Tag: ICE immmigration
Immigrant Families Hold Amazon to the Fire for Ties with ICE
Article via InsiderNJ
Immigrant Families Hold Amazon to the Fire for Ties with ICE
Ahead of Prime Day, New Jersey communities condemn the corporation’s ties to Trump’s deportation machine
ELIZABETH, NJ — On the eve of the corporation’s two-day Prime Day event, hundreds of immigrant families rallied outside of Amazon’s warehouse in a show of power condemning the corporation’s ties to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Immigrant workers and families delivered a petition with more than 200,000 signatures to Amazon demanding the company cut ties with ICE.
“In a moment when the federal government is caging children in horrendous conditions, Amazon provides key technology and data infrastructure to fuel the Trump administration’s deportation machine and bolstering the work of ICE,” said Sara Cullinane, Director of Make the Road New Jersey.
Immigrant members of Make the Road New Jersey – including families who have been detained by ICE – called for Amazon to end its partnership with ICE and close any federal contracts that support the administration’s anti-immigrant agenda.
“Last year my daughters were detained by ICE. Family separation is destructive and devastating. Amazon must cut its ties with ICE immediately.” said Mario, a member of Make the Road New Jersey.
The rally also made its way across the street to the Elizabeth Detention Center, where more than 300 individuals continue to be held as they face deportation.
“New Jersey’s undocumented immigrants pay nearly $600 million in state and local taxes each year, according to the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That’s $600 million more than Amazon – owned by the world’s richest man – paid in federal taxes. It’s time for the Garden State to put its values first and say no to Amazon,” said Ana Ramirez, Make the Road NJ.
The group also called out Amazon for its increasingly alarming workers’ rights violations, standing in solidarity with warehouse and tech workers across the country who continue to strike.
“As the Trump administration escalates its campaign against undocumented families in New Jersey and across the nation, it’s time for Amazon to start acting like a responsible corporate citizen. Amazon must stop providing the critical tech infrastructure that supports the Trump administration’s inhumane deportation machine. And as one of the largest and fastest growing employers in the state, Amazon must start treating its warehouse workers with the respect and dignity they deserve,” said Albert Arroyo, Co-Manager of the Laundry, Distribution and Food Service Joint Board, Workers United, SEIU.
The rally paused for a moment to raise fists in solidarity with Amazon workers at a fulfillment center in Shakopee, Minnesota who plan to strike during Prime Day to protest dangerous productivity quotas and the corporations refusal to convert more temporary workers into employees. The workers, many of them Muslim immigrants from East Africa, previously have protested to call attention to their working conditions.
The rally is one of several coordinated actions taking place across the New York tri-state area this weekend, building on a collective grassroots energy working to hold the corporation accountable.
This effort sets the tone looking forward, as the FTC’s starts its investigation of Amazon. Progressive groups are prepared to mobilize around antitrust efforts against the all-too-powerful monopolies and corporations that undermine US democracy, starting with the House Antitrust Subcommittee who will hold a hearing next Tuesday, July 16 on the impact of market power of online platforms.
ICE agents set ‘trap’ for immigrants seeking legal residency
“…It’s our job to locate and arrest them.”
Two federal immigration agencies worked together in a coordinated effort to set deportation traps for unsuspecting immigrants seeking legal status, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen this week.
According to the Boston Globe, the two agencies arranged meetings for the undocumented immigrants at government offices, where they were subsequently arrested, and in some cases deported.
According to e-mails obtained by the Globe between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and employees of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ICE asked government officials to space out the meetings so that the public wouldn’t catch on and draw “negative media interests.”
“As far as scheduling goes, I would prefer not to do them all at one time as it is [not] only a strain on our ability to transport and process several arrests at once, but it also has the potential to be a trigger for negative media interests, as we have seen in the past,” Andrew Graham, an ICE officer, wrote to a USCIS employee in one email from October.
ACLU lawyers described the meetings as “traps.”
According to the Globe, the e-mails are part of the lawsuit against DHS Secretary Nielsen challenging the Trump administration’s practice of separating married couples as one spouse seeks legal status.
Article via: ICE agents set ‘trap’ for immigrants seeking legal residency