Victory at Republic!
Lee Sustar, Socialist Worker
December 11, 2008
WITH A unanimous vote, workers at the Republic Windows & Doors plant in Chicago ended their six-day factory occupation late on December 10 after Bank of America and other lenders agreed to fund about $2 million in severance and vacation pay as well as health insurance.
"Everybody feels great," said a tired but beaming Armando Robles, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110. [...]
Read the full article:
http://socialistworker.org/2008/12/11/victory-at-republic
Raising the stakes at Republic
Lee Sustar and Nicole Colson, Socialist Worker
December 9, 2008
[...] According to labor organizer and journalist Jorge Mújica, immigrants rights activists supported the Republic workers not only because they are mostly Latino immigrants, but because they are literally fighting the same institutions. [...]
Read the full article:
http://socialistworker.org/2008/12/09/raising-the-stakes-at-republic
Chicago Workers to Rest of Country: 'Don’t Let It Die'
David Bacon, New America Media
December 11, 2008
Chicago worker Raul Flores’s job is gone, but he’s still there. "I've got a family to support, so I've got to do whatever it takes," he says. "The economic situation is not good, but I can't just wait for something to happen to me."
That puts Flores in the same boat as millions of other U.S. workers. Last month alone 533,000 workers lost their jobs, the highest figure in 34 years.[...]
Read the full article:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a3d3cc49a93f6bfac1b3f22114371524
The Immigrant Story That Wasn't: Laid Off Republic Windows Employees Just Regular Working Stiffs
Esther J. Cepeda, Huffington Post
December 9, 2008
I am absolutely stunned that the peaceful sit in at the Republic Windows and Doors factory and warehouse has not been stuck in the ghetto of "immigrant story" by our local and national media.
Indeed, most outlets here and nationally have so far ignored the fact that the workers are mostly brown-eyed and brown-skinned. Just months ago the three hundred laid-off workers who were let go without notice -- and without their owed pay -- would have all been ignored, and reviled, because they were, as I so often heard, "just more protesting immigrants." [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-j-cepeda/the-immigrant-story-that_b_149490.html
Thursday, December 11, 2008
South Florida Community Demands Investigation Into ICE Misconduct
Community Demands Investigation Into ICE Misconduct
For Immediate release 12/10/08
Contact:
Jonathan Fried, WeCount!: 305-281-9377
Cheryl Little, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center: (305) 573-1106, ext. 1001
A November 19 ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Operation in Homestead was supposed to be a simple operation to crack down on a human smuggling and sex trafficking ring. But to the residents of Homestead, it was much more than that.
"They knocked the door to our room down. There were three agents who barged in to the room. They threw my husband to the floor and one of them stuck a gun to my head. He told me not to move. He said if I moved, the situation would be worse. They kicked my husband in the head. His head was swollen when they took him out of the room," said a woman after ICE agents stormed her home and took all its residents, although none of them had anything to do with the trafficking investigation. The woman said her four-year-old daughter, who witnessed the attack, is traumatized.
According to official ICE news release, 4 human trafficking suspects were arrested in the raid, while 9 victims of trafficking were rescued in the operation that took place in Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties.
But in a press conference yesterday, several community groups called for an investigation of ICE abuses in the raids in Homestead, stating that at least half a dozen immigrants were beaten, and the large majority of persons detained had nothing to do with the trafficking investigation.
"We're here to discuss the human impact of the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Homestead on November 19," said Jonathan Fried, executive director of WeCount!, a community based organization in Homestead.
"We applaud law enforcement actions against human trafficking. But we are disturbed that the large majority of persons detained in Homestead that day had nothing to do with any human trafficking investigation. We're even more disturbed at the abuse that occurred during the raids, especially the beatings of innocent immigrant victims."
In a complaint sent to R. Alexander Acosta, the US Attorney that helped ICE secure warrants for the raid from a Federal Judge, community members highlighted what they considered some of the most egregious examples of ICE misconduct including:
* Detaining over 70 people mostly unrelated to the trafficking investigation and misleading the public in their official release (ICE claimed it only detained 4 people).
* At least half a dozen persons detained were beaten by ICE agents; officials at the Broward Transitional Center, where some of them are being held, where so concerned that they called for an official inquiry into their injuries.
