Coalition of Black and Latina Women, Women from Arizona, Demand Sheriff Stop Submitting to Immigration Hold Requests

From our friends at the Congress of Day Laborers:

A delegation of undocumented women from Arizona will join local immigrants and civil rights leaders from Women United for Justice, in demanding that Sheriff Gusman stop holding undocumented immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The visit will happen Thursday, August 9, at 1:30pm at the office of Sheriff Marlin Gusman, 819 South Broad Street.

The delegation is part of Women United for Justice, a group of New Orlean women of all races and backgrounds organizing against over-incarceration and deportation of communities, families, and children. They will join an Arizona delegation, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice,’ a group of undocumented immigrants traveling across the south working for immigrant rights. They will bring the example of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s notorious treatment of undocumented immigrants, and ask Sheriff Marlin Gusman to stand on the right side of history.

The delegation includes undocumented women from Arizona, part of the ‘No Papers No Fear’ Ride for Justice, a journey that began in Phoenix, Arizona on July 29th; Deliny Palencia, member of the Congress of Day Laborers and local leader who was unconstitutionally held by the Sheriff’s department; Latoya Lewis, organizer with Stand with Dignity, New Orleans.

The Sheriff’s submission to immigration hold requests has led to numerous, grave, constitutional violations and a deterioration of trust between the immigrant community and local authorities. The Sheriff could follow in the footsteps of Cook County, Washington D.C. and the state of Connecticut, and no longer use city resources to divide families and deteriorate civil rights. This is an opportunity for the Sheriff to hear how people in Arizona have been affected by implementation of similar policies, and to chose to be on the right side of history.

Actions by undocumented students, such as coming out of the shadows events and civil disobedience actions, have demonstrated the power and results of communities acting and speaking for themselves. The riders are undocumented people  from all over the country and their allies, including mothers, fathers, day laborers, people in deportation proceedings, students, and many others who continue to face threats of deportation, harassment, and death while simply looking for a better life in the only nation many of them know and call home.

More information on the No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice is at www.nopapersnofear.org.

Call to Action: Stop Deporting Community Organizers!

From our friends at the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice:

“The main reason people don’t stand up for themselves and defend their own rights,” says Josue Diaz, “is because they’re afraid of being deported.”

Josue should know. He was arrested and put in deportation proceedings – all for having the courage to speak out.

He was hired to clean up after Hurricane Ike, but Josue and other immigrant workers were denied safety gear for working in toxic sludge – and then weren’t paid the wages they were owed. When he helped organize a strike, Josue’s employer called the police.

Josue is just one of 32 civil rights and labor organizers in the South facing deportation just because they stood up for their rights. This is not only morally wrong, but it also violates a new policy issued last year by the Obama Administration.

Click here to tell Secretary Napolitano to stop deporting these community organizers:

The Obama Administration issued a new policy to stop the practice of deporting labor organizers and civil rights defenders after advocates demanded change. But immigration officials in charge of 5 Southern states are refusing to follow orders. To add insult to injury, their boss – Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security has done nothing about it.

The Southern 32 have stood up to defend the rights of all of us, and now we need to stand up with them. Take action now and tell Janet Napolitano to stop deporting these leaders.

Thanks,
Jacinta Gonzalez
Lead Organizer
Congress of Day Laborers

Activists Harassed During Vigil at OPP

From our friends at the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice:
Community Condemns Intimidation of Community Leaders During Prayer Vigil
Demand to Gusman: Guarantee Sheriff’s officers will not retaliate against Day Laborers Exercising their First Amendment Rights.

Today, members of the Congress of Day Laborers strongly condemned retaliation by Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s officers against a community leader during a 24 hour prayer vigil. The prayer vigil, staged in front of Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s office was aimed at ending racial profiling and race-based deportation through Gusman’s Orleans Parish Prison (OPP).

Early Thursday morning, Feb. 3, after 17 hours at the prayer vigil, Congress of Day Laborers’ leader Ezequiel Falcon was pulling out of the driveway of the Sheriff’s office when a sheriff’s officer trailed him and pulled him over. A second sheriff’s officer joined the scene. The officers informed Ezequiel that the vigil had been surveilled, identified him as a leader, asked for his documents, demanded to know his home address, and threatened to arrest him.

