Janitors Demand Obama and Feinstein End ICE "Desk-Top" Raids, Highlight Broken Promises

SEIU Local 87 (San Francisco janitors' union) members picketed California Senator Diane Feinstein’s office—located in McKesson Corp’s world headquarters in San Francisco—to demand President Barack Obama and Senator Feinstein honor their pledge to support workers, to support a path for U.S. citizenship for immigrant workers, and to end Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) raids on Latino families.

According to Local 87 Organizer Jacqueline Ramirez, Obama reduced use of paramilitary-style ICE raids only to replace them with ICE “desk-top raids.” Desk-top raids are raids on businesses perceived to be employing Latino workers. ICE executes desk-top raids by demanding targeted businesses release private employment files—including federal I-9 “Employment Eligibility Verification” Forms.

Ramirez says desk-top raids affected 600 Local 87 members, and Obama recently ordered 1,000 more desk-top raids. Each raid may involve hundreds or even thousands of workers.

Ramirez says desk-top raids are just one example of many broken Obama promises. Her statement to President Obama appears above.

This spring and summer, human rights activists in the Bay Area exposed the Obama Administration’s cooperation with local law enforcement in racial profiling in traffic stops targeting Latino workers and families for “paper searches” and immigrant jail profiteering by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo bank.