* Several accounts of ICE agents pointing guns to residents heads, even in front of children, using excessive force in executing search warrants, and using racial profiling to detain bystanders.
The community leaders at the press conference asked elected officials, community leaders, and concerned citizens to join them in pressing for a meaningful investigation into the allegations of misconduct. "The sum actions of these raids, meant to protect victims of trafficking, have victimized many in the Homestead community and created a climate of fear and mistrust," stated the complaint sent to the US Attorney's office, echoing the general feeling of the residents in attendance at the press conference.
***
News coverage:
Miami Herald, "Federal agents accused of roughing up immigrants during Homestead raid"
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/806518.html
Sun-Sentinel, "Agents Accused of Abuse During Sex Slave Sting"
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/12/10/1210sexslave.html
New York Times, "Tactics Used in US Raids Draw Claims of Brutality"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/us/10florida.html
For Immediate release 12/10/08
Contact:
Jonathan Fried, WeCount!: 305-281-9377
Cheryl Little, Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center: (305) 573-1106, ext. 1001
A November 19 ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) Operation in Homestead was supposed to be a simple operation to crack down on a human smuggling and sex trafficking ring. But to the residents of Homestead, it was much more than that.
"They knocked the door to our room down. There were three agents who barged in to the room. They threw my husband to the floor and one of them stuck a gun to my head. He told me not to move. He said if I moved, the situation would be worse. They kicked my husband in the head. His head was swollen when they took him out of the room," said a woman after ICE agents stormed her home and took all its residents, although none of them had anything to do with the trafficking investigation. The woman said her four-year-old daughter, who witnessed the attack, is traumatized.
According to official ICE news release, 4 human trafficking suspects were arrested in the raid, while 9 victims of trafficking were rescued in the operation that took place in Miami Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties.
But in a press conference yesterday, several community groups called for an investigation of ICE abuses in the raids in Homestead, stating that at least half a dozen immigrants were beaten, and the large majority of persons detained had nothing to do with the trafficking investigation.
"We're here to discuss the human impact of the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Homestead on November 19," said Jonathan Fried, executive director of WeCount!, a community based organization in Homestead.
"We applaud law enforcement actions against human trafficking. But we are disturbed that the large majority of persons detained in Homestead that day had nothing to do with any human trafficking investigation. We're even more disturbed at the abuse that occurred during the raids, especially the beatings of innocent immigrant victims."
In a complaint sent to R. Alexander Acosta, the US Attorney that helped ICE secure warrants for the raid from a Federal Judge, community members highlighted what they considered some of the most egregious examples of ICE misconduct including:
* Detaining over 70 people mostly unrelated to the trafficking investigation and misleading the public in their official release (ICE claimed it only detained 4 people).
* At least half a dozen persons detained were beaten by ICE agents; officials at the Broward Transitional Center, where some of them are being held, where so concerned that they called for an official inquiry into their injuries.
* Several accounts of ICE agents pointing guns to residents heads, even in front of children, using excessive force in executing search warrants, and using racial profiling to detain bystanders.
The community leaders at the press conference asked elected officials, community leaders, and concerned citizens to join them in pressing for a meaningful investigation into the allegations of misconduct. "The sum actions of these raids, meant to protect victims of trafficking, have victimized many in the Homestead community and created a climate of fear and mistrust," stated the complaint sent to the US Attorney's office, echoing the general feeling of the residents in attendance at the press conference.
***
News coverage:
Miami Herald, "Federal agents accused of roughing up immigrants during Homestead raid"
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/southflorida/story/806518.html
Sun-Sentinel, "Agents Accused of Abuse During Sex Slave Sting"
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/12/10/1210sexslave.html
New York Times, "Tactics Used in US Raids Draw Claims of Brutality"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/us/10florida.html
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Dec. 11 Radio Interview on Asylum
Thursday, December 11, 2008
5:30 pm
A discusion on US asylum policies with:
Jane Guskin, Co-author, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
and Fred Boehrer, Capital District New Sanctuary Movement
"Capitol Report"
WRPI, 91.5 FM
Troy, NY
Live streaming: http://www.wrpi.org/listen.php
(This is the second of several live interviews on the second Thursday of the month.)
