Immigrant advocates push bill at Statehouse rally | Boston Herald

Immigrant advocates are pressing lawmakers to back legislation they say will help reduce the level of deportations in Massachusetts. Several dozen activists rallied on the steps of the Statehouse on Wednesday in favor of the bill that would instruct local law enforcement agencies not to forward information to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on illegal immigrants who don’t have serious criminal convictions. Sen. James Eldridge, the bill’s lead Senate sponsor, said the measure is a reaction to the federal Se Communities program, which shares arrestee fingerprints with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Eldridge said most of those deported under the program from Massachusetts had no criminal convictions. He said lower level encounters with police, like traffic stops, shouldn’t end up triggering deportations.

Massachusetts Joins States Seeking TRUST to Protect Families and to Move Immigration Reform Forward

 

Immigrant Communities Rallied Today in Support of the TRUST Act authored by Sen. Eldridge & Rep. Sciortino

 

03.20.2013

Boston, MA – 

 

As momentum for federal immigration reform grows, Massachusetts is set to lead the nation by advancing the TRUST act, a state bill to provide immediate relief from deportations, strengthen public safety, and propel the national conversation on immigration reform towards inclusion.  Specifically the bill sets a clear standard for local law enforcement agencies not to submit to burdensome requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) most often prompted by the Se Communities (S-Comm) program to detain people for deportation who have otherwise been ordered released by the courts. The bill is authored by Sen. Eldridge in the Senate and Rep. Sciortino in the House and was introduced with 34 cosponsors.

Men at Work

For ten months between October 2010 and August 2011, a Korean contractor named June Bong Park hired a group of eight Latino construction workers to excavate the basement of a building in upper Manhattan. The workers were required to break the existing cement floor, excavate eight to ten feet of earth beneath it, and then pour cement for the new

NDLON Applauds Choice of Thomas Perez, Head of Civil Rights Division at DOJ, as Next Labor Secretary

  DOJ Official who Investigated Sheriff Arpaio Poised to Carry on Solis Legacy of Promoting Civil Rights, Supporting Low-wage, Immigrant Workers   03.18.2013 – Los Angeles, CA In response to news that President Obama will nominate Thomas Perez as the next Labor Secretary, Pablo Alvarado, Executive Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, issued the…

Job Center Helps Immigrant Workers As They Await Reform | The Brooklyn Ink

When Victoriano de la Cruz hustled for construction work on Brooklyn’s streets, check he earned $60 a day. But since joining the Bay Parkway Community Job Center in Bensonhurst, he’s picked up skills and commands a wage of up to triple that amount, enough to build a new home in his native Mexico. De la Cruz, 35, was one of a half-dozen immigrant day laborers at the job center on Monday. The red-and-yellow trailer on the edge of Gravesend Bay is run by the Workers’ Justice Project, a group advocating equal pay and rights for immigrant and low-wage workers. Its denizens are grateful for the structure and organization the center provides, but see nationwide legal action as key to foreign workers’ prosperity. “I think it’s very important,” de la Cruz said. “Immigration reform could help guarantee a fair wage for immigrant workers, and make sure they work in safe conditions.”

El Patrón Es El Ladrón! – Jose Ucelo Fights his Deportation

Like many struggling workers, Mr. José Ucelo Gonzalez looks for work every day at the Home Depot by Brookhurst Ave. and the interstate 5 fwy in Anaheim. On March 9th, 2012, Mr. Ucelo accepted a job offer by Michael Tebb; owner of M.T Asphalt, an Anaheim based company. The agreement was $10 an hour. After a hard 10-hour day work, Mr. Ucelo tried to collect his salary, but instead he got verbally abused and challenged to a fistfight by his employer. Mr. Ucelo remained calm and tried to deescalate the situation, but the harassment continued. Tebb accused his employee of robbery and threatened to call the police if he insisted on asking for his pay. The contractor got in his truck and left. Mr. Ucelo called 911 to ask for assistance but before he could give his location to the operator,