Friday, August 30, 2019

“All-Out Attack”: Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Policies Target Children, Cance...

DHS Blocks Oversight of Migrant Detention Camps

DHS Blocks Congressional Staffers From Migrant Detention Facility

Staffers barred after reports of kids forced to eat rotten food, off floor. Newsweek: “The Department of Homeland Security has prevented congressional staffers from the House Oversight Committee from visiting additional migrant detention facilities along the southern border after allegedly making troubling discoveries in recent weeks at other detention centers, according to a letter sent to DHS Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Thursday. The chairman of the panel, Democrat Elijah Cummings, wrote that in the past two weeks, a bipartisan group of committee staffers made visits to several facilities housing adults and children accused of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and heard concerning allegations from detainees. Afrer those visits, they were barred from conducting a second trip to see 11 additional facilities — a move that only creates further tension between the Trump administration and the committee as it continues to investigate the president’s immigration policies. Migrant detainees told the committee staffers that toddlers, including an infant, held at U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities were being fed burritos — as opposed to age-appropriate food — and a child was told by a CBP agent to drink spilled soup off the floor before receiving more food. Additionally, the detainees said children were held in cold rooms without the appropriate clothing, parents weren’t given enough diapers for young children and they were pressured into signing documents in English without translation, according to Cummings’ letter.”

Thursday, August 29, 2019

IN MEXICO, A NEW DAWN FOR INDEPENDENT UNIONS?

The Reality Check: IN MEXICO, A NEW DAWN FOR INDEPENDENT UNIONS?: IN MEXICO, A NEW DAWN FOR INDEPENDENT UNIONS? By David Bacon NACLA Report on the Americas, 7/2019 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10...

Monday, August 26, 2019

California Sues Trump Over Indefinite Detention of Children

California is leading a nearly 20-state lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s abandonment of a long-standing rule governing how long migrant children can be detained.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced the suit at a press conference on Monday, marking nearly the 60th time California has taken legal action against the Trump administration.
 “We are ready to fight for the most vulnerable among us,” Becerra said.
Joined by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and the attorneys general of 17 other states and the District of Columbia, the lawsuit challenges new rules set forthby the Department of Homeland Security last week that effectively undo the Flores settlement.
The settlement agreement was established in 1997 after a 1985 class-action lawsuit involving several migrant children. Over the last 20 years, it has limited the amount of time the government was allowed to detain an immigrant child to 20 days or less. It also established minimum guidelines for safe and sanitary conditions in detention facilities, requiring the government to provide children with basic needs like food, water and medical care.

Friday, August 23, 2019

Union Opposes Mississippi Raids


August, 2019
LOS ANGELES, CA – The United Latinos of The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union released the following statement in response to the raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Mississippi of a Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton and a Peco Foods Inc. plant in Canton. Both plants are represented by the UFCW.
On August 7, 2019, U.S. Immigration officials raided seven Mississippi chicken processing plants, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers. This is the largest workplace raid in at least a decade and the largest single-state raid in U.S. history. Two of the plants raided, Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton and Pico Foods Inc. plant in Canton are both represented by UFCW Local 1529. 
The grotesque actions of the Trump Administration remain ruthless and heartless. Yesterday’s massive raid has torn apart hardworking families who toil in our food service plants to nurture our nation through the food they produce. Those workers, our members, merit the utmost respect. The workers in these food processing plants deserve the right to due process and to be treaded with dignity and justice. 

“We must stand with the families in Mississippi and our UFCW family to demand and end to family separation, enough is enough.Trump’s administration blatantly continues to  dehumanize our communities and belittle the labor of immigrants. In these times we can either idly stand by or do what the Labor Movement does best — organize. We must organize to mobilize, educate, and empower our members, and their families, and their communities.”  – Rigoberto Valdez Jr., President of the United Latinos of the UFCW  
~
To directly support those on the ground please donate to UFCW Local 1529’s Strike and Emergency Fund. Address the check to UFCW Local 1529 Strike and Emergency Fund and mail in your check
UFCW Local 1529
8205 Macon Road 
Cordova, TN 38018 
~
We must remain vigilant and prepared. The best way to be a resource to our members is by empowering them with their rights. It is more important than ever for workers and community members to know their rights. We urge you to continue to share widely the United Latinos list of Raid Preparedness and Immigration resources

