Immigration rally planned
Milwaukee will join cities across U.S.
By GEORGIA PABST
gpabst@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Sept. 9, 2007
Milwaukee will join cities across the country Wednesday to protest a recently announced federal crackdown on illegal immigrants, rally support for immigrant workers and urge a boycott on buying that day to show immigrants' economic power.

The National Day of Action will be held from 11 a.m. to noon at Mitchell Park, S. 26th and W. Pierce streets. It's sponsored by Voces de la Frontera, which advocates for immigrants.

Here, as elsewhere, the rally and protest have been dubbed "We are All Elvira" day, a reference to Elvira Arellano, 32, an illegal immigrant and single mother who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church for a year. When she left the small church with her young son last month to go to Los Angeles, she was taken into custody by immigration agents and was deported to Mexico. Her son, a U.S. citizen, remains in this country with a guardian.

"She had said she would go to Washington, D.C., to lead the National Day of Action, and many groups decided to continue with her vision because many families are being torn apart by deportations," said Jeanne Geraci, assistant director of Voces.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced new initiatives to step up enforcement against illegal immigrants and employers who hire them. One of the key provisions was the use of the Social Security "no match" letters that employers sometimes receive if a worker's Social Security number doesn't match what's on the government's database. Employers currently are not required to take any action, but under the new proposal, they would have to respond or face sanctions.

Groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform praised the new enforcement strategies. In a news release, the organization called it "welcome news to an American public fed up with unchecked illegal immigration."

But a federal judge has issued a temporary order blocking the rule until a hearing can be held Oct. 1.

Rallies are planned in more than 15 cities, including Washington, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, said Rich Stolz, immigration team leader for the Center for Community Change in Washington, a group involved in the National Day of Action.

"The basic message is, yes, Elvira was deported, but that's just one example of the enforcement-oriented policies the administration has been pushing," he said. "There's been a lot of bad news lately, and there's a significant amount of fear in immigrant communities. This is to get people on their feet and to press forward and build alliances."

Meanwhile, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, an anti-immigration group, announced that it will hold its semi-annual border watch operation from Oct. 1 to 28 in Arizona, California, Texas and Washington state to support the U.S. Border Patrol.

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