Vol. 73/No. 37 September 28, 2009
Many of the workers, who are hired on a casual basis by construction contractors and other small employers, were in Washington to attend a national conference.
The five-day gathering, organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), drew together representatives of 41 organizations from 20 states and the District of Columbia.
“287(g) was one of the focuses of our discussion, not only here at the protest, but in our work sessions at the conference,” said Pablo Alvarado, executive director of NDLON. Passed in 1996 under the Clinton administration, 287(g) is a section of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act that allows federal immigration police to deputize local cops to arrest and hold people on charges of violating immigration law.
The use of this law has been expanded under both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Salvador Reza, of the Puente Movement, came to the conference from Arizona. Reza told the Militant about the ongoing campaign of police intimidation led by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio aimed at the Latino community there.
“In Arizona under 287(g) Arpaio has been able to do sweeps in Latino/Mexicano neighborhoods,” Reza said. Police and citizen posses conduct the sweeps. On February 28 thousands demonstrated in Phoenix after Arpaio marched 200 immigrants to prison through the streets of the city in chains and prison strips.
Reza said the sweeps and efforts to humiliate and intimidate workers have continued. The weekend before the conference, he said that Arpaio organized some 200 cops and local “posse” members—many of them members of right-wing anti-immigrant groups—to sweep through a local market arresting workers while purportedly looking for pirated CDs.
Related articles:
‘Health reform’ plan aimed against workers
Measures target abortion rights, immigrants
How U.S. rulers eroded abortion rights after 1973
Dominican Republic: antiabortion laws protested
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