CA-UCB Workers, Students Protest Arrest of Immigrant custodi

UC Berkeley Workers, Students Protest Arrest of Immigrant Custodian
By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday May 14, 2009

More than 100 University of California Berkeley workers and students rallied on the steps of Sproul Plaza Wednesday, May 13, to protest the arrest of an undocumented immigrant worker by UC police last month.

The crowd denounced what they said was the UC Police Department’s collaboration with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to turn U.C. custodial worker Jesus Gutierrez over to ICE officials, and they urged the university administration to turn UC Berkeley into a sanctuary campus.

Calls and visits to UCPD Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya for comment were not returned by press time.

AFSCME union members told the Planet that UCPD officers arrested Gutierrez from UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Dining Commons on April 29, charging that he had used someone else’s Social Security number to work.

A press release from AFSCME Local 3299, which represents UC Berkeley workers, alleged that UC police “arrested Gutierrez and have charged him with felony identity theft, simply on the suspicion that he is an undocumented worker.â€

Scarcely anyone showed up the mainstream coverage reported half as many.

And what about the child's right to not have his identity stolen?? What about his right to have a life free from falsehoods surrounding his SSN?