[Spanish] [Chinese]
Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition
310 Eighth Street, Suite 303 Oakland, California 94607
phone: 510-839-7598 fax: 510-465-1885 www.immigrantrights.org
For Immediate Press Release: December 13, 2006
Contact: Evelyn Sanchez, Advocacy Coordinator, Bay Area
Immigrant Rights Coalition
(510) 839-7598
“ICE” COLD HEARTED RAIDS WITH NO “SWIFT” SOLUTIONS
Employer sanctions, the policy of using employers as immigration agents, has failed since its inception in 1986 to stop undocumented immigration flows. This policy of criminalizing work only wreaks havoc on workers, families, communities, and businesses. This was clearly demonstrated yet again in the Swift raids last week where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 1,282 immigrant workers.
Employers do not make good immigration agents. However, many employers have found advantages in being immigration agents as it makes it easier for them to exploit immigrant workers, break organizing drives, and lower wages and workplace conditions.
This is how the Woodfin Hotel Suites in Emeryville is using employer sanctions. After dozens of their immigrant employees came together to enforce a local living wage law – Measure C - the Woodfin decided it was time for a social security number check. Now, most of these workers face termination.
In its desire to seem like something is being done about the immigration situation, the Bush administration has allowed ICE to begin conducting large scale workplace raids. Yet, the consequences of these raids are cruel and mean-spirited. Adding insult to injury, ICE conducted the raids on what is a religious holiday for the Latino immigrant community and two weeks before Christmas.
The massive disruption caused to families two weeks before the holidays by the Swift and Company raids is exemplified in Grand Island, Nebraska. The afternoon of the raid, teachers spent hours looking for safe temporary placement for the US-born children of parents who were in federal custody. Some teachers took children home with them until further notice. In Grand Island alone, some 1,100 children were impacted.
National polls show US voters support allowing hard-working immigrants to integrate into our society and remain with their families and communities. A national exit poll conducted on Election Day by the National Election Poll found that 6 out of every 10 US voters believe undocumented immigrants currently working in the United States should have the chance to legalize.
The Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (BAIRC) has been urging federal elected officials to create and support legislation that will eliminate employer sanctions, legalize the undocumented, eliminate the backlog and raise the cap on family visas so millions of families who have been separated for years can be reunited, and ensure the human rights of all immigrants are respected. Short-sighted and inhumane policies such as employer sanctions will get us no where.
###
|