For your convenience and easy access all our Raid Preparedness and Immigration resources are available through our United Latinos app. Download for free through the APPSTORE and PLAY STORE
In Solidarity, 
The United Latinos of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union 

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Indefinite Detention is Fascism

Trump Wants To Detain Migrant Families Indefinitely

Migrant families would face indefinite detention under new Trump rule. NYT: “The Trump administration unveiled a regulation on Wednesday that would allow it to detain indefinitely migrant families who cross the border illegally, replacing a decades-old court agreement that imposed a limit on how long the government could hold migrant children in custody and specified the level of care they must receive. The White House has for more than a year pressed the Department of Homeland Security to replace the agreement, known as the Flores settlement, a shift that the administration says is crucial to halt immigration across the southwestern border. The new regulation, which requires approval from a federal judge before it could go into effect and was expected to be immediately challenged in court, would establish standards for conditions in detention centers and specifically abolish a 20-day limit on detaining families in immigration jails, a cap that has prompted President Trump to repeatedly complain about the “catch and release” of families from Central America and elsewhere into the United States.”

Monday, August 19, 2019

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Resist White Supremacy



Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival

#ElPasoFirme: A call to action against white supremacy

#SacramentoUnitedAgainstHate Peace Vigil

The  Sacramento  Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival (CAPPC), united with  Sacramento MoveOn.org Region,  NorCal Resist, Zapatista Coalition of Sacramento, Sacramento Area Black Caucus, The Culture C.O-.O.P, LCLAA Sacramento Chapter, AFL-CIO, Urban Advocates & Achievers; Restorative Schools Vision Project, African Research Institute; Florin Chapter - Sacramento Valley (Florin JACL-SV) Japanese American Citizens, Indivisible CA-7,Sunrise Movement Sacrament, Sacramento to Black Child Development Institute, Coalition of Labor Union Women, CA Capital Chapter,  350 Sacramento, Sac Cultural Hub, Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento, Sacramento Safe Ground, Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, Alianza and Jewish Action NorCal,  LULAC,  take a stand against white supremacy as #ElPasoFirme.

Across the country, millions of hearts beat with El Paso. El Paso is a community that straddles borders and cultures, a symbol of safety and inclusion for people from around the world, citizens and non-citizens alike. This is El Paso’s strength. Nothing will change that. Today, we must reaffirm our commitment to that strength. We must redouble our commitment to defeat the vile worldview of white supremacy. It is a moral imperative that ALL decent people speak out against this violence towards our Latino families.  

Today, communities across the country plan to hold vigils to remember and celebrate the lives lost and recommit to confronting the contemptible worldview behind the violence committed. Whether you work with an organization, church, business, or just want to express your individual support with family and neighbors, now is the time to speak out. Join us!

What:    #SacramentoUnitedAgainstHate Peace Vigil
Where:  California State Capitol, - West Steps
When:   Thursday, August 15, 2019 • 6:30PM-8:00PM
Who:    We stand in solidarity with the community of El Paso, Gilroy, Charleston, Dayton and all community impacted by gun violence and hate.

Please note:  no real candles with flames, instead please bring battery operated candles, flashlights or use your cell phone. Thank you for your cooperation!!


For more info please contact Ruth (916) 949-9506 OR Faye (916) 484-5025

Monday, August 12, 2019

Mass ICE Raids in Mississippi After Workers Fought for Better Conditions...





The raids were because workers had complained about work conditions and organized unions.

Children were made orphans,

#ElPasoStrong

the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border


David Dorado Romo
August 9, 2019
The Texas Observer
The El Paso shooter wasn’t a “lone wolf.” His act of white supremacist terror is part of a century of racial violence targeting fronterizo communities.

People visit a makeshift memorial at the scene of a mass shooting in El Paso. , AP Photo/John Locher

In the immediate aftermath of the El Paso shooting—the largest massacre of Latinx people in the history of the United States—politicians of all stripes stood before the cameras and gave their diagnosis of what just happened. They sounded like the proverbial blind men who touched one part of the elephant and confused the different fragments for the whole. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo, a Republican who once praised the “freedom fence” for keeping out “riff raff,” emphasized that the atrocity was committed by an outsider. Other voicesblamed mental health, video games, and the lack of gun control laws.
But none of these diagnoses went deep enough, looking only at the symptoms. Before we know how to fight back effectively against white supremacist terrorism like the El Paso massacre, we have to know exactly what we’re up against. History offers an important instrument to determine the root causes of what I characterize as a deadly epidemic.
The chilling manifesto reportedly posted online by the alleged shooter tapped into entrenched narratives with deep roots in the history of the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s unlikely that the 21-year-old from Allen, Texas, knew just how utterly repetitive his words and actions were.
The height of Texas Ranger violence against Mexicans occurred from 1915 to 1919, with some 300 ethnic Mexicans murdered between 1915 and 1916 alone.  UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
The shooter wrote that he was protecting whites in America from “cultural and ethnic replacement” brought on by “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” He claimed that “Hispanics will take control of the local and state government of my beloved Texas, changing policy to better suit their needs.”

Saturday, August 10, 2019

What Terrorism Does

On Saturday, we lost 22 innocent lives. We have the power to end this epidemic. Let us do better for them, for ourselves, and for the next generation:
Javier Rodríguez. 15. Javier was getting ready to start his sophomore year, a soccer player ready to start another season. His whole life ahead of him. His sister says she “lost my everything, my best friend.” 
His classmates organized a vigil for him. No student should ever have to do that. We must not accept this epidemic as a new normal or the status quo. Let’s do better for this generation and the ones that follow. 
Jordan Anchondo. 24 years-old. She went to Walmart to buy school supplies—and decorations for her daughter’s 6th birthday party. When the gunman entered, she shielded her 2-month-old son. Jordan didn’t make it, but her son did. 
Andre Anchondo. Jordan’s husband. 23 years-old. They married last year. He’d just finished building their family a home. Saturday was going to be the first time family & friends would see it. But he, too, was killed—while shielding his wife, who was shielding their son. 
Arturo Benavides. 60 years-old. An Army veteran and a bus driver—he spent his life serving our community and our country. His wife was with him in Walmart. She made it out. He did not.
David Johnson. 63 years-old. When hatred entered Walmart on Saturday morning, David responded by protecting his wife and his 9 year-old granddaughter. He passed away, but they survived. 
Jorge Calvillo García. At 61 years-old, Jorge passed away this weekend while he was protecting his granddaughter. He was from Torreón, Mexico. His son, Luis Calvillo, was shot as well. They were outside of Walmart on Saturday, raising funds for EP Fusion, a local girl’s soccer team. 
María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe. María is from Chihuahua, Mexico—and was only here so she could be at the El Paso airport when her daughter arrived. She was 58 years-old. 
Teresa Sanchez. At 82 years-old, Teresa bore the brunt of evil on Saturday. She was from Mexico as well. 
Luis Alfonzo Juárez. 90 years-old. His wife, who he’d been married to for almost 70 years, was also a victim of Saturday’s shooting. He didn’t make it—but thankfully, she did. Beto was able to meet their family at the hospital, and they're showing this community's strength.
Gloria Irma Márquez. A mother of four and a grandmother, Gloria was from Juárez—part of our binational community. She lost her life at 61 years-old because this country failed to protect her. 
Iván Manzano. Like Gloria, Iván was from Juárez, where so many of our neighbors live. He was 46 years-old when he lost his life in our country. 
Elsa Mendoza Márquez. 57 years-old. Elsa lived across the border in Juárez, where she was a teacher. When she ran into Walmart on Saturday to buy supplies for her students in Juárez, her husband and son waited outside in the car. They survived the shooting. Tragically, she did not. 
Sara Esther Regalado. 66 years-old. Adolfo Cerros Hernández. 68 years-old. They, too, were from Mexico—and are remembered as being loving parents. “I don’t know how long it will take for my soul to heal,” their daughter wrote. 
Alexander Gerhard Hoffman. Alexander also wasn’t from the United States. He was from Germany—but he lost his life visiting our country at 66 years-old. 
Maria Flores and Raúl Flores. The couple went to Walmart on Saturday morning and never came home. They were 77 years-old. Both of them. 
Angie Silva Englisbee. 86 years-old. This wasn’t the first time Angie experienced tragedy. Her husband died at 38 years-old, leaving her to raise seven kids by herself. Her grandson called her “the hero of our family.” She, too, was killed.
Leo Campos. 41 years-old. Maribel Hernandez. 56 years-old. They went to Walmart after leaving their dog to be groomed. When Maribel’s brother heard they never came to pick him up, he feared the worst. Soon, it was confirmed: Leo and Maribel had both lost their lives. 
Margie Reckard. 63 years-old. “I’m like a puppy run away from its momma,” said Antonio Basco, her husband of 22 years. “But my wife, she’d say, ‘Get up off your rear end.” He continued: “I know she’s looking down and she’s smiling.” 
Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez. Juan and his wife, Nicholasa, shopped together every week. Juan was from Zacatecas, Mexico, but had lived in El Paso for two years. Nicholasa was injured in the shooting. Juan lost his life at 77 years-old.
Courage. Strength. Resilience.
This is Chris. He is a hero. He was at the Walmart on Saturday with his mom. When he heard gunshots, he made sure his mom was okay, then he ran towards the killer and threw bottles of apple juice at him to distract him. Even though he knew it meant he would be in the line of fire. We are so glad Chris is recovering and honored that he calls this community home. 

