enforcement

Opinion

President Obama announced a decision to send 1,200 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border.  Mr. Obama is trying to appeal to enforcement-first and enforcement-only activists in and out of Congress with this escalation, but Republicans continue to distance themselves from any measures that include a path to citizenship for those in the US without documents.

Members of community, labor, religious and student organizations gathered on February 11th to hear from and support workers facing exploitation at the hands of Gillette stadium's contractor and the outrageous tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in ambushing  dozens of immigrant workers.

Earlier this year ICE detained 58 workers who were on their way to work at Gillette Stadium at a roadblock in Foxboro.  The workers were hired to shovel snow from the stadium seats in preparation for a New England Patriots game.  These hardworking Rhode Islanders now face deportation.

This ICE attack is the most high-profile act by ICE against Rhode Islanders since the raids at six RI courthouses in 2008.  It is the largest number of Rhode Islanders detained by ICE since the 2007 raid at the Bianco Factory in New Bedford.

While ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have tried to claim that the raid was directed toward people with criminal records, the vast majority of people arrested had no record whatsoever, and were unknown to ICE at the time of their arrest.  According to Juan Garcia of the Immigrants in Action Committee, “This action shows that ICE is not focused on going after people with records – they continue to go after large groups of people just for being immigrants.”

Camilo Viveiros of RI Jobs with Justice said: