A Call to Action, Mobilization for Progressive, Humane and Just Immigration Reform!
WE ARE AMERICA DNC will be hosting a reception, immigration forum and film screening of SWIFT JUSTICE tonight, Wednesday, August 27, from 6:30-9pm at El Centro San Juan Diego, 2830 Lawrence Street. Please visit www.weareamericadnc.org or call 303.292.4115 x102 with questions.
City Council Hearing and Rally TONIGHT
WHAT: Rally and Testimonies at City Council Meeting to Oppose Anti-Day-Laborer Ordinance
WHERE: Steps of Aurora Municipal Building 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, CO 80012
RALLY: 6:30pm
HEARING: 7:30pm
SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS
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UPDATE 7/15/2008
The City Council delayed their vote on this issue last night. Several City Council members were not present. The Council expressed a desire for "more community input". Several members of the council who are opposed to a change in the ordinance wanted to have the vote. Several members, including the sponsor, voted to postpone the vote. Stay posted for more details on the next hearing date. Thanks to all who gave up their Monday night for the rally and testimony!
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7/10/2008
The Aurora City council will consider a new ordinance which would place El Centro, and other non-profit employment centers, under the same code as for-profit temporary employment centers. If passed, El Centro will not be able to purchase property close to where day laborers and employers currently meet.
Come out on Monday to the Rally and stay to give testimony.
WHAT: Rally and Testimonies at City Council Meeting to Oppose Anti-Day-Laborer Ordinance
WHERE: Steps of Aurora Municipal Building 15151 E. Alameda Parkway, Aurora, CO 80012
WHEN: Monday, July 14, 2008 Rally at 6:30p.m. (7:30p.m. City Council Meeting)
BACKGROUND
For the last two years the City of Aurora has been escalating their constant harassment against the day laborers who congregate in the intersection of Dayton Street and Colfax Avenue.
Their actions include wrongfully ticketing of day laborers for trespassing; threatening to close down the business owned by a Hispanic woman who gave supported workers by allowing them to seek refuge on her property while waiting for work; and police calling building owners to intimidate them into not renting or selling their buildings to Centro Humanitario.
After the Peter Boyles Show, which hosted Mayor Ed Tauer and other city officials, the Colorado Minutemen Project has shown up to harass the day laborers at Dayton and Colfax.
Since our first call for help on June 16, 2008, the City of Aurora has amended their current laws regarding the control of temporary employment agencies to include non profits, specifically agencies that provide assistance to day laborers.
The City of Aurora is meticulously reviewing and amending their current laws to make sure the ordinance against day laborers is “perfectly enforceable.”
For more information, please call Centro Humanitario:
Photo Taken by Heather A. Longway-Burke
On July , 2008 ICE raided a concrete plant in Loveland Colorado and arrested 18 people. Those detained are being held in various different detention centers from Park County to Teller to Aurora.
It remains to be seen whether Immigration, Control and Enforcement will be pursuing criminal charges for "identity theft" or simply trying to bully people into signing their own deportation forms.
Some workers are being allowed to bond out. The families of those who could bond out have now spent all they have to bond the workers out. The workers cannot work while out on bond. Many of the families are without money to pay rent for August.
If you want to help, please send checks to:
Fuerza Latina Relief Fund
c/o First National BankP.O. Box 578
Fort Collins, CO 80522
These types of "enforcement" actions are meant to terrorize workers and their families. Why else would they have called in "air support" from the Border Patrol to arrest 18 people?
The raids do not change our broken system. Raids do not make people leave the United States.
Raids make it easier to exploit us all by making immigrant workers more vulnerable to exploitation and unsafe working conditions, lowering the bar of what is acceptable. Raids make people afraid to demand their labor rights, afraid to be a part of the community, afraid to speak with people they don't know. Raids divide us.
The question is Who do these raids benefit? Who gains from weakened worker's rights? Some of the answer is: consumers who want to buy more stuff for less money. Some of the answer is: those employers who are unscrupulous. A big part of the answer is: multi-national corporations who pit workers from all over the world against one another in a race to the bottom.
More info
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition
News articles
Undocumented immigrants have not broken a criminal law, but rahter a civil one. Civil law encompasses such offenses as parking tickets, speeding and jaywalking. Most immigrants come here, build their family and work. They become integral parts of their communities. It is our immigration laws and procedures which make them vulnerable to abuses.
Ask if the "crime" of working and building fits the punishments being inflicted?
A report released today details the human rights violations that occur once immigrants are in detention.
The Tacoma Center was built over neighborhood objections that a toxic-waste site was not an appropriate place for detention. Now the center has been found to violate many human rights."Conditions at the detention center violate obligations under international law, including customary international law and the refugee convention. The center’s holding of asylees in detention violates U.S.’s obligations under the Refugee condition and constitute Cruel, Inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Skinner also says the conditions at the center violate the 5th Amendment of the Constitution in that they amount to punishment... Other rights being violated include the right to counsel, the right to family unity, due process violations due to the forced signing of papers, right to medical treatment, especially emergency medical treatment and mental health treatment."
Many centers, including the GEO center in Aurora, have similar problems. There have been allegations of racism and harassment at the Aurora GEO Center. The waiting room at the facility is very small and visiting family members are forced to wait outside in the heat and cold if they want to visit their family. The facility also only allows two visitors at a time so families have to bring someone with them to watch their other children or not visit at all. Even prisons do not have such restrictions.
To read the executive summary click here
To read the full report click here
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