Thread: Day without immigrant protest in Philadelphia (Pictures)

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news ... 3933c.html

Immigrants set to demonstrate what life would be like without them
By JAMES DEWEESEStaff Writer, (856) 794-5114
Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Updated: Tuesday, February 14, 2006

— Nancy Matias hopes her shuttered shop will serve as a poignant reminder of the local contributions made by immigrant workers, business owners and residents.

Matias, a Mexican immigrant who's lived in Bridgeton for 16 years, won't open her year-old Commerce Street restaurant, Mexico Lindo, today.

Instead, she and her family will join an estimated 1,500 Spanish-speaking immigrants from Cumberland County at a Philadelphia rally to protest a proposed federal law that would criminalize illegal immigrants' presence in the county and expand the definition of alien smuggling to include agencies that help them.

The rally, scheduled for noon at the Liberty Bell at Fifth and Market streets, complements what a loose coalition of Hispanic community organizations across New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania have termed “A Day Without Immigrants.â€

There should be 1,000 ICE and BP agents there. I'm sure THAT field will be ripe for picking. Pardon the pun...

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/13866462.htm

Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006

Immigration rally at noon on Mall

By REGINA MEDINA
medinar@phillynews.com 215-854-5985

Imagine a Philadelphia without busboys.

Without dishwashers... or cleaning crews.

Today, you may not have to imagine very hard.

Immigrant advocates have organized a daylong work stoppage and noon rally on Independence Mall called "A Day Without an Immigrant."

The event aims to urge the public, particularly employers, to oppose pending legislation in Washington that would make illegal immigration a felony and would prosecute those who hire or even aid unlawful immigrants.

The nation's estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants are "your neighbor, your fellow churchgoer, your gardener, your nanny," said Marshall Fitz, director of advocacy at the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Lawyers Association, a group of 10,000 immigrant attorneys and professors. "They are us."

Lead organizer Ricardo Diaz predicts at least 1,000 people will take part in the rally, including immigrants, both legal and illegal, as well as teachers, lawyers and social workers. He's expecting busloads from Reading, Trenton and communities in Delaware to join in the event, which will take place in what Diaz called "the cradle of liberty." The protest even has a Web site:

www.daywithoutanimmigrant.com

"We are stopping work so owners can stop Sensenbrenner," he said, referring to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., one of two co-sponsors.

Juan (not his real name) does not have his legal papers, but works at a popular Center City eatery. He'll miss work for today's rally, and he said he believes one more voice will count.

"If we all get together, the undocumented people from all the countries, we'd be stronger, the union would be stronger," Juan said, speaking in Spanish.

The House bill, known officially as the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, was introduced by Sensenbrenner and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. It recently passed the House and now awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It states that undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants with temporary status problems are felons, and that anyone who interacts with immigrants - clergy, doctors, lawyers, social workers - will be considered "alien smugglers."

"But advocates and anti-immigrant groups insist that some legislation must be passed because of the high numbers of undocumented people.

Each year about 500,000 unskilled labor jobs are created, said Anne O'Callaghan, executive director of the Welcoming Center, an employment and resource center for immigrants.

But the United States only grants about 15,000 visas per year to immigrants willing to take those jobs.

About 5 percent of the U.S. work force is undocumented, Fitz said.

O'Callaghan called the Sensenbrenner proposal "outrageous," adding: "It should be protested."

Immigration advocates say the bill would be a fiscal calamity.

"I think the economy would collapse and the price of produce and vegetables would go up," said a Center City restaurateur who asked that his name not be used.

Juan, the restaurant employee, agreed, naming restaurants and Spanish-language TV stations as businesses that would go out of business if the bill were to become reality.

"You have to be a realist," Juan said, noting the role his fellow Mexicans have in rebuilding New Orleans. "We, the undocumented, are doing the hard work."

The Center City restaurateur agreed, noting "it's amazing how many work two jobs. They pay into Social Security and they never file for a return."

