Immigrants march for drivers' licenses
By
Mary Owen
Jackson Heights, N.Y.
Published Mar 9, 2005 3:12 PM
A hand-lettered
sign reading "The Right to Drive Is a Civil Right and an Immigrant Worker Right"
captured the message of a March 5 protest here by hundreds of immigrants and
their supporters, who came from some of New York City's most ethnically diverse
neighborhoods.
Chanting "What do we want? Licenses. When do we want them?
Now!" protesters marched for three hours through the multi national Jackson
Heights neighborhood of Queens to demand that Gov. George Pataki and the New
York State Department of Motor Vehicles stop acting as immigration enforcement,
denying them the drivers' licenses they need to work.
On Feb. 17, State
Supreme Court Justice Karen S. Smith temporarily restrained DMV from taking
actions that could suspend nearly 300,000 licenses statewide for immigrants who
don't have Social Security cards. Some 7,000 licenses have already been
suspended. Judge Smith ruled that immigrants would suffer wrongful and serious
harm under the DMV's unjust practice. At a hearing scheduled for April 7,
immigrant rights activists will press for a permanent injunction against the
drivers' license suspensions.
Chants in Spanish, Korean, Bangla, Urdu,
Hindi, Cantonese and other languages rang out as protesters moved slowly over
narrow sidewalks after police refused to let them march in the street. Along the
route, workers and customers crowded the windows of barbershops, nail salons,
restaurants and other neighborhood storefronts--nodding, waving their support,
and reaching out the door for leaflets.
The event was sponsored by Centro
His pano Cuzcatlán, Desis Rising Up and Mov ing (DRUM), New Immigrant Com
munity Empowerment (NICE), and the New York Civic Participation Project (NYCPP)
and endorsed by 40 immigrant rights, labor and community groups and
unions--including the New York Taxi Workers Alli ance, UNITE-HERE Local 100,
SEIU-32BJ and New York City Labor Against War.
"The DMV's policies,
including its collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security to
apprehend immigrants, represent one local piece of a nationwide trend towards
attacking the livelihood of millions of immigrants," said Kavitha Pawria, a
legal and policy organizer at DRUM.
Delivery workers, taxi drivers and
others who need licenses to work, along with their families, are suffering under
DMV policies. At a concluding rally, demonstrators observed two minutes of
silence for Mirza Panir, an undocumented Bangla deshi taxi driver who died two
weeks ago from a stress-induced heart attack when security stopped him at
LaGuardia Airport.
One protest organizer could not attend the event
because he lost his license, then his delivery job, and was forced to move that
day. A small child wore a sign made from a pizza box that said, "Please let my
daddy drive me to school."
"People from all immigrant groups are coming
together in a very historic way to say that this policy is negatively impacting
everyone's families, lives and the neighborhoods where we live and work
regardless of immigration status and country of origin," said Zahida Pirani, a
community organizer with NYCPP.
Miguel Ramirez of Centro Hispano
Cuzcatlán agreed: "This is a historic event because people from many
different immigrant communities in Queens have come together for the first time
around a common issue."
Shirley Lin of NICE called on elected officials,
Governor Pataki and the DMV to "implement a solution that recognizes our
rights."
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
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