“The sheriff was trying to send all of us a message,” Falcon said after his harrowing interaction with Gusman’s officers. “But we shall not be moved.” Lead organizer for the Congress of Day Laborers, Jacinta Gonzalez said, “We are deeply disappointed the Sheriff Gusman’s Offices would see fit to intimidate and threaten Day Laborer Leaders taking moral action.”

The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice (of which the Congress of Day Laborers is a project) wrote to Sherriff Gusman on Feb. 7 demanding a public pledge that there would be no further retaliation against community and civil rights leaders.

“[W]e and many criminal justice, faith, and labor leaders as well as City Council Members are deeply concerned about the actions of your staff against Mr. Falcon which violated his fundamental civil and constitutional rights,” the letter read in part. “We ask that you issue public assurances that no OPSO official will engage in retaliatory conduct against members of this community for exercising their civil and constitutional rights.”

The Congress of Day Laborers is demanding that Gusman reverse his policy of submitting to voluntary hold requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which effectively funnel immigrant workers into deportation on the mere suspicion that they may be non-citizens.

Sheriff Gusman’s officers’ intimidation tactics targeting Mr. Falcon come on the heels of a major federal lawsuit filed by members of the Congress of Day Laborers against Gusman last week.

This major civil rights lawsuit, brought by members of the Congress of Day Laborers and litigated by the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice (NOWCRJ) and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), exposes fundamental violations of law brought on by the Sheriff’s decision to submit to hold requests from ICE. These hold requests are often based on mere suspicion a person is a noncitizen- suspicion often based on racial profiling. “Sheriff Gusman’s policy leads to detention of community members – fathers, students, and reconstruction workers – on standards of proof far below what is constitutional and conscionable,” lead counsel Jennifer Rosenbaum, Legal Director for NOWCRJ, said to a packed City Council meeting on the day of the filing.

The Congress of Day Laborers is a project of the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. Plaintiffs are represented in the litigation by the New Orleans Workers’ Center Legal Department and the National Immigration Law Center, a national legal advocacy organization that defends and promotes the rights of low-income immigrants and their family members.

Reconstruction Workers Conclude 24 Hour Vigil at Sheriff's Office

Beginning yesterday at 1:00pm, on one of the coldest days of the year, members of New Orleans' Congress of Day Laborers and their allies began a 24-hour vigil outside the office of Sheriff Marlin Gusman to demand an end to his office's racial profiling and race-based deportation of immigrants held in Orleans Parish Prison. The vigil was timed to begin at the same time that a lawsuit was filed on behalf of two workers who had been held in the prison for 90 days and 160 days.

"Sheriff Gusman violated their rights and violated the constitution," said organizer Denis Soriano. "We see what is happening every day inside of Sheriff Gusman's jail. We have tried to meet with Sheriff Gusman and tried to explain to him, but hes not valuing us as a community. We are holding this prayer vigil to say to Sheriff Gusman, just like he's a human being and wants his rights respected, we also want our rights respected."

According to organizers,

The prayer vigil follows Gusman’s refusal to comply with an Open Records Act requests from the Congress of Day Laborers, as well as his repeated cancellation of meetings to launch a real community dialogue on the issue, even after he publicly committed to do so in front of TV cameras on the steps of the New Orleans federal courthouse on Nov. 15, 2011 after a federal judge ordered the release of one immigrant workers from the Sheriff’s illegal custody.

The vigil opened yesterday with statements from reconstruction workers and their allies. Ezequiel Falcon, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers, described the reason they had gathered.

We're claiming our rights...The majority of us came after Hurricane Katriana to rebuild this city. But now we're seeeing our neighbors, our friends, and our family disappearing from our streets. We want the right to be a permanent and stable community, where taking my daughter to school every day can be a normal act and not an act of extreme bravery. We want our freedom.

Freddy Lopez, another reconstruction worker, described his experience of being arrested and turned over to Homeland Security, and how that experience taught him how important it is to fight back.

We are here not only for the people that have been disappeared but for the people they want to disappear in the future. I have lived, in my own skin, how they try to violate your rights. (Last year) I came from celebrating mothers day with my wife and my child, and a police officer stopped me. I don't know if it's because i am Latino, but he asked me for my documentation. I showed him all of my paperwork and he told me i was going to be arrested for not having a valid license. I was supposed to go to court the next day but instead of taking me to court i was taken to immigration. I was there for two or three months and saw how if people don't speak English they're left there for long periods of time because they can't defend themselves. And that's why we're here on this day: to demand that we get respected (by the police) in the same way we respect them.

