Maria Elena Durazo, exec director of LA cty Fed of

Labor, again is complicit in a vicious attack on the

immigrant & workers’ rights movement. Durazo is key

figure in the heinous irresponsibility (at best) of

the sponsors of immigrant rights champion Elvira

Arellano’s fateful visit to Los Angeles.

Arellano’s L.A. trip was coordinated by the New

Sanctuary Movement, a project of CLUE (Clergy & Laity

United for Economic Justice)

http://www.newsanctuarymovement.org/invitation.htm,

which is itself a project of LAANE (Los Angeles

Alliance for a New Economy)

http://www.laane.org/victories.html, which in turn is

a creation of the L.A. County Federation of Labor,

which Durazo took over with Mayor Villaraigosa’s

cooperation following the suspicious 2005 death of

previous county fed chief and husband to Durazo,

Miguel Contreras, 11 days before Villaraigosa’s

mayoral victory. Contreras had opposed Villaraigosa,

endorsing incumbent James Hahn

http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/the-final-hours-of-miguel-contreras/14873/,

while Durazo is recognized as Villaraigosa’s “closest

advisor”

http://www.calcoast.org/news/localgovernment0070423.html.

As county fed exec, Durazo heads 845,000 union

members, establishing her as the most powerful

non-govt & non-corporate figure in L.A. & probably

California. Durazo is also local 11 president of

UNITE-HERE, one of the unions to split the AFL-CIO.

It is both inexplicable & unforgivable that Arellano’s

local sponsor groups, directed by Durazo, should allow

her, as the fugitive national figurehead of the

immigration resistance movement, to be placed in such

a vulnerable situation that Homeland Security/ICE

agents could seize her with no public awareness or

defense (she was in a truck w/ Illinois plates,

traversing an itinerary that was publicized to media

though a secret to many activists.). Did Durazo

recklessly gamble that Bush’s ICE would turn a blind

eye to this open affront to their mandate? Or else

Arellano was handed over like Jesus by Judas in what

we can only speculate to be a political maneuver to

generate attention & sympathy that wd then be directed

toward congressional “reform”. Either way the

liability lands on Durazo.

We are forced to attribute sinister motives to Durazo

because first, she still openly maintains that the

LAPD is not responsible for its unprovoked assault on

the Macarthur Park Mayday immigration & workers’

rights rally, which Durazo directed through another

county fed project, MIWON. Durazo immediately stated

the unsubstantiated fabrication on her county labor

federation website’s front page that “…we understand

that a group of individuals, not associated with the

rally, instigated an altercation with police…” We

await Durazo’s explanation for & retraction of this

false accusation, and now also her apology for

enabling Arellano’s capture & the abortion of her

vital trip to Washington D.C.

Full Amnesty Now! Labor Unity & Democracy!

Mayday Defense Committee