Immigrant Rights

From Member-Managed LLCs To Cooperative Reform For Inclusive Economies

December 11, 2024 Trebor Scholz, Anne-Pauline De Cler, Michelle Lee, Morshed Mannan and Stefano Tortorici, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Immigrant Rights, Transnational, Worker Rights and Jobs

Amidst the global surge of refugees and migrants seeking economic opportunities, the call for inclusive, democratic, and cooperative models is more pressing than ever. With 2025 designated as the UN’s International Year of Cooperatives, there is a critical need to reform cooperative laws to ensure that no marginalized worker is excluded. This essay explores how inclusive and democratic cooperatives, alongside innovative models like member-managed limited liability companies (LLCs), can address these global labor challenges. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of their legal status, can fully participate in cooperative ventures.

Farmworkers Are Organizing To Resist Trump’s Attacks On Immigrants

November 18, 2024 Derek Seidman, Truthout. Organize! Donald Trump, Farmworkers, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Worker Rights and Jobs

Donald Trump rode to reelection on a campaign packed with racist rhetoric that promised mass deportations of immigrants. So far, Trump has appointed anti-immigrant extremists like Stephen Miller, Thomas Homan and Kristi Noem to top positions in his administration. The new Trump regime threatens millions of immigrant workers in the U.S., including farmworkers, many of whom are undocumented. Beyond mass deportations and workplace raids, there’s the prospect of regulatory rollbacks around heat and pesticide protections and the ramping up of hyper-exploitative guestworker programs like the H2A program.

Trump 2.0 Poses An Even Bigger Threat To Migrants

November 11, 2024 Silky Shah, Truthout. Strategize! 2024 US Presidential elections, Donald Trump, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Migrants

This election cycle was defined — yet again — by Donald Trump’s fearmongering over immigration. Like his previous two campaigns for president, Trump fueled a racist panic over “migrant crime” and capitalized on people’s fears over economic insecurity by scapegoating immigrants for all of the U.S.’s problems, including but not limited to the housing crisis, opioid crisis and inflation. But unlike those previous elections, rather than challenging Trump’s rhetoric, the Democrats capitulated to the Republicans and solidified the rightward lurch on the issue.

Mutual Aid And Mosh Pits

October 18, 2024 Briana L. Urena-Ravelo, In These Times. Organize! Chicago, Illinois, Immigrant Rights, Music, Mutual Aid

Chicago — On the Fourth of July, a group of punks and appreciators gather around the canal on the South Side for a mutual aid benefit show. They’re raising funds for Comedor Comunitario (“Community Dining Room”), a weekly Tuesday dinner run by Venezuelan migrants at a community church. With keffiyehs and Palestinian flags throughout the space, curious holiday revelers watched from their passing boats as folks slammed to the bands Hide and Stress Positions, their lyrics decrying American settler-colonialism and nationalism in a defiant take on the holiday. All told, we raised over $3,000to support the comedor.

How A New York Landlord Exploited Anti-Immigrant Propaganda

September 11, 2024 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. Educate! Colorado, Eviction, Housing, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Landlord, New York (NY)

For the past few weeks, right-wing media and politicians have been whipped up into a frenzy over the supposed takeover of an Aurora, Colorado apartment building by a Venezuelan gang after a video went viral depicting armed men in The Edge at Lowry complex. Despite the fact that numerous Aurora city officials, including the Aurora City Police chief and the city’s mayor have said that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has not taken over two troubled apartment complexes in the city, the right-wing media machine continues to spin this narrative and capitalize on anti-immigrant sentiment.

‘Gross Human Rights Violations’ At ICE Detention Center

September 10, 2024 Joe Piette, Workers' World. Educate! Detention Centers, Human Rights, ICE, Immigrant Rights, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Torture

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - When immigrants are picked up from their communities and eventually detained at Moshannon Valley Processing Center, Pennsylvania’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, they are forced to endure “punitive, inhumane and dangerous conditions.” The charge of “widespread human rights violations” was made in a report by the Stephen and Sandra Sheller Center for Social Justice, with support from the Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union. Entitled “In the Shadow of the Valley: The Unnecessary Confinement and Dehumanizing Conditions of People in Immigration Detention at Moshannon Valley Processing Center,” the report was released at a press conference at Temple University Beasley School of Law on Sept. 4.

Axios Report Reveals Rampant Forced Labor In Grocery Supply Chains

August 19, 2024 Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Educate! Food and Agriculture, Forced Labor, Grocery Stores, Immigrant Rights, Krogers, Worker Rights and Jobs

A stunning report in Axios paints a damning picture of widespread farm labor abuse in the US agricultural industry outside the protections of the Fair Food Program. Yet while federal prosecutions of forced labor operations grow more common in agriculture, many massive food corporations like the grocery giant Kroger continue to turn a blind eye to the extreme abuses of some of the most vulnerable workers at the bottom of their opaque supply chains, according to a shocking report, months in the making, by Richard Collings of Axios. Meanwhile, according to the report, the lack of adequate resources for state and federal authorities to protect farmworkers is only making matters worse, and is likely allowing even more widespread exploitation of the agricultural workers who put food on our tables to go undetected.

New Protections Empower H-2A Agricultural Workers To Organize

June 29, 2024 Tina Vásquez, Prism. Educate! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Immigrant Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

Agriculture is rife with labor violations and abuse, but thanks to a new rule going into effect this month, the industry’s most vulnerable migrant H-2A workers now have better protections to organize against unfair treatment from American employers. The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program allows American employers to bring migrant workers to the U.S. with visas to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs that could not be filled by American workers. Unlike other visa categories, there is no cap on the number of H-2A workers who can work in the U.S. each year. The program has exploded in recent years because of ongoing labor shortages in the agricultural industry, where labor violations run rampant. In 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) certified nearly 380,000 H-2A jobs, compared to 79,000 in 2010.