Recorded by Beto O'Rourke


Families Divided by ICE Raids

Families Devastated By ICE Raids

‘They’re going to lose everything’: Families are devastated after Mississippi ICE raids. USA Today: “As Thursday morning dawned hot and bright, Desiree Hughes soldiered through the 24th hour of her wait in a parking lot of a chicken processing plant here. Two of her friends had been seized by immigration officials during a raid the day before, in an operation that resulted in about 680 arrests from seven different food processing plants across Mississippi. It was the largest workplace sting in at least a decade. ‘(I’m) hurt. Heartbroken,’ Hughes said before taking a deep breath. ‘I just want our families to come home. Because without their mamas and papas, how are they going to take care of their babies? How are they going to get to school? How are they going to pay their bills? They’re going to lose everything.’ Hughes, who is a legal resident, was told to leave. She wasn’t given a chance to speak with her friends before they were carted away in a bus. Hughes’ first concern: Her friends’ young daughter and little brother. She made sure they had food, water, clothes and that they were in a safe location. The brother, a naturally anxious kid, was panicking, she said. The little girl was too young to understand what was going on. Then, she went back to Koch Foods. She and others whose loved ones were swept up in the raids gathered in nearby parking lots on Wednesday, hoping that buses would bring them back. The crowd swelled to hundreds of people overnight, she said. They stayed for hours, anxiously and tearfully waiting to be reunited with family and friends.”

ICE Raids Expose Appetite For Cheap Labor

Mississippi ICE raids expose the biggest problem with US immigration laws. Vox: “A Mississippi community is reeling from the aftermath of one of the largest worksite immigration raids in history. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers swept through seven chicken processing plants in the rural region of Morton Wednesday, arresting 680 suspected unauthorized workers. Dozens of children arrived home from school to find their parents gone.

