Women workers rounded up in ICE raid

With helicopters whirring overhead and Houston police providing perimeter security, 150 to 200 federal agents raided Action Rags USA, a rag-exporting factory, at 7 a.m. on June 25 and led 166 people away in Homeland Security vans. The federal agents in body armor stalked around the work site questioning workers.

Houston protest against ICE raids, June 28. WW photo: Gloria Rubac

The vast majority taken into custody were immigrant women workers from Latin America. Four were taken for medical treatment, including one life-flighted to a local hospital after she fell 20 feet off a stack of wooden pallets.

When the raid began, workers began calling their families to inform them of what happened. Many families came to the plant and gathered outside the main entrance. Bernardo Olvera went to see about his sister. “The people here are just working. They’re not doing anything wrong. These workers are hard workers, they are not criminals,” Olvera said.

Within hours of the raid, Houston activists began to mobilize to protest the roundup. The next morning at 10:00 a.m., close to 100 people demonstrated outside the Federal Building in downtown Houston on a workday, demanding that families be kept together and immigrants be treated with dignity and respect. A large number were members of the Service Employees Union, Houston Interfaith Workers Justice and America Para Todos.

After a press conference, protesters marched around the block several times. The Free Radicals Marching Band accompanied chants of “Aqui estamos y no nos vamos” and “The people united will never be defeated.”

“Are we safer today following the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] roundup that picked up over 150 women immigrants yesterday?” asked Maria Jimenez, who has worked in support of immigrant rights for decades. “These women were working to support their children.”

Cesar Espinosa, community outreach coordinator for CRECEN, the Central American Resource Center, spoke to the crowd: “Today is a success because with this action we are able to show Houston and ICE that we will not stay quiet in the midst of all these raids which are splitting up families and leaving children without mothers. There will be many more actions like this, and as always I thank all of you who came out today in the fight for social justice. Whether there are 10 or 100 people present, we must never stay quiet and we must always say that there are those Houstonians like us who will continue to fight for justice. As long as there is life there is hope!”

Several women holding small children addressed the crowd. They explained that families are forced to come to the U.S. to find the jobs which have disappeared from their own countries, and families working here should not be separated.

Another demonstration was held on June 28 outside the immigration detention facility where those arrested were being held. This facility is owned by Corrections Corporation of America, and was the first private prison in the United States. During an open-mike session, dozens spoke of their support for the immigrants, including representatives of CRECEN, International Action Center, International Socialist Organization, Socialist Workers Party, Houston Peace and Justice Center and the Catholic Church. One woman spoke of her husband who has been in the detention center for over a year.

Teodoro Aguiluz, director of CRECEN, held his daughter in his arms as he addressed the crowd in Spanish. He denounced the government lies that immigrants are causing financial problems in the U.S. “We contribute to the welfare of this country. We pay taxes, we raise our families, and we are not a burden to anyone. We will not allow the government to separate families and scapegoat the immigrants.”

This was the second raid in Houston in as many months, and this one featured an often unnoticed face of immigration—the large number of women entering the U.S. to work here.

Of the 166 arrested, 20 were released because they were born here or were legal residents. Of the remaining 146 detained, 73 were released for medical reasons, including 10 who were pregnant, or because they were sole care-providers of children. That left 73 detained; only three were men.

Many experts say the large number of undocumented women is a consequence of heightened security on the border, which has made it harder for men to return home frequently and maintain a family.

Immigration activists say the profile of the undocumented worker is changing as more women come north for economic reasons, either to join a spouse or just on their own. “What we are seeing now—and it showed up in this raid—is that immigrants can’t go back and forth,” said Nestor Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the University of Houston. “It’s because visas are impossible to get for some people, and it’s dangerous to cross, so families are developing here.”

Researchers with the Greater Houston Partnership estimate 420,000 undocumented immigrants live in the greater Houston metropolitan region. The Chamber of Commerce research estimates that there are 174,182 men and 74,995 women working in the area. These workers make up a tenth of the local workforce.

Another demonstration is planned in Houston the week of June 30 against Border Watch, which is threatening immigrant workers gathering on corners looking for jobs.