rcruz@berkeley.edu
May 7, 2009
ICE's outrageous on-campus kidnapping last week of Jesús Gutiérrez, an immigrant food-service worker at UC-Berkeley's Clark Kerr Campus, can be reversed, and it is an opportunity to make UC-Berkeley the nation's firstsanctuary campus.
(Picture of Jesus Gutierrez:http://www.bamn.com/gfx/photos3/jesus-300px.jpg )
PLEASE DO THE FOLLOWING TO HELP WIN THIS FIGHT:
1. INVITE ALL YOUR FRIENDS to join the Facebook Group to free the UC-Berkeley food services worker Jesús Gutiérrez. Include note of how important this is! Go to the Group page and "Invite" everyone you know!http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=73811029870
2. PRINT OUT THESE FLYERS and pass them out or post them up to spread theword!Flyer: http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/090506-ucbsanctuary-flyer.doc Poster: http://www.bamn.com/doc/2009/090506-ucbsanctuary-poster.doc
3. POST A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT on the "Wall" of this Group Page. Students and activists have contacted us with support from as far as Rhode Island and Florida. All letters will be forwarded or faxed to UC-Berkeley and/orread out at the demonstrations if you'd like.http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=73811029870
For more information, see: ICE kidnaps UC Berkeley employee
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/07/18593563.php
UPDATE: University of California Police Department, not ICE, arrested immigrant campus worker
Protesters Challenge Immigrant's Recent Arrest
by Leah Greenbaum, The Daily Californian
May 8, 2009
An immigrant rights group held a rally on Upper Sproul Plaza yesterday in support of an undocumented Clark Kerr dining commons worker who was arrested on the job last week.
UCPD officers arrested Jesus Gutierrez after receiving a report from a southern California police department indicating Gutierrez had allegedly used a stolen social security number, said UCPD Lt. Doug Wing. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.dailycal.org/article/105634/protesters_challenge_immigrant_s_recent_arrest_
See also:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/05/08/18593786.php
2 comments:
He was arrested for identity theft, AND NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS IMMIGRATION STATUS. Really guys? Get the facts before you go ballistic.
http://www.dailycal.org/article/105634/protesters_challenge_immigrant_s_recent_arrest_
Thanks to Anonymous for the link to the update on the UC Berkeley case. And yes, the students got it wrong when they said immigration authorities arrested Gutierrez. The university police carried out the arrest, charging Gutierrez with "identity theft"--that is, using false documents to get his job.
But it's ridiculous to say that the case has nothing to do with immigration. Do we ever hear about underage students in the University of California system being arrested for using documents with someone else's ID to buy alcohol? Is that because no teenagers buy liquor illegally in California? Or is it somehow more of a crime to use a phoney ID to work when you're brown than to buy a six-pack when you're white?
The fact is that the government has repeatedly used "identity theft" charges in an effort to criminalize immigrant workers, most notably in the Postville raid. The tactic is so clearly absurd that even the most conservative justices have now voted against the government's interpretation of aggravated identity theft--see the unanimous May 4 Supreme Court decision.
David Wilson
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