Tuesday, August 06, 2019

On the Terrorism in El Paso





This statement was written by members of El Chuco del Norte DSA. We are posting it in solidarity.
Our hearts hurt, our souls hurt, everything hurts. We are mad, we can’t stop crying… as the horrors of white supremacy have hit our beloved El Chuco. Yesterday, in El Paso, we experienced the consequences of a manufactured “national security crisis,” of a fake “invasion” by a president that perpetuates hate against our Latinx community and has made it his mission to “other” us. Just know it wasn’t an El Pasoan that did this. El Paso wouldn’t do this. El Paso is kind. El Paso is love. El Paso is a city where, in the wake of this tragedy, so many people showed up to donate blood that the donations centers couldn’t even accommodate all of us and had to ask us to come back tomorrow or make an appointment. El Paso is a city where funeral homes are saying they won’t charge families for the funeral costs of the victims. El Paso is text messages and phone calls all day long from family and friends checking in on each other. El Paso IS family. El Paso IS home. This was done by an outsider who does not represent El Paso.
This was a home-grown domestic terrorist, a white supremacist who drove over 10 hours to inflict violence on our community. This white supremacist attack ties directly into the increased militarization of El Paso and our US-Mexico border, the concentration camps in our city, and the increased white supremacy rhetoric coming from the White House. And because this is a border town, the only policy or “change” to come will somehow be to further militarize the border in the name of “safety.” Why do our communities have to live through this? Why are we expected to show how resilient and united we are in the face of white supremacist violence, instead of naming and denouncing it and fighting back?!
We are forced to live under the terror of white supremacy every day in our community where we have children in cages and barbed wire lining the walkways of our pedestrian bridges crossing Ciudad Juarez y El Paso. When some of the very victims of this attack drove themselves home, as opposed to receiving much needed medical care, because they were in fear of being deported. The fact that ICE and Border Patrol were on the scene of yesterday’s attack should tell you what life is like for our predominantly Latinx community.
I know this was an act of gun violence, but this tragedy goes far beyond just guns. We can not let the focus be politicized by either political party, we have to understand that this, this was fascism! This was white supremacy violence that directly targeted our community for the sole fact that we are over 80% Latinx. And we cannot let this be another shooting brushed under the rug that is soon forgotten. This will not be a re-run! We have to do something; we can not let people forget about what happened to us and to our community!
We have to come together and protect ourselves… because white supremacy is here, it’s been here, and it won’t go away until we make it go away… we have to figure out a way to make sure that these victims don’t just become another forgotten mass shooting wrapped up in politicking. It is clear that there is a target on our back as a border community and as a community of color.
We ask of our fellow DSA comrades, to please, please, please, refocus after this convention is said and done, and realize what communities like ours are being faced with day in and day out under a fascist regime like the Trump administration. The El Paso community, and all who support us, will mourn this tragedy, as we should, but let our tears and pain transform into political consciousness and action.

Sunday, August 04, 2019

White nationalism and Donald Trump are to blame !

SACRAMENTO PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE: White nationalism and Donald Trump are to blame !: White nationalism, Congress, and Donald Trump are to blame for mass shootings say 2020 Democratic candidates Democratic presidenti...

La Bamba | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

Migrant Justice

By William I. Robinson

The United States is currently ground zero in the war against migrants and refugees waged by the global police state. Yet, it is also central to the resistance to that war. The mid-July announcement by the Trump administration that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would carry out raids throughout the country was met by mass protest and immigrant solidarity demonstrations in hundreds of cities and towns across the country. 
This groundswell of opposition pushing back against the brutal migrant and refugee policies of the U.S. and other capitalist states around the world is driven largely by moral appeals to social justice. Such moral outrage is crucial, as it mobilizes people to action, reaffirms our humanity, and puts the criminal agents of the police state on the defensive. The uncompromising defense of migrant and refugee rights must be at the very core of any progressive agenda or emancipatory project at this time of global capitalist crisis. Yet, in the larger strategic perspective the movement to defend these rights must move beyond moral persuasion alone by putting forward an analysis of the political and structural forces that drive the war against migrants and refugees. Below are five interwoven considerations, in brief, for such an analysis.

