DAY LABORERS HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE TO HIGHLIGHT ECONOMIC

CONTRIBUTIONS, TO DENOUNCE IMMIGRANT BASHING, AND TO CALL FOR

IMMIGRATION REFORM

For: Friday, September 30, 2005

Contact: Carlos Preza, English, (213) 248-2050

Antonio Bernabe, Spanish, (818) 841-0307

(Burbank, CA) Day Laborers, their allies, and community

leaders from throughout Los Angeles will hold a press

conference and rally outside of the KFI radio studio to urge

Californians to value the contributions of day laborers, to

respect their rights, and to urge fair immigration reform.

The last several months have witnessed a sharp rise in media

attention to day workers and the day labor practice.

Unfortunately, few have focused on the contributions of day

workers and on the economic forces underlying the day labor

practice. Instead, a vocal minority has used this recent

attention to initiate a new wave of immigrant bashing using

day laborers as targets.

“We are here, and we’re not going anywhere,” said Marcos

Rodriguez, a Los Angeles-based day laborer. “We will

continue to keep houses painted, yards trimmed, and babies

fed. We will build communities and we will even rebuild

those houses destroyed by the recent hurricanes. We demand an

immigration reform policy that treats us like any other

workers, respecting our workplace and constitutional rights

like everyone else.”

The rally will also emphasize that the day laborer story is

not merely about immigration. It is about people, about

husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, sons and

daughters. Above all though, it is an issue is about

economic justice and human rights. Those who are frustrated

with our broken immigration policy will be encouraged to

engage in any number of productive dialogues occurring across

the city and around the country where voices are joining to

support immigration reform that includes a meaningful path to

citizenship.

“We all agree immigration reform is needed,” said Pablo

Alvarado of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. “We

think this should be accomplished through dialogue,

education, and mutual understanding.”

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network’s mission is to

strengthen and expand the work of local day laborer

organizing groups, in order to become more effective and

strategic in building leadership, advancing low-wage worker

and immigrant rights, and developing successful models for

organizing immigrant contingent/temporary workers. NDLON

fosters healthy, safer and more humane environments for day

laborers to obtain employment and raise their families. In

this sense, NDLON advances the human, labor, and civil rights

of day workers throughout the United States.

What: Press Conference and Rally

Who: Day Laborers and their Allies

When: Friday, September 30, 2005

10:30 Press Conference

Where: Outside of KFI Radio Station

340 W. Olive Ave

Burbank, CA 91502