April 10 brings immigrant rights to reps’ doorsteps

Labor, religious, civil rights, peace and other groups have helped build the mass upsurge of predominantly Latino and other immigrant communities of color. On April 10, they are stepping up their participation and reaching deeper into their bases to rally with immigrant communities in a national day of protest in dozens of cities and towns across the country.

April 10 begins a two-week spring congressional recess. The protest will leverage the force of the surging movement to reach key members of Congress when they are at home in their districts, pressing them to legislatively block the right-wing Republican anti-immigrant blitz.

Equally important is building support for democratic measures to legalize immigrant workers with a path to citizenship, due process and civil and labor rights.

The right-wing Republican leadership, with much media support, has orchestrated the anti-immigrant legislative blitz.

HR 4437, authored by the Republican chair of the House Judiciary Committee James Sensenbrenner, was rushed through with “strong support” from the White House in December. The bill has police-state dimensions with massive border and interior enforcement programs, reductions in due process and the criminalization of undocumented immigrants and those who provide them any aid.

Though the bill, and its Senate companion SB 2454 introduced by Senate leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), lacks the employer-friendly guest worker features Bush proposes, it is a logical extension of his immigration policies since Sept. 11, 2001. Most functions have been put under the Department of Homeland Security, which has increasingly replaced civil with criminal proceedings, and especially replaced due process with expedited deportation and mandatory detentions. In June 2004, the administration terrorized Latino immigrants with selective dragnet deportation raids in California.

These repressive policies have had a chilling effect on immigrant communities and their allies while emboldening anti-immigrant demagogues. Bush’s national security and anti-terrorism themes have also smoke-screened global government and corporate policies that lower living standards in developing countries, impelling greater immigration to the U.S.

The immigrant rights upsurge reflects growing resentment against the deteriorating economic, social and political conditions, accelerated by right-wing Republican policies.

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