Shifting Policies Led To One Of The Deadliest Incidents For Immigrants

May 2, 2024 Perla Trevizo, ProPublica. Educate! Detention, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Mexico, Safety

Stefan Arango, a 31-year-old Venezuelan husband and father, felt immediately nauseated by the smells of sweat, urine and feces when Mexican guards ordered him into the cinder block cell in the border city of Ciudad Juárez. The tile floor was strewn with trash, and several men inside lay on flimsy mats that were incongruously covered in rainbow-colored vinyl. The windows were so small that they didn’t allow in much light or air. And, perhaps mercifully, they were so high that the men couldn’t see they were just a short stroll from El Paso, Texas, the destination they had risked everything to reach.

ICE Under Fire For Solitary Confinement Of Immigrants

March 22, 2024 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Educate! Detention, ICE, Immigrant Rights, Solitary Confinement, suicide

The 61-year-old man who was recently found dead of suspected suicide at a privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prison in Washington state served the second-longest stretch in solitary confinement of any person in ICE custody since 2018, according to a new analysis by human rights experts. Charles Leo Daniel, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, was found dead while in solitary confinement on March 7 after being incarcerated at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) near Tacoma for about four years. Between April 2020 and September 2023, Daniel was held in solitary confinement for a total of 1,244 days divided between two stints.

Maryland Lawmakers Threaten Leading Immigrant Advocacy Group

November 20, 2023 Steve France, Mondoweiss. Educate! Immigrant Rights, International Solidarity, Maryland, Palestine, Retaliation

The retribution from state lawmakers was swift and severe after Gustavo Torres, the executive director of CASA de Maryland, posted a tweet and statement on November 6, calling out Israel’s “terror” against Gaza and urging a ceasefire. Outrage and threats rained down from donors and politicians against the largest immigrant rights group in the Mid-Atlantic region. Deeply alarmed, CASA took down the post the same day. In its place, a terse apology was posted acknowledging the “hurt” caused to “our dear and trusted partners” and promising a “new statement in the days to come.” That wasn’t apology enough for nine state senators, the entire delegation from Montgomery County (Maryland’s most prosperous and populous).

Construction Companies Exploit Agricultural Visas To Underpay Workers

September 22, 2023 Sky Chadde and Ryan Murphy, In These Times. Educate! Immigrant Rights, Migrant Workers, Supreme Court, Visas, Worker Rights and Jobs

Jose Ageo Luna Vanegas first worked for Signet Builders in the early 2000s. Hired on a temporary labor visa, he traveled from Mexico to U.S. job sites. The hours were long, but he was paid overtime. Years later, around 2017, Signet hired him again. This time, he received no overtime pay. That’s when he “started asking questions,” his attorney, Jennifer Zimmermann, said. The work was largely the same. His visa was different. Originally, Luna Vanegas was hired on an H-2B visa. Various industries use the visas to fill labor shortages. A hotel facing a busy summer might hire foreign maids, for instance. But, when Signet hired him for his second stint with the company, he was on an H-2A visa. It’s reserved for agriculture work.

Biden Just Helped Overrule An ICE Detention Ban In New Jersey

August 30, 2023 Sam Carliner and Paul Ginesta, Left Voice. Resist! Core Civic, Detention Center, Immigrant Rights, Joe Biden, New Jersey (NJ)

Immigrant rights activists in New Jersey are facing a challenge. August 31 was supposed to be the day that the state’s last remaining Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center finally closed. Instead, CoreCivic — the private prison company that runs the center — sued to keep the center open, and President Biden publicly came out on CoreCivic’s side. On August 29, two days before CoreCivic’s contract was set to expire, a federal judge ruled to keep the center open. The immigrant rights movement has not taken this development passively. Leading up to the ruling, various organizations and activists in the state mobilized to defend our immigrant neighbors and our right to ban ICE detention centers.

Protests Erupt Across Florida As Senate Bill 1718 Goes Into Effect

July 3, 2023 Arturo Dominguez, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Detention, Florida, Immigrant Rights, State legislature

Across Florida, protests are taking place to mark the beginning of an immigrant labor stoppage that is scheduled to last until at least July 3rd. Large crowds are being reported in Orlando, Tampa, and various areas in South Florida and as far away as Chicago and California. As SB 1718 goes into effect, the anger and economic concerns felt by many across the state forced Republican legislators to backpedal earlier this week. (See more about the new law in our last report.) Despite spin from elected state officials claiming the law “has no teeth,” thousands of undocumented immigrants and mixed-status families have already fled the state, leaving job sites and agricultural fields nearly empty.

Nonprofit Shows How To Create An ‘Aboveground Railroad’ For Migrants

April 30, 2023 Christian Betancourt, Next City. Create! Chicago, Deportation, Immigrant Rights, Migration

In the 1980s, when Sendy Soto and her family left Guatemala for the United States in search of a better life, they followed in a long American immigrant tradition by making Chicago’s Logan Square their home. There, among her Mexican, Central American, Polish and other immigrant neighbors, Soto was instilled with a sense of community and a desire to help and work with Chicago’s growing migrant population. A 2020 report from the Vera Institute of Justice showed that 1.7 million migrants reside in Chicago, about 18% of the population, and 842,000 are at risk of deportation.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources