A banner against the ICE Detention facilities was dropped from a building in downtown Tacoma.

A pilgrimage is planned from Bellingham to Tacoma to raise awareness about the need for sane, humane way to treat immigrants. Pilgrims will begin at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham on August 1st and walk 142 miles, ending at the notorious Northwest (Immigration) Detention Center in Tacoma. The pilgrimage is scheduled to start Aug. 1 and end Aug.15, with participants staying overnight in Catholic churches along the way. During the pilgrimage, participants will be praying for comprehensive immigration reform, hoping to bring attention to the need for a fair, just, family-centered approach to U.S. immigration laws.

On July 7, 2009, Roxroy Salmon — a Jamaican immigrant, activist and Brooklyn, New York resident — appeared before an immigration judge to determine his future in this country. In a worst case scenario, Salmon, a longtime resident of the U.S. with deep roots here, was ordered deported. Read More | Press Release | Preview of Roxroy: The Documentary

Back in February, the community of the Inland Empire, a vast tract of land east of Los Angeles generally encompassing San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, marched on the Border Patrol's Riverside office to demand an end to the racist quota system and family separation. Things quieted down, but only temporarily. Recently, quotas have been increased, and attacks on day labor corners, bus stations, and even on buses in transit have caught numerous individuals who are accused of being in the country without authorization. In the course of these raids, numerous abuses have occurred. Agents often engage in racial profiling and intimidation, and at least one minor was deported without his parents being informed. Roundup of Reports From LA.Indymedia Newswire | Related: Democrats and Republicans Join Hands over Immigration

Even the most optimistic Obama supporter should cringe in response to the White House’s recent “bi-partisan immigration talks.” What could Democrats and Republicans possibly have in common over immigration? Quite a lot it turns out. An enormous sell-out is being prepared for the U.S. immigrant population and Latinos especially — who came out in record numbers in many swing states to vote for Obama last year. Attached to these votes are huge expectations.

March and Vigil at Hutto Immigrant Family Dentention Center for World Refugee Day

International Human Rights group, Amnesty International, met with Rama Carty yesterday. Carty is an outspoken detainee at the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC). This morning of June 3rd, 2009, at around 5:35am, Amnesty attempted to visit with Carty for a second time, but Carty has not been able to meet with them; instead, he was beaten by facility guards and “taken away”. DHS/ICE is illegally being transferred to Louisiana to be deported to Haiti.

On the morning of Friday, May 22, 2009 Immigrant and Indigenous Rights activists disrupted an event organized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) held at Fort Snelling in St. Paul, MN. Present at the meeting were representatives of several local and federal law enforcement agencies including, but not limited to, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Minneapolis and St. Paul police, the FBI, and the ICE Office of Detention and Removal.

Also present were representatives from local human rights groups, immigration lawyers and other non-profit advocacy organizations. Members and supporters of the Dakota community and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition (MIRAc) demanded answers to human rights abuses perpetrated by ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. Among the abuses mentioned were the 92 documented deaths of detainees under ICE custody due to physical and psychological abuse and lack of medical attention, the deplorable and inhumane conditions at detention centers, the illegal deportation of U.S. citizens due to racial profiling, the separation of children from their parents as a direct result of ICE raids and deportations, and the lack of due process and legal representation.

NOTICE OF DEPORTATION.pdf

Around 700 people demonstrated for an end to attacks on migrant workers on Saturday, May 2, 2009 in Greeley, Colorado. The event was sponsored by a Greeley-based community group, Al Frente de Lucha, which has long been involved in the Mexicano/Chicano community there. Greeley has been a focal point in immigration battles, with ICE raids continuing to affect the local community. read more

South Padre Island, TX -- Groups protesting immigrant detention centers and supporting the Port Isabel Detention Center (PIDC) detainees on hunger strike arrived at the South Padre Island Convention Center, Friday May 15th, expecting to find a conference headlining Michael J. Watkins - field manager for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Detention and Removal. However, neither he, nor the conference, were being held there, reflecting the poor transparency these publicly funded agencies maintain with our communities. Instead they found a teacher’s conference, who, for the most part, did not feel disparaged by their rally to raise awareness for immigrant rights. They were supported by teachers there as they brainstormed with them as to where the conference might have been moved.

