Immigrant workers demand amnesty
By Mary
Owen
New York
Carrying hand-painted signs and waving colorful flags from
their countries, immigrant workers from Latin America, the
Caribbean and Asia picketed the office of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service May 28. They demanded an unconditional,
general amnesty for the undocumented.
"Open the borders, close the INS" and "Stop the raids, we
want amnesty," the demonstrators chanted in Spanish and
English. Some pushed strollers while others led toddlers by the
hand.
The Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, an
organizer of the event, supports a general amnesty to
"alleviate the climate of fear that currently makes it almost
impossible for undocumented immigrant workers to organize."
The coalition also condemns brutal border enforcement
policies that kill hundreds of immigrants each year--and global
"free trade" policies and militarism that force a steady stream
of workers to flee their own countries.
"Immigration is raiding our factories and we can't work. Yet
we're vital to the U.S. economy," said Maida Mendoza of the
UNITE Garment Workers Justice Center, which initiated the
protest. "This struggle is not going to end until we get a
general amnesty for Salvadorans, Dominicans, Hondurans and all
immigrant workers."
Union shirts and hats from UNITE, the Mason Tenders, the
Laborers, and the Latino Workers Organizing Center could be
seen on the picket line. Several workers wore shirts from the
50,000-strong May 12 demonstration. At that rally, workers
demanded a share of New York City and state budget
surpluses.
"The right to work is a human right, no matter what country
you're from," said Monica Santana of the Latino Workers
Organizing Center. "If we're here, we have a right to work and
to hold our heads high."
She called for an end to INS raids, which have interfered
with union organizing, and a united fight against abuse by the
bosses.
A coalition newsletter alerted immigrants to a new form of
such abuse: employer misuse of letters they receive from the
Social Security Administration when workers' Social Security
numbers don't match the SSA database. Some bosses have used
these "no-match" letters as a pretext to fire or intimidate
workers.
"This happened to the workers at Angelo & Maxie's
restaurant, who have been fighting for more than a year to be
represented by Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local
100," the handout said.
At the end of the protest, coalition organizer Phil Joclyn
pledged the struggle will continue. "We will be out here for as
long as it takes for the federal government and President
Clinton to pass a total amnesty for immigrants," he told the
cheering crowd.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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