Thread: Local alliance rallies for immigrant justice

Local alliance rallies for immigrant justice
Wednesday, July 04, 2007


Editor's note: Last Thursday, the Senate failed to achieve the votes needed to advance the immigration reform bill, effectively killing the legislation until after the 2008 elections.

Seeing the Springfield-based Alliance to Develop Power, a 4,000-member organization designed to promote fair wages and housing, in action is a civic lesson as well as a story about the city's Latino community shaping its destiny.

Take the recent trip to the nation's capital, when the alliance brought two busloads of Springfield-area residents. They ranged from members to undocumented workers, the rank-and-file of the region's underground economy, the field and factory workers who work long hours for low wages and try to live in the shadows of society, below the radar of federal officials.

The alliance came to Washington, D.C., to join other grassroots organizations from Los Angeles to New York City and from Miami to Chicago to rally for the passage of an immigration bill that would allow more than 12 million illegal aliens to earn citizenship.

But it did much more than that.

While the other groups gathered inside the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Washington with little fanfare, the alliance's group made an entrance from blocks away as members marched down M Street to the rhythm and beat of: "Who are we? ADP. What do we want? Justice."

Springfield native Joel Rodriguez, who is of Puerto Rican and American Indian heritage, herded his contingent through police-blocked intersections from the church to the White House, all the time sounding off like an Army drill sergeant. Distinctive with his cornrows, wide shoulders from his work as a carpenter and construction worker, and now an alliance organizer, he had his two children in tow.

In front of the White House, he translated for the wife of Limbano Santizo, a former Springfield resident and undocumented factory worker who was deported back to Guatemala a year after being ordered to leave the country by an immigration judge in Miami in 2006. His wife, Elora, and their 7-year-old son, a U.S. citizen by birth, were left alone in Springfield.

And, as her voice choked with emotion when she told the gathering of a few thousand that her husband was on an airplane being flown back to Guatemala as she addressed them, Rodriguez translated the same emotion, had the same choking in his voice.

He loaded wheelchairs and baby strollers onto buses, distributed sandwiches and water bottles and constantly checked in with the Springfield pilgrims. They had ridden all night on buses, spent their day in a hot, packed church and, later, beneath a broiling sun, only to turn around and head back to Springfield after they had accomplished their mission.

After the church service, at which U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., the architect of the immigrant reform package, unexpectedly showed up to deliver an impassioned speech about unity and perseverance, and after the rally in front of the White House, the alliance still wasn't finished with what members had set out to do.

They wanted face time with U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker, or at least with one of her veteran representatives.

And members of this shoe-string but growing grassroots organization from the city's South End swung into mission mode with the same sort of detailed planning as George Clooney and Brad Pitt deliver in their "Ocean's Eleven" movies. The meaning of hand signals was reviewed and team leaders were identified. Members were appointed to sit in on a meeting if they got one, and the protocol was established in the event police intervened.

They pulled the mission off like pros.

The receptionist couldn't get rid of the more than 100 alliance members who swelled into the waiting area within Pelosi's office. Members of the U.S. Capitol Police moved in to evict them. Director Caroline Murray paraphrased the Constitution, and her crowd chanted: "Pelosi. Pelosi. Please come out. See what America's all about."

All the while, Rodriguez cased the room - using arm signals and low verbal cues to ensure that Pelosi's staff had a path to move about freely. In less than a minute, a Pelosi representative dismissed the police and invited the group's leadership team into a meeting, which lasted about 30 minutes.

Rodriquez sat in on the meeting. Murray waited in the corridor - with a handful of Capitol police standing by - with Springfield resident Mary Soto, who traces her heritage to Mexico and who is involved in the Neighbor 2 Neighbor campaign. The mother of a U.S. Marine, Soto said she joined the rally to promote a better life for all Latinos.

Lisa Colon, the vice president of the board of directors of the Spring Meadow housing complex in Springfield, agreed that she came to show unity, adding, "I consider myself very lucky being born into a Puerto Rican family."

And to Rodriguez, the day was about one of his chants: "The people united will never be defeated."

"It is not about one voice but thousands of voices," Rodriguez said. "They can't push us under the carpet." Jo-Ann Moriarty is a staff writer for The Republican who covers Washington, D.C. If you have questions related to the Western Massachusetts congressional delegation or issues being addressed by the U.S. House and Senate, please send them to pluspapers@

repub.com, attention: A View from the Hill; be sure to include your name and a daytime telephone number.



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If ICE would start showing up in riot gear at these "events" it would put an end to the lawlessness of the lawless. They seem to have no problem "coming out of the shadows" to complain about their treatment in America, yet they are scared to death to go back to their homelands and ask for jobs or so much as a crust of bread from their own corrupt regimes masquerading as governments.

All ICE would need to do would be to go to most corners and pick up those sitting/standing there. If they want to wait until a car comes up and picks some up then ICE can pick up employers also.

Actually if day labor hiring halls were established by municipalities it might be a good place for ICE to look for violators. At least they would all be in one place, instead of scattered around on different streetcorners.
Thanks, Sanctuary city leaders, for undermining the economic security of your own citizens just for the sake of being Politically Correct.

This week I checked out two potential violators of our states Contractors Board. One, I'm pretty sure was not registered, because the name did not show up in the state's database when I called. I then emailed the complaint--which is only required to be according to the best of my belief- the state authorities do the rest. This business was also towing an unlicensed trailer which exceeded the weight limit.

The second site I stumbled across turned out to have a licensed contractor. (The name was on the State's database with a recent registry).Still, I would question whether his employees--obviously Hispanic--were covered by workmen's compensation and whether they were paid as employees or as independent contractors. It's hard to tell without a bona fide investigation.

Further checking on the state's "Landscape Contractors Board" website informed me that all landscape businessses must be registered with the board, specifically as landscapers. Apparently general contractors can not landscape. I intend to watch for vehicles pulling traliers of landscaping tools and equipment and find out if they are registered with the Landscape Contractors board. Also their trailers may exceed the weight limit of 1800 poounds total weight, and be required to have registration. I've been noticing that many of these trailers do not have plates. It might be difficult getting a cop to show up and ticket them, Perhaps a request to the County or State police would help.

I would like to communicate with any other ALIPAC posters who have had success in reporting illegal businesses. Send me a PM if you have any thoughts or tips.