CDIR Update No. 42
April 18, 2008

May Day Rallies Against ICE Anti Immigrant Raids Nationwide

Los Angeles-- In response to nationally coordinated raids conducted by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) the Coalition to Defend Immigrant Rights (CDIR) in Los Angeles will join the Press Conference of the
newly formed Filipino American for Immigrant Rights (FAIR) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) on April 26, 2008 and the May 1 Rally Immigrant Workers Day March-Rally in downtown Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, more recent ICE Raids

More than 200 immigrants have been arrested in Los Angeles this month. On April 4, more than 60 Mexican and Korean workers were arrested by ICE in Torrance and in downtown LA.

"This is a travesty of justice. CDIR is demanding the immediate release of all the immigrant workers and a moratorium on all workplace raids. The raids and other forms of repression serve no purpose other than to create fear and terror in immigrant communities across the country.

Activists demand a halt to right-wing hysteria that criminalizes the ndocumented depicting them as a threat rather than what they truly represent:
hard-workers who have the right to justice and dignity." said Arturo P. Garcia CDIR and Justice for Filipino American Veterans (JFAV) coordinator. JFAV is part of FAIR network addressing the immigration issues.

" On May Day 2008, we will be marching again in Los Angeles for equal rights for all workers, legalization now!, an immediate end to workplace raids and deportations." Garcia added.

ICE Nation wide raids against immigrants

The ICE raids prompted LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to call on the DHS to “back off on raids on business places because it is bad on business."


ICE conducted workplace raids at Pilgrim's Pride chicken plants in five states on Wednesday, April 16th then arrested more than 400 so called *illegal
immigrants."

In another development, a group of 69 Filipino "undocumented immigrants" were deported by the DHS in San Francisco last Tuesday, April 15, the ABS-CBN News reported.

Outrageously, ICE agents went to workers' homes as well as plants. According to reports, 400 Pilgrim's Pride workers were arrested, 4% of its total workforce of 9,400. Pilgrim's Pride is the nation's largest poultry processor.

Workers at the raided plants in Batesville (Ark.) and Live Oak (Fla.) are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The workers at the plant in Chattanooga (Tenn) are members of the Steelworkers.

45 immigrants were arrested at the plant in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. 100 people were arrested at the plant in Chattanooga (Tenn). About 100 immigrants were
arrested at the plant in Moorefield (W. Virginia). About 20 workers were arrested at the plant in Batesville (Ark.), and about 26 in Live Oak (Fla.).

ICE also conducted separate raids on April 16th in Houston; western New York; Bradford, Pa; Mentor, Ohio; and Wheeling and New Martinsville, W. Vorginia.


For more information on immigration please call cdir or fair at (213)241-0906 or email@cdir_usa@yahoo.com

The real tragedy is that American borders have been neglected for so long. If there were illegals flooding Mexico, Phillipines or Korea, what would happen there? Surely it would not read very high on the humanity scale. These piddly few raids in the LA area recently are a mockery of a system that was designed to protect American citizens as well as immigrants.