He hopes that legislators come up with a solution that will "allow hard-working, tax-paying, undocumented workers a process to legal status."

OH piffle!! Given a day's notice they could every one be replaced.

RR

I agree. In fact, if any restaurants in my area are having problems because their illegals took the day off, I'll offer to bus tables, wait tables or wash dishes if that is what it takes to show them that I hope they NEVER come back.

Around here they take plenty of time off anyway. I don't miss them. Does anyone else?

http://kyw.com/topstories/local_story_045141236.html

Feb 14, 2006 5:00 pm US/Eastern

Hundreds Rally For Right To Work In U.S.

Dick Standish
Reporting


(CBS 3) PHILADELPHIA From noon to 2:00 pm, Tuesday, approximately 500 people gathered in front of Independence Mall, a location that represents the American heritage, to protest their right to work in the U.S.

Some local businesses in Philadelphia and Camden were forced to close as a result of the protest since many of their workers are not documented and among those who attended the rally.

Many of the protesters spoke of trying to accomplish their version of the American dream, through hard work and not through criminal intent. “My kids are not criminals. My kids are not criminals,â€

http://www.philly.com

Posted on Sun, Feb. 12, 2006



Illegal immigrants: 'Dirty little secret' of restaurant world
Those who work in the food business and elsewhere are being urged to strike Tuesday to prove their role in the economy.
By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer

Illegal immigrants in the Philadelphia labor force - described by one Center City restaurateur as the "dirty little secret" of his industry - want to make themselves seen, heard and missed on Valentine's Day.

Local activists have urged undocumented workers throughout the region, particularly Mexicans who staff the city's restaurants, to strike on Tuesday, one of the biggest dining days of the year.

Organizers say the work stoppage, by a population typically on tiptoe, is to demonstrate the economic contribution of undocumented "shadow workers" and to protest a bill in Congress that would make illegal immigration a felony punishable by prison time.

"The call is to the employers, to make them realize they have a stake, and that they need to weigh in," said Ricardo Diaz, the independent organizer who sparked the effort.

Advocates for illegal immigrants around the country have toyed with the idea of a real-world staging of A Day Without a Mexican, a 2004 feature film about the impact on California when its Latino residents disappear.

Tuesday's effort, billed as A Day Without an Immigrant, would be the first such strike by illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States, according to advocates.

Valentine's Day is the second-most-popular day of the year for dining out, according to the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association. A number of restaurateurs in Center City, who asked not to be identified because they employ illegal immigrants, said they would be crippled by a strike.

"It would be a terrible hardship for us," the owner of a Fitler Square bistro said. "I don't know how we would be able to function."

The restaurateur said that a "Dear Employer" form letter, prepared by organizers to help workers explain their absence on Feb. 14, was faxed to him this week. It asked for his support in defeating the Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act drafted by Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) and Peter King (R., N.Y.) and passed by the House of Representatives in December. The Senate is to discuss immigration next month.

Word of the labor action has spread through flyers, the campaign's bilingual Web site, and Spanish and English radio. Diaz claims 1,000 potential strikers.

Peter Bloom, an organizer with Juntos, a Mexican community group in South Philadelphia, is skeptical that many workers would respond. They are paralyzed by the fear of deportation, he said. And apparently unfounded rumors of raids by U.S. immigration agents two weeks ago already caused many Mexicans to stay home and lose a day of pay.

Great contributors

When the Fitler Square owner asked his four undocumented dishwashers whether they would strike, they promised, "We wouldn't do that to you," he said.

Two steakhouse owners said they assembled their kitchen staffs and warned them that they would be fired if they didn't show up.

"I support their message, but they're hurting themselves by not working," said one.

The owners contend that Center City could not sustain its current restaurant boom without illegal workers to bus tables, wash dishes and prepare food.

"It's very difficult to find people to do restaurant work," said a steakhouse owner, whose ads for kitchen jobs have gone unanswered.

