LA Immigrant Rights Activists Wrap Up 3-Week Fast to Change US Immigration Policy

We turn now to immigration policy, an issue that all but disappeared during the last phase of the Presidential campaign. Immigrant rights activists in Los Angeles organized a rally Wednesday, the day after the election, following a 21-day ‘Fast for the Future.’ Noting the crucial importance of the Latino vote in Obama’s victory, they called on the President-elect to stop the brutal raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE.

Under the Bush administration the country witnessed a dramatic buildup in border security and immigration enforcement. Programs initiated by Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff include Operation Community Shield that targets immigrant gang members, Operation Streamline, and the Secure Border Initiative. Amidst growing complaints of abuses in the system including reports of deaths of immigrants in detention, there has also been a sharp rise in the number and scale of ICE raids in communities across the country. Over a 1,000 people were arrested in two of the largest single workplace raids took place in Laurel, Mississippi, and Postville, Iowa earlier this year.

We’re joined now by two guests from the immigrant rights movement.

Alex Sanchez, Executive Director and founding member of Homies Unidos, a gang violence prevention and intervention program with offices in Los Angeles and El Salvador. He was among the nearly 150 people who participated in the “Fast for the Future.”

Janis Rosheuvel, Executive Director of Families for Freedom, a New York-based organization fighting deportation.

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