Overnight, workers received solidarity visits from activists, church groups, musicians and others, bringing food, hot drinks, and entertainment, including a performance from conscious hip-hop artist Truth Universal and a 3:00am screening of the film Machete projected on the outside wall of Sheriff Gusman's office. Workers left the vigil this afternoon, and marched to the city council, where they have gathered to support a city council resolution calling for a smaller city jail.

Community Demands Immediate Release of Antonio Ocampo after 97 Days in Illegal Detention in OPP

From our friends at the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice:
Federal Judge Hauls Sheriff Gusman To Court After Immigrant Detainee Sues Over Illegal Custody

A federal judge ordered U.S. Marshalls to serve papers on Sheriff Marlin Gusman this morning, demanding that he attend a court hearing today to defend his detention of Antonio Ocampo. Mr. Ocampo sued Sheriff Gusman Friday afternoon, reporting that he had been held in illegal detention for 95 days, in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Community members will stage a protest at Sheriff Gusman’s offices at 1:30 pm today, demanding that he release Mr. Ocampo in advance of the court hearing.

Mr. Ocampo filed five separate official grievance forms in Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) to report his illegal detention. “I gave each written complaint to an official at the prison, he said. “I never got any response.” Constitutional experts said the Sheriff violated Mr. Ocampo’s Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Mr. Ocampo filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in federal court Friday even as he continued to languish at OPP.

“We will confront Sheriff Gusman directly to demand that he release Antonio Ocampo to the community,” said Jacinta Gonzales, Lead Organizer with the Congress of Day Laborers. “Antonio Ocampo has been in illegal detention for close to 100 days. Sheriff Gusman has violated the Constitution. We won’t let him deport the evidence.”

The judge has ordered Sheriff Gusman to appear in court with Mr. Ocampo at 3 pm today. Members of Mr. Ocampo’s community will hold a press conference at Sheriff Gusman’s office at 1:00 pm, demanding he release Mr. Ocampo in compliance with U.S. law.

WHAT: Press conference and protest aimed at Sheriff Marlin Gusman.

WHY: To demand the immediate release of Mr. Antonio Ocampo, on his 98th day in illegal custody at the hands of Sheriff Marlin Gusman.

WHERE: Office of Sheriff Marlin Gusman, 819 South Broad Street, 70119

WHEN: 1 pm, Monday, November 15, 2010.

WHO: Congress of Day Laborers, New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, and citizens in defense of the U.S. Constitution.

New Orleans Workers Stand up for Justice and Against Wage Theft

Today is a good day to stand up for worker justice.

New Orleans' Congress of Day Laborers (Congreso de Jornaleros) has been organizing to pass a City Ordinance to combat the rampant wage theft in New Orleans. Today, they will join organizations across the country who are engaging in demonstrations and vigils to commemorate National Wage Theft Day.

According to members of the Congress, "the urgent need for this ordinance was demonstrated all too dramatically in a recent case that has shocked and saddened us. On Monday, November 2nd, a member of the Congress of Day Laborers approached his employer in an attempt to recover several weeks of unpaid wages. The employer refused to pay. When the worker attempted to negotiate, the employer pushed him and threatened the worker with physical violence – brandishing a hammer. Terrified, the worker called the New Orleans Police Department. When police officers arrived, they took it upon themselves to punish the worker instead of protecting him. They interrogated him about his immigration status, and issued a citation for disturbing the peace."

On September 9, Police Superintendent Riley announced that the New Orleans Police would not be asking about the immigration status of victims of crimes, saying, "We are not going to make someone a victim twice." Today, at 3:00pm at 715 S. Broad Street (near Orleans Parish Prison, at Tulane and Broad), the Congress of Day Laborers will hold a demonstration, joined by clergy, to ask Riley to fulfill his promise.

Then, later tonight, a new organization called the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans (ROCNO) will be holding an interfaith prayer vigil in front of Tony Moran’s, a Bourbon Street restaurant that workers say has engaged in a pattern of nonpayment of wages and created a discriminatory workplace

Members of ROCNO are asking supporters to meet at 7:30pm at the 100 block of Carondelet Street, near the intersection of Canal, to then walk over to Tony Moran’s Restaurant together by 8:00pm.