“Los Phillies son nuestros héroes locales. Con ley 1070 algunos de nuestros héroes se convertirían en blancos de hostilidad y hasta de detención si llegan a ser sospechosos de andar indocumentados y casualmente en el momento en que son detenidos no llevan su identificación con ellos”, agregó Rodríguez.
Here is a radio rip from WHYY about the Diamondbacks protest yesterday…
Also, here is a report from KYW- “Phila. Protestors Mark Intersection of Immigration, Baseball”
One week into my new job as the Philadelphia Coordinator of Reform Immigration for America and I survived through one protest.
Today was just about as crazy as you could imagine.
First of all, the Philadelphia Security Officers Union had their forth negotiations with AlliedBarton. Our negotiations began at 2 in the afternoon. Our team of Charlotte Thompson, Margarett Snead; VP, Bernardo Dickerson, Warren Davis and Lead Negotiator, Lance Geren made it happen today. Despite the fact that I had to keep leaving the room to answer media calls about the Diamondbacks protest, these folks have probably brought us within one session of settling our union rights. We could even wrap this up by our September deadline.
This agreement will bring union rights to these workers for the first time in almost twenty years!
So, check the time frame, our protest was at Citizens Bank Stadium at 6.
The immigrant rights movement in our city is very strong. At least 100 people showed up and we had a loud picket going for at least an hour. Organizations like Juntos, New Sanctuary Movement, Jobs with Justice and the Unitarian Universalist Church and a bunch of young, energetic folks from the ISO put their people on the street!
There were three counter-counter-protesters with us today. They were peaceful and didn’t engage us in any way. They just stood around our picket holding their signs. One guys sign said, “Which part of illegal don’t you understand?”
Our message was that we don’t want our Phillies to go to Phoenix and be harassed for being non-white, which the law allows. Seriously, Jason Werth might be from mars for all I know, he has superpowers.
Yes, like it or not, non-white-skinned people will be treated differently than fair complected people.
Darker people will be asked to show their papers. Other people have been forced to submit to such indignities in history. Whether you are talking about black Afrikans having to show which bantustan they lived in, to Native Americans being chased back onto the early reservations at gun point by police, the mere act of demanding that a person prove of their legitimacy, based on their complexion, is dehumanizing.
My answer to the “illegal” sign: “What Part Of Human Do You Not Understand?”
The movement isn’t even finished for the week. On Thursday, Philadelphia will make history by declaring ourself as “The Most Welcoming City For Immigrants In The Nation.”
City and State elected leaders such as Mayor Michael Nutter, Representative Tony Payton, Representative Babette Josephs and Senator Daylin Leach will pose an alternative to the repressive Arizona SB 1070.
This is a big deal.
Then, Democracia Ahora will be at the Phillies game on Thursday too, with their own form of resistance.
You can check out the footage from the Diamondbacks game tonight(now) at 10 o’clock on Fox, ABC and Univision, on the radio at WHYY and KYW and in print in Al Dia, Impacto and the Inquirer.
Also, if you didn’t see me debate Dom Giordano from 1210 AM on CN8’s Larry Kane Report, it airs again this Wednesday at 5:30.
Joe DiStefano wrote an article in Sunday’s Inquirer that calls on President Obama to fix our broken immigration system.
In his piece he points out how damaging it would be to our economy if mass deportations occurred. The contributions that migrants make to our economy are rarely talked about.
Many migrant workers pay their full share of taxes. They work for employers with false papers. Though an employer may suspect that the worker has given them fake documents, they are not legally bound to turn a worker over to the police. We should all be glad for that.
Do you want your employers playing a policing roll in your life? What if your employer called the police on you suspecting that you use drugs when you not at work or because they believed that you might be a bad parent?
Employers are legally bound to make sure that their workers pay certain taxes such as social security and unemployment compensation. When you fill out your w-4 tax deduction form when you start working, you instruct your employer how much of you income tax to take out. As long as you are paying the taxes that are mandated by law, the employer is in the clear.
Most migrant workers pay their full share, if for no other reason than to not raise any suspicions.
Due to this, migrant workers have paid millions into Social Security, unemployment, Medicare that they will never benefit from. Can you imagine what bad shape our Social Security system would be without the money of migrants? Migrant workers’ money has gone in to support our parents and grandparents.
DiStefano’s pragmatic view on these issues is refreshing.