5:30 pm
A discusion on US asylum policies with:
Jane Guskin, Co-author, The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers
and Fred Boehrer, Capital District New Sanctuary Movement
"Capitol Report"
WRPI, 91.5 FM
Troy, NY
Live streaming: http://www.wrpi.org/listen.php
(This is the second of several live interviews on the second Thursday of the month.)
Friday, December 5, 2008
Change Immigrants and Labor Can Believe In
A new administration that has raised such high expectations should look for new ideas in the areas of immigration reform and trade policy, not recycle the bad ones of the last few years.
By David Bacon, The Nation
November 26, 2008
Since 2001 the Bush administration has deported more than a million people--including 349,041 individuals in the fiscal year ending just prior to the election. It has resurrected the discredited community sweeps and factory raids of earlier eras, and started sending waves of migrants to privately run jails for crimes like inventing a Social Security number to get a job. Every day in Tucson seventy young people, including many teenagers, are brought before a federal judge in heavy chains and sentenced to prison because they walked across the border.
It's no wonder that Latinos, Asians and other communities with large immigrant populations voted for Barack Obama by huge margins. People want and expect a change. Ending the administration's failed program of raids, jail time and deportations is at the top of the list. National demonstrations have called for a moratorium on raids since the summer, and one big reason why Los Angeles turned out so heavily for Obama was the anti-raid encampment and hunger strike in the Placita Olvera, which electrified the city. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/bacon?rel=hp_picks
By David Bacon, The Nation
November 26, 2008
Since 2001 the Bush administration has deported more than a million people--including 349,041 individuals in the fiscal year ending just prior to the election. It has resurrected the discredited community sweeps and factory raids of earlier eras, and started sending waves of migrants to privately run jails for crimes like inventing a Social Security number to get a job. Every day in Tucson seventy young people, including many teenagers, are brought before a federal judge in heavy chains and sentenced to prison because they walked across the border.
It's no wonder that Latinos, Asians and other communities with large immigrant populations voted for Barack Obama by huge margins. People want and expect a change. Ending the administration's failed program of raids, jail time and deportations is at the top of the list. National demonstrations have called for a moratorium on raids since the summer, and one big reason why Los Angeles turned out so heavily for Obama was the anti-raid encampment and hunger strike in the Placita Olvera, which electrified the city. [...]
Read the full article:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081215/bacon?rel=hp_picks
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Philanthropists Fuel Anti-Immigrant Bigotry
By Eric Ward, www.imagine2050.net
November 24, 2008
When well-known philanthropists give money to national anti-immigrant groups it gives a new twist to the axiom “throwing good money after bad.” The result is increased discrimination and violence against immigrants and their families.
Controversial anti-immigrant leader John Tanton used to brag that from 1983 until 1986 famed financial leader and philanthropist Warren Buffet made yearly gifts of $90,000 to his organization, U.S. Inc. While Buffet is thought of as a man who donates selflessly to the public good he is also remembered as supporting bigotry.
Buffet, having attended several of John Tanton’s events, raises the question of if he was in the room when Tanton mused that “As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion? … Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down?” Tanton used Buffet’s support to grow the modern day anti-immigrant movement which has torn communities and working families apart. [...]
Read the full article:
http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2008/11/24/philanthropists-fuel-anti-immigrant-bigotry/
November 24, 2008
When well-known philanthropists give money to national anti-immigrant groups it gives a new twist to the axiom “throwing good money after bad.” The result is increased discrimination and violence against immigrants and their families.
Controversial anti-immigrant leader John Tanton used to brag that from 1983 until 1986 famed financial leader and philanthropist Warren Buffet made yearly gifts of $90,000 to his organization, U.S. Inc. While Buffet is thought of as a man who donates selflessly to the public good he is also remembered as supporting bigotry.
Buffet, having attended several of John Tanton’s events, raises the question of if he was in the room when Tanton mused that “As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion? … Perhaps this is the first instance in which those with their pants up are going to get caught by those with their pants down?” Tanton used Buffet’s support to grow the modern day anti-immigrant movement which has torn communities and working families apart. [...]
