Four yearslater, its organizer, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, the founding executive directorof Voces de la Frontera, promises that this year’s May 1 rally throughMilwaukee will be just as strong to remind the Obama administration that itcannot ignore immigrants and the overheated crackdown on them across thecountry.
Neumann-Ortizcalled 2010 “a flashback to 2006,” when immigrants and their allies rallied inopposition to harshly punitive immigration reform, championed by Rep. JimSensenbrenner (R-Menomonee Falls), and in support of comprehensive reform thatprovides a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
“We’reseeing again in 2010 the lack of leadership at the federal level to resolvewhat fundamentally needs a federal fix,” Neumann-Ortiz said.
PresidentBarack Obama had promised to work on comprehensive immigration reform duringhis first year in office, but that promise had been sidelined while hisadministration dealt with the recession and the protracted debate over healthcare reform. In the meantime, Neumann-Ortiz said, the Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS) and local law enforcement agencies around the country havestepped up their activities against illegal immigrants.
While theadministration had said it would focus on exploitative employers and thedeportation of illegal immigrants who had committed violent crimes, a leakedFeb. 22 memo from a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officialindicated that nonviolent offenders are being targeted because they are easier todeport. ICE has since distanced itself from that memo.
“I thinkwhat is really shocking is that it’s happening under an administration that wasvoted in on a platform that had high standards in terms of the understanding ofwhat was wrong,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “People criticized enforcement-onlypolicies and the kinds of separation of families that was going on. But allthat we’ve seen is an escalation of that level of abuse.”
Moststrikingly, the governor of Arizona signed into law a measure that requireslocal law enforcement to determine an individual’s immigration status based on“reasonable suspicion” that an individual is in the country illegally.Criticsincluding Obamahave called it legalized racial profiling.
“It’salready happening,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “But the law would essentially enshrineJim Crow. It would take us back to that period by saying there are differentstandards that apply based on the color of your skin. It’s a very dangeroustime.”
Locally,Voces de la Frontera and its allies around the state are documenting examplesof “driving while Latino,” or traffic stops based on the ethnicity of thedriver.
“We’reseeing a version of what’s happening in Arizona,” Neumann-Ortiz said. “We knowit’s happening across the country.”
In addition toits work on immigration reform, Voces de la Frontera is also calling attentionto the legal issues of Omar Damian Ortega, a welder who was injured on the joband filed a workers’ compensation claim. Although all workers are entitled tothis benefitno matter what their immigration statusthe private insurer thathandled his claim, West Bend Mutual Insurance, checked into his immigrationstatus and alerted the Grafton Police Department about potential identitytheft, Ortega said.
Ortega, ahusband and father who is active in his church, spent five months in jail andpleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in order to be released. He now facesdeportation.
“I am aworker,” Ortega told the Shepherdlast week. “I am not a criminal.”
Neumann-Ortizsaid politicians must wake up to the injustice of the current immigrationsystem and enact comprehensive immigration reform before the midterm elections.
“It’s notjust about the urgency for immigration reform, but the fact that the repressionand racism and the criminalization and family separationall of that hasescalated to an intolerable level,” Neumann-Ortiz said. Illinois CongressmanLuis Gutierrez introduced a measure that encompasses the broad goals of theimmigrants’ rights community, Neumann-Ortiz said, but the Senate has onlyfloated a blueprint for reform by New York Sen. Charles Schumer and SouthCarolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
For more information about the May 1immigration rally, which will begin at noon at Voces de la Frontera (1027 S.Fifth St.), go to www.vdlf.org.