Mr. DiStefano and I got to speak a little bit for this article.
He quoted me on part of our discussion where I tried to illustrate what a big role migrants play in our society and in our communities …
“Like my dad was for 30 years,” he said. “These people are your neighbors, raising families, going to church.”
This last bit of my quote reminds me of my childhood and how my father, an undocumented immigrant until 1997, contributed to the social fabric of the community.
On Thursday, I will post a story about our lives in Superior, AZ as an example.
200 people came out to the Constitution Center to speak out against Arizona SB 1070. We don’t want this kind of hate legislation coming to Pennsylvania. Keep the hate out of our state!
Here is a brief video of when we started to march. About half of the participants had already left by the time we started moving but those who stuck around and braved the heat had strong spirits. There was an impressive show of solidarity from the faith community at this event.
I was the opening speaker for this event. That was a pretty nice honor. I didn’t have enough time to really nail my speech, but it went ok.
Here are my prepared comments:
My name is Fabricio Rodriguez, I am the Lead Coordinator of the Philadelphia Security Officers Union.
I just returned from working with the Puente movement in Phoenix, Arizona.
What I saw there was alarming.
Communities are under attack.
Neighborhood streets in downtown Mesa are barren.
Families that are made up of American and undocumented members hide leaving their homes for fear that some one will be profiled and their lives will be destroyed.
Businesses have seen their sales slump as these same families save every penny, uncertain of what the future may hold.
Workers who for years have quietly and peacefully have contributed to the economy, like my father who was undocumented in this country for 30 years, are now not showing up at work.
While I was in Arizona, I was shocked to see white-supremacist groups countering our rallies and people driving around cars with home made swastikas on them.
Arizona State Bill 1070 and other ICE companion policies like 287(g) and Secure Communities, are making profiling the law of the land and stoking racial hatred.
Immigration law is the job of the US Federal Government.
It is not the job of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer or Pennsylvania Daryl Metcalfe who introduced the same bill here.
I do not want AZ SB 1070 to come to Pennsylvania.
CHANT: Keep the hate out of our state! Keep the hate out of our state! Keep the hate out of our state!
President Obama needs to take control of this situation and reform immigration law.
President Obama is letting Jan Brewer and Daryl Metcalfe do his job, writing our nations immigration laws. These folks are addressing the migrant worker issue with racial profiling, law enforcement and border crack downs.
Laws like SB 1070 are not about the migrant workers who are already forced to live in the shadows in fear.
Laws like SB 1070 are designed galvanize and mobilize a racist vote in November.
President Obama needs step in an end SB 1070, 287(g) and Secure Communities. Obama needs to pass humane immigration reform.
If President Obama does not intervene now, then he will face the same hate that our communities are having to deal with now, at the polls in November.
CHANT: Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha! Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha! Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha!
Despite the international boycott of Arizona, a boycott of which has not been seen since apartheid, the America Bar Association decided not to cancel there conference at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix.
Well this morning, we snuck into the conference and were ready to pounce and call out the American Car Association leadership for crossing the picket line. We were surprised to find out that the ABA made sure that the hotel had extra security. Though these guys have no legal authority, they did not hesitate to shove people around and try to seize peoples property by ripping flyers out of our hands.
Of course, the ABA says that it was not their fault, they planned the trip three years ago, etc.
They have offered to make a statement about how bad the law is, blah blah blah.
Of course, before the ABA showed up in Phoenix, the movement asked the world to do one thing and one thing only: Boycott AZ.
The ABA showing up in Arizona at this time is like them showing up in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 and buying bus tokens.
Shame on you ABA.
Here is my crew practicing our protest song in the way to the car on the way to the hotel.
Danny Glover on Arizona SB 1070…
From the May 2, Philadelphia Inquirer…
Fabricio Rodriguez, lead coordinator of the Philadelphia Security Officers Union, told the crowd that the Arizona law “should be considered by everyone here as an assault on working people.”
Unemployment is high, real wages have stagnated, and millions worry they will lose their homes – but Arizona has targeted “the most powerless,” he said.
This march left from St. Mathews Church in downtown Phoenix today. The theme was mothers day, in reference to mother earth. The Nauacali movement is closely tied to the Native American religions of its members. Their fight against SB 1070 is an extension of their struggle for the human rights of the indigenous people who have inhabited this land long before any borders were created.