A NEW AXIS OF INEQUALITY

First, as global capitalism sinks into an ever-deeper crisis of legitimacy there has been a sharp political polarization worldwide between a renascent left and a resurgent far-right that is at this time pushing a fascist mobilization. This fascist mobilization rests on organizing a social base among those more privileged sectors of the global working classes who are experiencing precariousness, destabilization and downward mobility as a result of capitalist globalization. The ruling groups must channel mass anxiety among these sectors toward communities that are most vulnerable and can therefore serve as scapegoats for the crisis. Relentless repression of migrants and refugees, Trump’s fanatical “build the wall” rhetoric, the racist discourse of criminalization serve these ends. Defense of migrants and refugees is crucial to the fight against 21st century fascism.
Second, the ever more rigid division of the global working class between citizens and immigrants fragments and disorganizes the working and popular classes everywhere. This division is a new axis of inequality worldwide that allows for the super-exploitation of migrant workers by transnational capital who are subject to the super-control mechanisms imposed by the capitalist state. For these purposes, borders must become militarized war zones, migrants and refugees must be racialized, and states must step up repressive control over these groups. The refrain “immigrant rights are worker rights” is not mere rhetoric. The defense of migrants and refugees, the vast majority of whom are poor workers, is pivotal to the struggle of the entire global working class.
Third, the war on migrants and refugees and its accompanying rhetoric draw attention away from the failures of global capitalism around the world. The backdrop to the current refugee crisis in the United States, for instance, is the second implosion of Central America, reflecting the spiraling crisis of global capitalism itself. This implosion is the result of the collapse of a new round of capitalist development unleashed on that region in the wake of the 1980s upheavals to the drumbeat of the globalization. In 2015 there were 232 million international migrants and 740 million internal migrants, according to the International Organization on Migration (ILO). Around the world, capitalist globalization has displaced millions and turned them into refugees from economic collapse, social strife, military conflict, and climate change, suggesting that the tide of migrants and refugees is likely to become a tidal wave in the coming years. The migrants and refugees of the 21st century are potent symbols of the catastrophe that is global capitalism. Exposing this catastrophe helps push back against the distractions of  anti-migrant rhetoric and to identify the actual causes of the migrant and refugee crisis.

Saturday, August 03, 2019

Guatemala Deal Is another Trump Fraud

Washington, D.C.—On July 26, the United States announced that it had signed a new “safe country” asylum deal with Guatemala. The deal—which contradicts a July 14 Constitutional Court ruling that President Morales could not unilaterally sign a “safe country” agreement without Guatemalan congressional approval—was struck after President Trump threatened last week to impose a travel ban and raise tariffs against Guatemala. While many details of the agreement remain unclear, by negotiating a migration deal in secret at a vulnerable moment for Guatemala’s democracy, the Trump administration is setting the stage for a potential constitutional crisis and a humanitarian disaster in a Central American nation already struggling to uphold the rule of law and guarantee basic human rights.
“There is nothing safe about this deal,”said Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Director for Citizen Security Adriana Beltrán.“Guatemala is plagued by violence, poverty, and corruption and it reportedly has fewer than a dozen asylum officers nationwide.”  
“It is unclear how and if this supposed deal will actually be implemented given the rulings of Guatemala’s Constitutional Court,” Beltrán added. What is clear is that the U.S. government is sending an incredibly damaging message to the region—appeasing President Trump’s agenda takes priority over respecting rule of law or upholding human rights.”
The agreement could force hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers to apply for protection in Guatemala. Morales’ administration maintains that the July 26 agreement is not a “safe third country” deal (directly contradicting the White House); nor have Morales administration officials confirmed whether the United States will be returning non-Guatemalan asylum seekers from the U.S.-Mexico border to Guatemala under the terms of the agreement. Moreover, it is unclear how the agreement will be implemented and whether President Morales will seek congressional approval as mandated by the courts. 
Over 235,000 Guatemalans have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border so far this year; between October 2018 until last month, Guatemala has ranked number one in terms of seeing the greatest numbers of children and family members apprehended by Border Patrol authorities. 
Ed, note,  The 3rd Country Deal does not apply to people fleeing Guatemala. 

A World To Win: Funding the Socialist Future - DSA 2019 National Convention

A World To Win: Funding the Socialist Future - DSA 2019 National Convention

Migrants Without Attorneys