Chicago immigrant rights supporters rally
2017Mark Ugolini 2017-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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CHICAGO—Over 1000 immigration rights activists and supporters packed the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) hall on Jan. 14 to protest attacks on immigrants and refugees, and new Republican administration plans to continue and escalate harassment and mass deportations.
The event was part of a National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights, with protests in more than 70 U.S. cities that mobilized thousands from Washington and Miami to Houston, Los Angeles, and San Jose. The larg est event took place in Washington, D.C., where several thousand from throughout the Eastern U.S. converged for a march and an overflow rally in the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal church.
The actions marked the beginning of what turned out to be a giant wave of protests organized in response to the incoming Trump administration’s attacks on im migrants and refugees, including Trump’s crack down on Muslims entering the U.S. and his pledges to build a wall on the border with Mexico.
The Chicago rally, held in an industrial district on the West Side, was sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and supported by the CTU, Service Employee International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 88, various Teamster union locals, and some 44 com munity and religious organizations representing the city’s Latin American, Arab, and Asian communities.
The diverse crowd included broad representation from Muslim communities, who demanded a halt to harassment and outrage over Donald Trump’s call for a Muslim registry system. Signs saying “Resistance, Unity and Respect,” “Stop the Deportations” and “No Muslim Registry” were prominently displayed throughout the crowd.
Many low-wage workers from Fight for $15 were in attendance, making a strong stand for immigration rights. One of the group’s leaders spoke at the rally.
Attending with her family, Rehab Alkadi, 31, a Syr ian refugee, spoke of their worries of deportation, particularly in light of Donald Trump’s incendiary rhetoric targeting Muslims. She spoke of how hate ful, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric has the effect of “criminalizing” refugees and creates fertile ground for harassment, intimidation, and violent physical attacks against them.
Representing the Japanese American Service Com mittee, Michael Takada called for unity to stop the coming ramp-up of “the deportation machine.” He echoed calls of other speakers demanding that local city governments provide protection for immigrants by adopting sanctuary policies to help shield them from ICE.
Rally organizer and head of ICIRR Lawrence Benito told the Chicago Tribune that it’s time to “join hands with immigrant, refugee, faith and labor brothers and sisters and their allies to declare, in no uncertain terms, that we will stand in the way of criminalization, mass deportation and hatred in our communities. ... We will resist. We will continue to fight for dignity and respect for our communities.”
The Chicago Teachers Union was at the center of la bor movement solidarity for the event. Recently, the union passed a resolution pledging full support for immigrant and refugee victims of government attacks: “The CTU will not tolerate hate or discrimination … and shares a responsibility to support and protect students and their families … [from] policy decisions made by the President Elect … and acknowledges that the policies of deporting and criminalizing immi grants are policies [Chicago Democratic Party] Mayor Rahm Emanuel devised as adviser and chief of staff of the Clinton and Obama administrations respectively.”
The CTU resolved to not “participate in or perpetuate the divisiveness created by politicians by labeling un documented immigrants as good or bad immigrants” and to “oppose any efforts to create a Muslim registry system, build a wall, enforce massive deportations, and impose stop and frisk civil rights violations upon our communities.”
The CTU endorsed the Jan. 21 Women’s Marches and pledged to “support rallies, marches or other actions that further protections for students and their fami lies against harmful policies that aim to divide or in carcerate students ...” n