Solidarity and protest: California and Mexico

Latest

A protest along the US-Mexico border demanding a halt to deportations, the separation of families and other attacks on immigrant workers. The attack on immigrants is an attack on everyone’s rights.
PHOTO/CATHLEEN WILLIAMS

 
SACRAMENTO, CA — More than 700 people turned out on March 28 to protest the appearance in Sacramento of Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who was invited to speak at a “town hall” by the right wing Sacramento Sheriff, Scott Jones. Mothers and grandmothers spoke against ripping families apart. Hundreds chanted, “No ban! No fear! Say it loud, say it clear! Immigrants are welcome here!”
“The community voiced a solid ‘get out,’” according to Mackenzie Wilson, local organizer. “The rhetoric they used is that they [ICE] would come after career criminals. But we know it is going to be the mother coming home from work with a broken tail light.”
Bernard Marks, in his eighties, a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp, compared the targeting of migrant workers with the Nazi assault on Jews in Germany. “When I was a little boy in Poland, for no other reason but for being Jewish, I was hauled off by the Nazis…My family died in Auschwitz and Dachau…Stand up here, Sheriff Jones. …Don’t forget – history is not on your side.”
Al Rojas is an original founder of the United Farm Workers union and current president of the AFL-CIO’s Northern California Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. He points out that “The corporate agenda is to attack labor – the minimum wage, worker’s compensation, health and safety, even social security. Unions won these benefits because the working class was organized and unified. That gave us power. They intend to take away that power.
“Racism is used as a cover, but it’s all about economics – cheap labor. They want guest workers, they want to break up and expel migrant families, they want temporary, single workers, both men and women, not only in agriculture, but also in the expanding service industry. No right to report labor violations. No right to organize. No freedom of movement. No path to citizenship. Recruited in Mexico, desperate for work and totally controlled – by the employer, by Homeland Security, by the Mexican government.”

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Speakers Listed for April 22 Webinar on Mass Deportations

The speakers for an April 22 webinar on the resistance to mass deportations have been announced. See the speaker biographies and registration information.

Bring Union Brother Kilmar Home: His Deportation Is an Attack on All of Us

The deportation of union brother Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a gut punch to the labor movement, a slap in the face to every worker who dares to organize.

Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame Inducts 11 Journalists

Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame selects 11 journalists in its 2025 class. See speech from one of the 11, Daymon J. Hartley, who has contributed photos from the front lines to the People's Tribune for decades.

April 22 Webinar Will Explore Resistance to Mass Deportations

On April 22, the Zooming to the Border Coalition, which includes the People's Tribune and Tribuno del Pueblo, will hold a webinar titled Zooming to the Resistance Against Mass Deportations. A group of activists will share their experiences in resisting the government's assault on immigrants.

‘Oligarchs are Deeply Tied to Both Parties,’ says MI State Rep. at ‘Hands Off’ Protest

MI State Rep. Dylan Wegela tells protesters to prevent people like Trump from coming to power we have to fight for people, not corporations. And to win, Democrats cannot be complicit in the oligarchy.

More from the People's Tribune