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    Vol.62/No.38           October 26, 1998 
 
 
Detroit Forum: `Stop The Deportations!'  

BY GARY BOYERS AND ROSA GARMENDÍA
DETROIT - In response to stepped up deportations here, a speak out demanding an end to deportations and the defense of immigrant workers took place at the Militant Labor Forum October 2.

As of September 26, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents had seized nearly 20 percent more immigrants this year than in all of 1998. Before November 1995, a Chicago immigration judge would spend one week a month in Detroit. Now there are three full-time judges in Detroit hearing immigration cases. In September, INS agents raided two Detroit- area auto parts plant, arresting 18 people. Another 47 workers were arrested by immigration cops at an auto plant and a commercial nursery in western Michigan. The most recent raid was at a Detroit meat processing plant where 70 people were arrested.

One of the speakers on the panel, Father Greg May of Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in southwest Detroit, said, "This past week, a man was seized from our church auditorium at an ESL [English as a second language] class and was deported. Two other people were seized at the bakery opposite our church that same day. They were released when they showed their green cards" indicating permanent resident status. He explained the increased harassment has caused citizens and permanent residents to fear immigration officials. "We've initiated a campaign to protest harassment of legal residents and to inform undocumented workers of their rights to silence and legal counsel," May said.

A community activist and organizer for the Service Employees International Union, Helena Herrera, expressed the view that "we can't allow our community to be attacked or divided, whether they are illegal or not. My grandfather was recruited by Henry Ford to come to Detroit to work at the Rouge [auto] plant. During the Depression, my grandfather and thousands of others were repatriated to Mexico. Deported with them were their children, who like my father, were often U.S. citizens. Many never returned to the United States."

Matt Monroe, a paralegal working at a center for political refugees seeking asylum in the United States and Canada, described a Mexican worker who came there after being stabbed, not sure if he should go to the police or the hospital because of his lack of legal status. Another man came into Monroe's office looking for help finding his son, who had been picked up in a raid. By the time Monroe was able to reach an INS officer, about 12 hours after the raid, he was told the son was on a plane en route to Mexico.

Also speaking at the forum was Holly Harkness, who worked at the Thorn Apple Valley meatpacking plant in Detroit before it closed in July of this year. Harkness is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Congress in the 15th District. She described the September 23 INS raid at Thorn Apple Valley's processing plant, which remains open. INS cops came onto the plant floor and seized 70 workers, 36 of whom were deported. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 26, which represents workers there, issued no protest or complaint, even though the raid occurred as negotiations for a new contract were underway.

Harkness spoke of other immigration raids in the area. Cattleman's, another UFCW-organized packing plant, was raided twice in the past year. All the Latino workers were called into the company's personnel office for interrogation by INS officials.

She said there are "attacks on immigrants in every major capitalist country in the world" and that the "U.S. policy is not designed to cut off undocumented workers or to seal the border. The bosses need these workers to super exploit in the worst jobs.... These raids create divisions in our class, turning workers against each other.

"Many immigrants bring class-struggle experiences from other countries here with them," Harkness added, strengthening the working class as a whole.

The speak out attracted 22 people, more than a third of whom were Latino. Among them was a worker from the processing plant targeted by the INS September 23. He described being detained by the cops before he proved he was a legal resident.

He also told of a woman co-worker who was handcuffed and thrown on the floor by the migra agents. She, too, was later released after showing her papers. Harkness and Herrera encouraged participants to build and attend a protest at the local INS office, which will be part of the Latinos United in Labor conference November 7.

 
 
 
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