San Francisco Fails to Mobilize for Immigrant Rights

All across America, labor unions, religious groups, immigrant rights activists, and Latino families are mobilizing against Republican legislation that would turn undocumented immigrants and those that assist them into criminals. Over 20,000 people took to the streets in Phoenix, 30,000 brought business to a halt in Milwaukee, 50,000 rallied in Denver, thousands protested in Atlanta and over 100,000 took to the streets in Chicago. In Los Angeles, SEIU, the Catholic Church, Korean and Latino immigrant groups and the Spanish-language media spurred over 1,000,000 predominately Latino families in a march and rally that included Mayor Villaraigosa and much of the city’s political establishment. Immigrant rights has become the national progressive movement’s top domestic priority, and California’s Dianne Feinstein could play a decisive role in the outcome. Yet at this critical time in our nation’s history, when San Francisco’s activism could shape the national debate, the city’s churches, labor unions, and political leaders are nowhere to be found. Sadly, a city that prides itself as being in the vanguard of civil rights struggles appears unconcerned about defending the tens of thousands of San Franciscans who are undocumented immigrants.