Dolores Huerta, Spreading a Legacy of Love

Posted on October 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

LUPE leaders with Dolores Huerta (center) on Tuesday in McAllen. Click photo for more pictures from the event.

This week, members of the Union visited with UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta during two events planned by the Hermes Music Foundation to honor the farmworker leader’s “legacy of love.”

The Dolores Huerta Foundation and the Hermes Music Foundation have worked together to contribute to the empowerment of local communities through music, including distributing instruments to farmworker youth and promoting the CD, “Claro Que Se Puede,” which features artists like Carlos Santana, Ramon Ayala and Willie Nelson.

Dolores Huerta and Hermes Music founder Alberto Kreimerman see their work as complementing each other. Kreimerman says that Dolores Huerta and her foundation spread love and acceptance through community organizing and political awareness. And Huerta sees Kreimerman’s work spreading music as an important part of the empowerment of the communities her foundation serves.

At a press conference Tuesday, as a testament to the labor leader’s dedication to others, Huerta shared her own spotlight by recognizing the contribution of LUPE director Juanita Valdez-Cox and other LUPE members and former UFW leaders for their contribution to improvements in Texas. Under the direction of Rebecca Flores, Juanita worked as an organizer for the United Farm Workers in South Texas. Her and farmworker leaders throughout the state organized for and won clean water and toilets for agricultural workers and workers’ compensation for on-the-job injuries, among other farmworker victories. Now, as director of LUPE, Juanita leads the organization’s efforts to improve living conditions for Hidalgo County’s over 150,000 colonia residents.

Huerta said that her foundation is doing work very similar to our own work with colonia residents. She said that in California there are also neighborhoods without paved roads, streetlights and proper drainage. All funds raised by her foundation go to employing organizers from low-income working class communities and training them using a grassroots organizing model. Natural leaders are developed by their participation in community projects, which they prioritize by analyzing their neighborhood and community needs.
To learn more and support the Dolores Huerta Foundation, visit their website at http://www.doloreshuerta.org/

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Angel’s bright future turns into a nightmare

Posted on July 11, 2012 by | Leave a comment

A promising young business student sits behind bars on an immigration hold, his once bright future unraveling into a nightmare.

Angel is scared and a million thoughts race through his mind as he sits contemplating the events of the previous night. As he was coming back from the bathroom at a restaurant a man began to throw racial slurs his way. Naturally, Angel became angry and in a burst of fury shattered the restaurant window. When he was unable to pay for the damage, the manager called the police. Before he knew it, Angel was detained with an immigration hold.

Once detained, a 48 hour immigration hold was placed on him; however, what was supposed to be two days in jail turned into three weeks for nothing more than a broken window. That is because he fell under Secure Communities. Secure Communities (S-Comm), is a federal program that has been expanded by the Obama administration to local and county police departments throughout the nation. This program has facilitated in the deportation of mass amounts of people. It has contributed to over 2 million deportations in Obama’s first term alone, which is more than the last four presidents combined. Just like many others, once Angel was detained, law enforcement officials took his fingerprints and sent them to ICE, whereupon ICE determined his immigration status.

In an effort to put an end to S-Comm in Texas, the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance has written a letter to president Obama accompanied by a written and electronic petition, and a photo petition. Anyone can write their own message to Obama and take a picture with it in order to show the faces of those who have been or have the potential to be affected by this program.

Angel still awaits his court date with ICE which will determine whether or not he will be deported. Brought to the U.S. as a baby, Angel may be thrown into a country and a culture that he knows little about and may never be able to see his family again just because of a broken window. We now have an opportunity to take action on behalf of Angel and people like him by signing the petition and being involved in the photo petition.

Take action for Angel and people like him. Sign the petition now!

Print out the “End S-Comm” sheets , take a picture with your message and e-mail it to Colbie Devost. Colbie will upload the pictures to a blog that includes photos from across the state.

Thank you for your involvement in putting an end to S-Comm!

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Posted in DREAM Act, Immigration Reform, In the Community, Policy & organizing

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Statement from Border Network for Human Rights on Supreme Court SB 1070 Ruling

Posted on June 25, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Key points: SB 1070 Supreme Court case doesn’t rule on the tendency of the law to be discriminatory. The President can prevent SB 1070 from doing further damage immediately by refusing to deport it’s victims. Tell the President to suspend S-Comm in Arizona.

In a divided decision, the Supreme Court allowed the “papers, please” provisions of SB 1070, Arizona’s hateful racial profiling law to go into effect. The issue before the court was one of federal preemption, not the obvious intent of the law to strike fear into immigrant families.

To be clear, this provision was presented to the Justices as a technical legal matter of federal preemption. The Court did not rule on the tendency of the law to be discriminatory.

But everyone knows what “papers, please” is about – targeting one community for “elimination through attrition,” in the words of the laws’ proponents. It must be remembered that “papers, please” policies have their origin in a Germany that was set on doing the same.

This provision has been roundly criticized by both law enforcement and constitutional law experts, many of whom stated that it would be impossible to implement them in a race-neutral manner.

“By issuing this decision, the Supreme Court has validated the anti-immigrant sentiments of ideologues,” said Fernando Garcia, BNHR Executive Director. “The Court left standing the provision that is built completely on fear and anti-Latino sentiment.”

“It’s very unfortunate that the Court did not consider, and that the Obama Administration did not present this law in the context of racial profiling what is right for the U.S.,” said Garcia. “This decision is on the wrong side of history.”

The Court correctly struck down wrongheaded policies that would have pushed families, workers, and senior citizens into the criminal justice system. But the Court made a grave error in upholding the discriminatory “show me your papers” provision that violates people’s basic rights. Those Justices are out of touch with what this law means in Arizona communities.

But this is not the final word on “show me your papers” laws. Anti-discrimination suits are pending, and BNHR calls on the U.S. Department of Justice to be vigilant in stepping up civil rights enforcement.

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Posted in Immigration Reform, Policy & organizing