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!
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