Read the full article:
http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2008/11/24/philanthropists-fuel-anti-immigrant-bigotry/
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Financial Crisis Hits the Immigration Debate
by David L. Wilson, MRzine
November 30, 2008
Part of the right wing routinely blames undocumented immigrants for just about everything. On September 24, nine days after the financial meltdown started in earnest, the National Review Web site carried an article by columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin blaming "illegals" for the crisis and the subsequent bailout of the banks. "The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers," she wrote. "But there's one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis."
Malkin's pieces often read like parodies of conservative punditry, and there's something distinctly comical about the idea that a few undocumented homeowners caused a multi-trillion dollar financial crisis. Less than a month after Malkin's article was posted, the Wall Street Journal showed that in fact mortgages bought by out-of-status immigrants have performed rather well. But the Malkin diatribe is a useful indication of how the immigration debate is likely to change over the next months. [...]
Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/wilson301108.html
November 30, 2008
Part of the right wing routinely blames undocumented immigrants for just about everything. On September 24, nine days after the financial meltdown started in earnest, the National Review Web site carried an article by columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin blaming "illegals" for the crisis and the subsequent bailout of the banks. "The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers," she wrote. "But there's one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: how illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis."
Malkin's pieces often read like parodies of conservative punditry, and there's something distinctly comical about the idea that a few undocumented homeowners caused a multi-trillion dollar financial crisis. Less than a month after Malkin's article was posted, the Wall Street Journal showed that in fact mortgages bought by out-of-status immigrants have performed rather well. But the Malkin diatribe is a useful indication of how the immigration debate is likely to change over the next months. [...]
Read the full article:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/wilson301108.html
Monday, December 1, 2008
INB 11/30/08: Raids Protested in Minnesota, Michigan
Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 11, No. 29 - November 30, 2008
1. Another South Dakota Dairy Raided
2. Raids Protested in Minnesota, Michigan
3. More "Fugitive" Raids: Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, PA, DE, NJ, NY
4. New Indictment in Agriprocessors Case
5. South Carolina Poultry Workers Plead Guilty
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com; http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.
*1. ANOTHER SOUTH DAKOTA DAIRY RAIDED
On Nov. 21, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested five Latin American immigrant workers at a dairy farm near Hamlin County, South Dakota. According to officials from ICE and the Hamlin County Sheriff's office, four of the five workers face criminal identity theft charges for using social security numbers that were not their own to get jobs at the farm. The fifth worker, a woman, was taken into ICE custody on administrative immigration violations. Sheriff Dan Mack said the investigation began when the people tried to register vehicles with false Social Security numbers. [KELOLAND TV (Sioux Falls, SD) 11/24/08; AP 11/27/08 with info from the Watertown Public Opinion] The latest raid came less than a month after an Oct. 29 operation in which ICE agents arrested 27 people at several dairy farms in northeastern South Dakota [see INB 11/2/08].
Read the full INB:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/11/inb-113008-raids-protested-in-minnesota.html
Vol. 11, No. 29 - November 30, 2008
1. Another South Dakota Dairy Raided
2. Raids Protested in Minnesota, Michigan
3. More "Fugitive" Raids: Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, PA, DE, NJ, NY
4. New Indictment in Agriprocessors Case
5. South Carolina Poultry Workers Plead Guilty
Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499; weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com; http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com. INB is also distributed free via email; contact immigrationnewsbriefs@gmail.com to subscribe or unsubscribe. You may reprint or distribute items from INB, but please credit us and tell people how to subscribe. Immigration News Briefs is posted at http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com.
*1. ANOTHER SOUTH DAKOTA DAIRY RAIDED
On Nov. 21, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested five Latin American immigrant workers at a dairy farm near Hamlin County, South Dakota. According to officials from ICE and the Hamlin County Sheriff's office, four of the five workers face criminal identity theft charges for using social security numbers that were not their own to get jobs at the farm. The fifth worker, a woman, was taken into ICE custody on administrative immigration violations. Sheriff Dan Mack said the investigation began when the people tried to register vehicles with false Social Security numbers. [KELOLAND TV (Sioux Falls, SD) 11/24/08; AP 11/27/08 with info from the Watertown Public Opinion] The latest raid came less than a month after an Oct. 29 operation in which ICE agents arrested 27 people at several dairy farms in northeastern South Dakota [see INB 11/2/08].
Read the full INB:
http://immigrationnewsbriefs.blogspot.com/2008/11/inb-113008-raids-protested-in-minnesota.html
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