SAN JOSE, Calif.—Holding signs saying, “NO to E-Verify,” and “Mi Pueblo: Stop Abusing Immigrant Workers,” more than 80 protesters marched and rallied here Sept. 26 in front of Mi Pueblo’s flagship grocery store.

The protest, organized by Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the Interfaith Council on Economics and Justice, and other groups, was organized in response to the move by Juvenal Chavez, owner of the Mi Pueblo chain of grocery stores, to enroll in the E-Verify program to check the immigration status of new hires.

The Mi Pueblo supermarket chain includes 21 outlets in the Bay Area, Salinas and the central San Joaquin Valley. The company claims that with its continuing expansion, it is coming under pressure from Homeland Security to implement the government’s E-Verify system.

A flyer passed out at the protest called for a boycott of Mi Pueblo stores.

Mi Pueblo management has a history of firing workers who have supported attempts to unionize the stores.

“When they wanted one of us to do the job of three, they would say, ‘we’re family, we can do it,’” said Rogelio Marquez, a former Mi Pueblo worker. “But they didn’t treat us as family.”

—BETSEY STONE