April 6, 2006

By RACHEL DAVIS
Contributing Writer

The “Minutemen” are here.

April 1 marked the beginning of a month-long campaign during which the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps say they’ll protect U.S. borders from illegal immigrants. Stationed along the Arizona border to the south and the Canadian border to the north, individuals armed with cell phones and binoculars (and oftentimes guns) sit waiting for the unsuspecting trespasser.

A secondary plan includes the surveillance of day laborer pickup sites. Minutemen representatives will photograph and videotape the exchange between workers and would-be employers and post the pictures on operationshameonyou.com. According to the web site, the intention is “to shame those who hire day laborers and make an example out of them in front of their neighbors and the community.”

When CASA Latina — a local community-based organization empowering Latino immigrants — learned that the Minutemen were staging a campaign against the day laborers, executive director Hilary Stern organized a rally for immigration reform. Last Saturday, despite the rain, hundreds of community members arrived at the Day Workers’ Center on the corner of Western Ave. and Battery St. in downtown Seattle to show their solidarity for the laborers.

Members of the Latino community delivered speeches from the steps of the office explaining what organizers believe must happen to legalize, and subsequently help, the immigrants living and working in the U.S. “We need a humane and decent immigration reform,” said Roberto Maestas, founder and director of El Centro de la Raza, “one that will permit people to receive benefits, secure better jobs, and provide a clear path to legalization.”

Day laborers addressed the crowd one at a time, each explaining in his own way that they came to the United States because there are jobs here. They only want to make money and provide for their families.

By noon, organizers had divided community supporters into four work teams and dispatched each team to day laborer pick-up sites throughout the city. In an effort to protect the workers and show solidarity, participants encircled the day laborers, making it difficult for Minutemen to take photos or videotape.

The Home Depot on First Avenue South — a regular day laborer site — was the largest demonstration of the day. with more than 200 community members in attendance.

The Minutemen may have been present but they didn’t make themselves known. Rumors of photographic activity surfaced, but as of press time there were no pictures on the web site and no altercations ensued.

Beyond the immediacy of an activist-fueled April, immigration reform is weighing heavy on the minds of community members while government officials debate. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have immigration bills in their possession but each is replete with criminalization, felony charges for undocumented immigrants and those who help them — like CASA Latina — and a host of embedded contradictions, says Stern. n

[Find out more]
Visit the National Immigration Law Center at nilc.org. Also casa-latina.org or elcentrodelaraza.org