"These are jobs that pay minimum wage to $10 an hour," he said. "It's not the type of job that [American] people relocate for."

Owner after owner sounded the same refrain about Mexican workers, many of whom did relocate, by crossing deserts and fording rivers in the company of human smugglers called coyotes. "These people are eager to work, and they're hard-working people," said the owner of a Rittenhouse Square establishment.

"I haven't seen a single restaurant that doesn't hire illegal immigrants," said Alejandro Cordova, co-owner of La Esperanza, a Mexican restaurant in Lindenwold.

Cordova should know. He landed a job washing dishes within days of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in 1992. It was the first of a series of jobs, including cook and busboy, he has held in nearly a dozen New Jersey and New York restaurants.

Illegal immigration "is a fact," said Cordova, who is now a U.S. citizen. "We can't hide it anymore."

Undocumented workers are so essential to the food industry nationwide that the National Restaurant Association has made stopping the Sensenbrenner-King bill its top priority in Congress this year.

'We are equal people'

"We value the work done by our employees, documented or not," said John Gay, the group's chief of government affairs and public policy in Washington.

"It's not like they broke into the bank to rob it," said Gay. "They broke into the bank to sweep the floor."

The Sensenbrenner-King bill would increase fines against employers who hire illegal workers, in some cases by tens of thousands of dollars per violation. It would also classify as "alien smugglers" the groups - including employers, churches and charities - that knowingly and "with reckless disregard" hire or help the immigrants. Migrants would be subject to criminal prosecution.

The restaurant association and most immigrant advocates back alternative legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), that ultimately would allow undocumented immigrants to become legal residents.

Since 2000, the Mexican population in Philadelphia has tripled to about 7,500, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Shops stocked with dried chilies, tamarind soft drinks, and pan dulce claim space alongside Vietnamese hoagie shops and gourmet cheese emporiums in the Italian Market.

Many immigrants are from the same town, San Mateo, in the Mexican state of Puebla. From rowhouses in South Philadelphia, they walk or bicycle the same path every day to jobs in Center City.

More than 50 of those men and women recently piled into a back room at La Tienda, a Washington Avenue grocery, to learn the risks of partaking in Tuesday's protest, which also calls for a noon rally in front of the National Constitution Center.

Ami Laura Cahn, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, assured them of their right to demonstrate. But, she said, they could be fired for taking the day off without permission - and immigration agents could show up.

If that happens, "Don't give information you don't have to," Cahn said. "And don't run away," she warned: It arouses suspicion and encourages police to become involved.

Despite the sobering advice, Cabrera, who would not give his first name, said he would participate in A Day Without an Immigrant.

"I want to support the protest," said the 21-year old, who makes sushi for $10 an hour at an Old City champagne bar. "We are immigrants who come here only to work."

"I think we are equal people," said Castillo, 31, a landscaper. "We have rights."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact staff writer Gaiutra Bahadur at 215-854-2601 or bahadug@phillynews.com.

Copy of the letter I found here.

http://www.redstate.com/story/2006/2/12/21049/9137

Dear Employer,
I am writing to let you know that on Tuesday, February 14, I will not be coming to work. Instead, I will be participating in “A Day Without an Immigrantâ€

Well now, I'm disappointed. I thought they promised us a day without Mexicans!

Doesn't look like that many people to me at that demonstration. And the businesses that had to close down kind of identified themselves as hiring illegals, didn't they? Wonder if anyone gathered that data.

What a bunch of Burros! Can't they figure out that they aren't going to appeal to Americans waving a dam* Mexican flag.

Can't they figure out that their benefactors in high places are drooling over the extra cannon fodder they'll now have to wage war with.....so with legal "guestworker" status comes selective service registration, NO?

Can't they figure out that if this govt thinks nothing of disenfranchising its own citizens, that they are walking into a trap set for fools? Necios! Who taught you to demand the right to keep stealing! It hurts me to look at your ignorance.