Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
IMMIGRANTS STAY HOME AS COMMUNITY RALLIES
Protest was part of a national campaign organized by activists
Phoenixville community members joined a nationwide strike billed as “A Day Without Immigrants” Monday to help demonstrate the country’s dependence on the labor of immigrants and working-class people of color.
Hundreds of thousands of workers pledged to stay off the job in what organizers expected would be the largest national strike since the megamarches of 2006.
In Phoenixville, about 75 community members assembled in front of Borough Hall and marched up Bridge Street chanting things like “No Justice, No Peace” as they made their way toward Reeves Park for a rally sponsored by Cosecha Phoenixville.
It featured speeches by several community organizers and business owners. Many carried signs with messages that read things like “Hey (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), stop tearing families apart” and “Honk if you love our country.”
Erica Zbyszewski, a spokeswoman for the event, said it was “super successful.”
Only about 30-50 people were expected to attend, so the organizers were happy to see plenty more show up.
“A lot came with families,” she said, “small children, par-
ents kept their kids home from school.”
Among the speakers at the rally included Premisa Kerthi, an Albanian immigrant, who shared a poem about what it’s like to be an immigrant in the United States. Joining her were Veronica Perez and Rodrigo Campos, two students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an executive order signed by President Obama in 2012. It provides protection from deportation and a work permit for two years for many undocumented immigrants who were under age 31 as of June 15, 2012, who came to the U.S. when they were younger than 16, if they meet specific requirements, according to USA Today.
Other speakers included Lizbeth Julian, a community member whose husband is an immigrant; and Maria Sotomayor, civic engagement coordinator and organizer for the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition.
Last to speak was Pamela Linares, coordinator of Cosecha in Phoenixville, who
thanked organizers for their help.
“I know it was a huge sacrifice for you to be out here today,” she told the crowd. “To take a day off or leave your work for a couple hours to be with us. So we really appreciate it.”
This is the second such rally held in the borough in the last few weeks. A crowd of about 70 people gathered at Reeves Park for a peace rally called Rise Up Phoenixville in support of the borough’s undocumented residents in early April. Organizers here at home and nationwide said this is only the beginning. Zbyszewski said more events are already in the planning stages.
“We wanted to use this one day to show our people it is possible,” she said adding the group is already planning a week long strike. A community meeting is being planned for Sunday, May 7, at 6 p.m. and the location is to be determined. Zbysze- wski said to check the Cosecha Phoenixville Facebook page for full details.
“May 1st is the first step in a series of strikes and boycotts that will change the conversation on immigration in the United States,” said Maria Fernanda Cabello, a spokesperson from Movimiento Cosecha
in a press release. “We believe that when the country recognizes it depends on immigrant labor to function, we will win permanent protection from deportation for the 11 million undocumented immigrants; the right to travel freely to visit our loved ones abroad, and the right to be treated with dignity and respect. After years of broken promises, raids, driving in fear of being pulled over, not being able to bury our loved ones, Trump is just the final straw. As we saw during the spontaneous strikes on Feb. 16, our people are ready.”
Cosecha organizer Alejandro Jaramillo noted in a press release that “most undocumented immigrants file federal taxes every year,” paying an estimated $12 billion in state and local taxes, and over $13 billion federally for programs they cannot use. “They work hard in farms growing fruits and vegetables, in restaurants cooking
and serving meals, as baby sitters and health care workers taking care of children, the sick, disabled, and elderly, in construction building homes, in landscaping, in factories and in their own businesses producing goods and services that Americans demand, and through tax contributions financing benefits that many Americans receive.”
As the protest was going on in Phoenixville, meanwhile thousands of people chanted, picketed and marched on cities across America as May Day demonstrations raged against Trump’s immigration policies.
Police in Oakland, California, arrested at least four activists who chained themselves together to block a county building. More than 100 other activists there demanded an end to what they called a collaboration between county law enforcement
and federal immigration agents.
Despite the California clash, the initial rounds of nationwide protests were largely peaceful as immigrants, union members and their allies staged a series of strikes, boycotts and marches to draw attention to the importance of immigrants in the United States. The demonstrations on May Day, celebrated as International Workers’ Day, follow similar actions worldwide in which protesters from the Philippines to Paris demanded better working conditions.
“On this day, we will not go to work,” said Francisca Santiago, a farmworker from Homestead, Florida. “We will not go to school. We will not buy anything.”
In Philadelphia, 1,000 teachers, who’ve been working without a contract for years, protested outside
schools. Supportive parents joined the teachers, many of whom took sick days to protest. Schools were open, and the district said it was working with principals and substitute teachers to make sure classes wouldn’t be disrupted.
In Washington, D.C., commercial construction company owner Salvador Zelaya paid his employees to take the day off to attend a march. The Salvadorian business leader said his 18 workers were spending the morning making banners to take to a rally that would end in front of the White House.
Zalaya offered a simple message for the Republican president: “All of us, we are immigrants. We came to this country. We work hard. We build up our own business. We employ people. We pay taxes, and we make America great.”