Silicon Valley immigrant rights activists, including labor organizers Fred Hirsch and Gerardo Dominguez, and Father Jon Pedigo, sit down with others in the middle of an intersection, in an act of civil disobedience.
For the last six months, community and labor activists-mostly young – have sat down in front of buses carrying people to detention centers for deportation. In Tucson, they obstructed and chained themselves to ICE vans. In San Francisco, a few days after blocking a bus carrying deportees to detention, “Dreamer” Ju Hong-a young immigrant whose deportation was deferred in the White House’s executive action two years ago-challenged President Obama during a local speech.
“You have the power to stop deportation,” the protester told him.
In response to these actions and others like them, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have passed resolutions demanding a moratorium on deportations; San Francisco is imposing a halt in immigration-related firings as well.
And the pressure is only intensifying. Last week, unions and community organizations closed down an intersection in front of a Silicon Valley supermarket chain where hundreds were fired after an inspection by ICE of company personnel records (an I-9 audit), intended to identify undocumented workers for termination. The next day, immigrant recycling workers in one San Leandro, Calif. trash facility walked out of work when their employer and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency threatened their jobs in a similar audit.
These protests are a direct response to the deportations and firing that have intensified as a result of the Obama administration’s immigration enforcement policies. Over the last five years, thousands of workers have been fired through immigration audits and the use of the E-Verify database. In the same period, about 400,000 people have been deported every year — almost two million in five years. Special Federal courts, called “Operation Streamline,” convene daily, passing quick judgment on migrants led into the courtroom in chains, and sending them to privately run “detention centers” for immigrants. More than 300,000 people each year spend some time in these immigration prisons.
Some organizations in Washington have continued to pressure Congress to take a vote on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills (S 7444 and HR 15). But the actions in the streets hardly mention them. Some grassroots groups no longer support them at all, because they contain increased enforcement measures that would make firings and deportations even more widespread than they already are.
In fact, many community organizations and unions outside of Washington have largely abandoned the idea that Congress can or will pass any legislation that would end mass deportations and safeguard the jobs and labor rights of immigrant workers.
These grassroots protesters instead want the Obama administration to immediately use its executive authority to stop deportations and firings, without waiting for Congress. Even beltway groups like the National Council of La Raza, which until recently insisted that the CIR bills were the only way forward, have demanded an end to mass deportations.
In San Leandro, recycling striker Ampara Romo appealed to supporters, “I ask everyone to try to change the laws being used against us right now, because they are unjust and cause so much harm to families and our community in general.” When recycling workers went on strike to protest firings, they were calling for the right to live as equals, as full participants in society, and to work without fear.
The unions and groups supporting them-as well as those around the countryseek an immigration reform that rises from locally based actions and advances toward equality. They reject the reforms in Congress because they create a secondclass tier of people with fewer rights, subject to ferocious enforcement. These photographs show the determination and courage of immigrant workers, their families and supportersgoing on strike against the prospect of losing their jobs, sitting down in the street in civil disobedience, and demanding a radical change in immigration policy.
Jamie Herrera, a worker at a recycling facility in Oakland, where workers went on strike to protest bad wages, unsafe working conditions and ICE audits. Previously, Herrera had been a skilled union worker at a local foundry when he lost his job because of an earlier I-9 audit-in which the Department of Homeland Security accused him of lacking legal status and forced his employer to fire him. Workers at the recycling sorting facility of Alameda County Industries walk out to protest the company’s decision to fire workers accused of not having legal immigration status. They also blocked trucks hauling trash from entering the facility.
Workers say the company was paying $8.30 an hour; San Leandro’s living wage ordinance requires $14.17. After five employees filed a suit over the wage theft, they say, the company used the threat of immigration enforcement to retaliate.
Maria Granados, one of the suing workers, points out, “One month after we sued them they started calling people into the office to say there were problems with our documents.
Some of us have been there 14 years, so why now?”
Striking immigrant recycling workers are supported by community leaders from a dozen organizations and unions.
Although the employees had no union contract, they were assisted in the strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6 and ILWU organizer Agustin Ramirez. The fasters, who are leading a charge to demand a moratorium on deportations, spoke at the rally in support of the strikers about the importance of stopping the firings; in turn, the workers demanded a moratorium on deportations as well.
After rallying outside the recycling facility for two hours, the workers, followed by community supporters, march back to the plant gate to return to work. The temp agency that employs them threatened to fire anyone who participated in the strike, but the workers demanded the agency respect their right to strike.
After rallying outside the recycling facility for two hours, the workers, followed by community supporters, marched back to the plant gate to return to work. The temp agency that employs them threatened to fire anyone who participated in the strike, but the workers demanded the agency respect their right to strike.
by David Bacon
Carlos Mejía Godoy
Henrique Capriles