NY DAY LABORERS LAUNCH 300 MILE TREK TO WASHINGTON DCCALL FOR END TO IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND IMMEDIATE IMMIGRATION REFORM
(Long Island, NY) Inspired by four undocumented students making a historic journey from Florida to Washington DC, yesterday a group of immigrants began a 300 mile walk to Washington DC to bring attention to the inhumane raids and repression of the immigrant community, as well as to demand reform of immigration laws. The walk began in Hempstead NY, and will make stops along the route to the nation’s capitol. The walkers seek to raise awareness of the need for immediate change to the repressive immigration system, and to mobilize local communities to the March 21st Rally in Washington DC.
Today, there will be two media events. In the morning, day laborers from Staten Island will march to the bridge with the trekkers. In the evening, the walkers will be greeted by Wind of the Spirit in Morristown, New Jersey, where the community has been vigorously organizing against the 287(g) policy that enlists police to enforce federal immigration law. Event info listed below. On Monday, the walkers will do media events in Philadelphia. The walk is being organized through the National Day Labor Organizing Network and various of its member organizations.
Read More on the Immigration March Announcement.
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20 comments:
First of all they aren't immigrants. They are illegal aliens. Second, why shouldn't we enforce our immigration laws? Raids are a way of doing it. Why do you want law breakers to get away with breaking the law but instead reward them? That isn't what our country is about.
I think that in this recession you would be hard pressed to get sympathy for the undocumented crowd.....
Thanks Dee for Great information.
Laws should be enforced, but sometimes laws become unjust ( Apartheid, Segregation ) or ridiculous : against Adultery, against Gays or Lesbians, etc ....
In Nazi Germany Jews were forbidden of having typewriters, writing anything including letters, and having pets. The books of Victor Kemplerer illustrate that story of persecution by unjust laws. ... So laws are not given by God on top of Mount Sinai, by writing with fire.
So the application of law should be tempered with Intelligence and Rationality.
And Sometimes Elected Legislative Bodies have to change what is absurd or harmful for a nation.
Raciality.com
Vicente Duque
"Repress" = keep under due restraint, that is enforce the law.
Who are these people who think they can dictate the policies of or country? Only citizens should have the right to demonstrate and march on Washington. All these marchers should be arrested if they cannot provide bona fide proof of citizenship.
Can you imagine how little tolerance any other country would have for demonstrations by illegal aliens? We need more freedom for citizens and less for illegals.
First, No One said the demonstrators are "illegal alients."
Latinos are marching.. Latinos concered about the broken process .. many of them have been caught up in all of the racist racial profiling, merely because they are brown, caught up in the debate, looking for work at a Day Labor site or looking to go to school.
Brown people are being caught up in all the stings and round ups, caught up in the ICE stings. They want them to STOP!!! Who can blame them!
Others want the broken processes to be fixex.. those waiting for the Immigration courts to hear their cases.. bust unable to hear them due to the broken processes.. waiting for the backlog to be cleared.
Still others were brought here as children. Living in America for decades... waiting for perhaps an opportunity to get in line and apply for citizenship.
Still others are living in fear of rheir parents and siblings to be deported because decades ago, their parents were enticed to come here for a job and now, due their "illegal" status, they are living in fear. Afraid!
If these are citizens demonstrating on their own behalf, that is perfectly okay. If they are demonstrating on behalf of illegals or are illegals themselves, then it is not.
If the former is true, the question is "Why?" Why demonstrate on behalf of foreigners? Sounds like gross disloyalty to me.
Laws in respect of national sovereignty can never be considered unjust. Laws are fair and impartial to all citizens rarely can be considered unjust. Most of those cited are now historical artifacts not reality.
I'm surprised to hear that adultery is not sufficiently anti-social as to mot warrant some recognition in the law. Is El Duque saying he approves of such behavior en masse?
Laws may not be etched with fire on Mt Sinai but in a representative democratic republic
they need to be accepted until those who proposed unjust laws can be defeated in the next election. I don't know any laws today that are so onerous that they cannot be handled by the democratic process. We simply can't pick and choose what laws we will obey.
That is the path to anarchy. What one considers unjust, others will consider entirely appropriate.
I repeat if they are not illegals as most day laborers are, why are they demonstrating? As citizens they are free to continue to vie for day labor. If they are worried about being profiled than they should have certified documents on their person at all times. That's what I would do if I were in their shoes. We all get discriminated against at one time for another and often we don't have a simple remedy like certified documents. Sometimes the cops just don't like our bumper stickers.
The March is for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. That is why the marchers are marching, to support CIR.
1. The current processes are broken. 40% of those here illegally are visa overstays. They are backlogged in the courts and cannot be heard. It is clear the courts' backlog needs to be cleared and cleared now.
2. It has been proven that ICE Raids and the Racial Profiling of Latino neighborhoods (ala arpaio and his masked goons) DOES NOT WORK!! Many citizens are marching because they object to the racial profiling that occurs during ICE Raids and Latino neighborhood sweeps. Just a couple of weeks ago, an entire Latino neigborhood was targetted in Maryland. ICE scooped down and arrested everyone who was brown near a Day Labor site in front of a store. Some people were waiting for their bus to go to work. Others were shopping in a neighborhood store. RACIAL PROFILING MUST BE STOPPED.
3. All logical Americans know and understand the feasibility of deporting 12 M people along with their children (equals 20M) will NOT WORK! This is the size of the state of New York. Do you realize how many jails/detention centers you would have to build to house them on their mass exit? Even if you do it over 5 years, that is 4 million a year! Look what happened to Postville when they mass deported 600 people. The town was devasted and their small businesses that catered to the workers are still out of business too. Multiply that times ten thousand and you would see the plight to America.
If most Americans UNDERSTOOD CIR they would be marching too!
CIR =
1. Secure ALL Borders/ Ports/Support Trained Border Patrol and Homeland Security.
2. Clear the Backlog in Immigration Courts and automate the entry system so it does not take 10 - 20 years to enter legally. Automated will remove the corruptness and under the table bribes.
3. Establish a path to citizenship for those here who are felony free. Allow them to get in line and apply. That way they will be here legally with their legal children.
Additionally, partner with Mexico to stop the drug abuse. The USA is the number one user/abuser of drugs in the world. Other countries are fighting each other to be our supplier. We feed them money and guns and they wind up thirsting for more money and more weapons creating a very violent envirnoment in their own countries. This drug problem has to stop!
The line to wait in starts in their own countries, not ours. We have no line in this country. That isn't how it works.
You don't break into someone's home against their will and THEN ask for permission to take up permanent residence. You knock on the door and ask FIRST and then the owner has the right to say yea or nay. You have it backwards.
"Latinos are marching.. Latinos concered about the broken process .. many of them have been caught up in all of the racist racial profiling, merely because they are brown, caught up in the debate, looking for work at a Day Labor site or looking to go to school."
The only thing broken is the enforcement process and our unsecured borders. If caught up in a sting all one has to do is provide valid I.D. It is no big deal. Knock off the skin color BS.
"Others want the broken processes to be fixex.. those waiting for the Immigration courts to hear their cases.. bust unable to hear them due to the broken processes.. waiting for the backlog to be cleared"
I am all for expediting the immigration court process and clearing up the backlogs.
"Still others were brought here as children. Living in America for decades... waiting for perhaps an opportunity to get in line and apply for citizenship".
As I said, the line is in their homeland, not here. That isn't the way it works.
"Still others are living in fear of their parents and siblings to be deported because decades ago, their parents were enticed to come here for a job and now, due their "illegal" status, they are living in fear. Afraid"!
Well law breakers usually do live in fear and they should. I might be enticed to commit theft but that doesn't mean that isn't morally wrong for me to commit the act or that I shouldn't pay the consequences of such act.
Most Americans do NOT agree with you and DO NOT support Mass Deportation of the workers here. The Mass Deporation of 12M - 20M people is impossible. The cost alone would exceed the total cost of the economic stimulus package. Where would you house them as you deport them? Impossible and ALL LOGICAL PEOPLE KNOW THAT!!
Big Business and Small Business has allowed the number to grow to this size all due to greed.
Just today, I saw a contractor for a large cable firm bring in a sub-contractor to work their cable lines along city streets all over the city. All the workers were Latino. All working for cash/day laborers. Texas...the land of the loudest ANTIs and MMs bemoaning "illeegals" and these same ole boys are sub-contractors making their big bucks off of the sweat and hard work of people looking to escape the poverty and desolation of their homelands.
No, most Americans do not agree with YOU. They support e-verify not mass deporatation is you are claiming. Without jobs they will self-deport. There are no costs involved in self-deportation.
Those contractors and any other employers who hire illegals should be fined, thrown in prison and have their businesses shut down. They do not represent most Americans. They are lawbreakers. Just another reason we need e-verify so they can't cheat the system anymore and exploit workers.
Pete,
You say that about the contractors, but this is happening all over the country and you haven't done anything about it yet.
Let me give you just one example. All across America, the cable companies and Telecomms are converting to fiber-optic communication networks. They want to offer bundles (internet, phone, TV). In order to do this, they have to lay fiber (new or upgrade) in every neighborhood in America. They don't have enough people to do the work nor do they want to pay their techs the $30 an hour they are paid. (don't worry about these techs. they are well paid, but understaffed)
So they are hiring subcontractors -- at the lowest price, to lay the fiber. These subcontractors (these lowest bidders who have won these contracts) are hiring all brown people from day labor sites to do this work. Check it out in a town near you. It is happening across the country.
I have seen several small businessowners who have lawn mowing businesses or manual labor/home improvement or construction work. They pick up day laborers to do the work.
These small business owners would be out of business if not for these day laborers. All of them.
Don't ask them to hire workers for $20 an hour with insurance , etc. They would not be in business. They may as well close shop. Our unemployment rate would be even higher.
Then think about all the sales revenue that Walmart and other stores are receiving where these workers shop. All money into our economy.
If you forced these sub contractors from hiring day laborers, these small businesses would ALL go out of business.
Now the other side of the same coin. These same cable companies and telecoms and most IT companies are outsourcing:
1. Customer Service: to India, Canada, Mexico, Virgin Islands, Guam, etc. all off-shore English speaking countries
2. IT Development Work: software development, writing code, etc. to India and other countries offshore
These are the jobs middle Americans are being layed off from and these are the jobs that are being outsourced offshore, by the millions. These are the jobs middle income Americans want back!
I suppose you say it is ok to outsource offshore. There is No Law, No Regulation against it. Yet these are the jobs that are directly impacting middle income America.
The jobs the migrant workers are working are low income, manual labor jobs. They are not jobs the Boomers or Detroit is willing to move across country for.
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