The conference was moved to the Holiday Inn Express, where the group relocated their protest. Protesters delivered a letter addressed to Watkins at the front desk of the hotel; attached to the letter was a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), FBI and DHS officials lingered outside the building and snapped photos of the protest participants.

Detainees at PIDC have identified Watkins as attempting to break up the hunger strike; using tactics such as isolating hunger strike participants and calling for their quick deportation. Hunger strikers continue to demand adequate health care and a right to due process. [read full story with photos]

Neighbors of a proposed new location for Mountain View's award-winning Day Worker Center have called in right-wing extremist group Judicial Watch to advise them on "protecting" their neighborhood. They threatened the city council on May 12, saying that by approving a conditional-use permit for the Center the city will face a lawsuit for using taxpayer funds to help what they refer to as "illegal" immigrants. The city council, however, has remained unconvinced by the NIMBY group's arguments.

Boston, May 10, 2009.- Nearly 60 people demonstrated around the Suffolk County Jail in Boston (known as South Bay House of Corrections) in protest for the detention of immigrants in that facility. The signs and the chants indicated what the protesters wanted: an end to the represion of immigrant workers and their families, legalization, family reunification. All this in the context of the commercial celebration of Mother's Day. The prisoners were fully aware of the presence of the demonstrators and banged their cell windows furiously.

Martes, el 5 de mayo 2009
RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Dos años después de su muerte trágica, la comunidad de Rancho Cucamonga se reunió para rendirle homenaje al jornalero y luchador social caído Fernando Pedraza, un mártir por la causa de los derechos de los trabajadores indocumentados. Voluntarios armaron un altar, oradores hablaron, y participantes cantaron, comieron, y bailaron en celebración de la vida y lucha de este importante hombre inspirador. Informe con fotos: Memorial en honor a don Fernando Pedraza, jornalero y líder por Rockero

Cobertura del memorial del año pasado (en inglés)/Coverage from last year's memorial: Day Laborer Remembered, 1 year after Killed in Rancho Cucamonga during Minutemen Protest por/by miss x

One year ago, on May 12, 2008 the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  389 workers were arrested, most from Guatemala.  After arrest, they were taken to the local fairground and held in shackles for three days without significant access to lawyers.   Under those circumstances, 297 signed plea bargains despite the speed and dubiousness of their arrest.  These were not arrests for undocumented status but for criminal charges of fraud due to the use of false social security numbers.  The fact that these were criminal charges was used by law enforcement to justify the speed and opacity of the raids.

During the hearings, workers were shackled at the wrists, waist and ankles.  They were processed in groups of ten...

There's a signless pinkish building at the corner of American and Metro in Bloomington Minnesota.  Like US immigration policy, this building is hidden in plain sight--visible to immigrants and their allies but ignored by the rest of the nation. This is the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, anondescript place where deportees are held on the last night before they're driven to the airport and sent away.  Sometimes they leave behind families and children; sometimes they return to countries they last saw while still too young to remember.  One woman left her autistic and medically vulnerable son. 

"My father would never get to see me graduate high school," said Nick Espinosa, one of the activists who spoke at today's action in front of the ICE facility.  Espinosa's father came to the US at the age of 18.  Despite years of ordinary employment and participation in society, he was taken away by immigration agents in front of his family. ICE "sees immigration as a statistic," said Espinosa.  "Immigration has a human face."

"If people don't listen to these words then we must act," Espinosa continued.  He would later be arrested during a blockade of the facility.

MN Immigrant Rights Action Coalition | Related: Workday Minnesota Video | Photos from May 1 March for Immigrant Rights | Community Members Call for Protest at ICE HQ | Statement of Support from OWO Workday Minnesota: Supreme Court Bans Key Tool in Immigration Raids