Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Immigrant Rights

By staff

Chipotle workers and allies protest unjust firings Jan. 20 in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – On Jan. 20, dozens of Latino immigrants who were among the hundreds fired from Chipotle Mexican Grill throughout Minnesota last month protested at a downtown Minneapolis Chipotle. At the protest the workers entered the store, while eight of the workers’ allies chained themselves together inside the store until they were arrested. The workers and their supporters are demanding justice from Chipotle.

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By Brad Sigal

Constitution’s 14th Amendment made Black people citizens after U.S. Civil War

Protesters unfurl banner and confront anti-immigrant press conference.

Washington, D.C. – At a press conference January 5 at the National Press Club, the most extreme anti-immigrant politicians from around the U.S. gathered to announce their plan to attack the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Their press conference was confronted by immigrant rights activists.

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By Brad Sigal

No More Deportations campaign presentation 12/19/2010 in NY Plaza on Lake Street

Minneapolis, MN – On Dec. 19 activists from the No More Deportations campaign brought their message to the New York Plaza shopping center on Lake Street in Minneapolis. In the Latino market, activists explained the campaign to weekend shoppers and signed up dozens of people on the petition to stop deportations in Hennepin County.

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By staff

Speakers at Chipotle workers' press conference, 12/14/2010, Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – On Dec. 14, Juan and Maria, two workers from Chipotle Mexican Restaurant who are Mexican immigrants, spoke out at a press conference after being fired as part of a statewide immigration sweep. Over 20 other fired Chipotle workers stood by them as they told what has happened over the past week and presented their demands to Chipotle Mexican Restaurant and to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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By Brad Sigal

DREAMers on hunger strike at El Colegio in Minneapolis, 12/12/2010

Minneapolis, MN – On Dec. 10, seven students here started a hunger strike to demand that Congress pass the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a proposed law that would give some undocumented immigrant youth the possibility to gain legalization if they go to college or join the military.

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By staff

Hundreds march to the Ramparts police department to demand justice.

Los Angeles, CA – Hundreds of angry protesters confronted the Ramparts Los Angeles police, driving a large sound truck into the station entrance as marchers moved to the front of the building chanting, “Assassins, assassins.”

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By staff

Carlos Montes demands justice for Manuel Jamine at community meeting

Los Angeles, CA – People in Los Angeles will be marching Sept. 18 to demand justice for Manuel Jamines, the Guatemalan immigrant who was gunned down by L.A. police Sept. 5. The cop who killed Manuel Jamines has a reputation for brutality and a wave of anger has swept the Latino community. Protesters will gather at 10:00 a.m. 6th Street and Union on Sept. 18. The Southern California Immigration Coalition is organizing the rally and march.

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By staff

Cop tries to prevent Deb Konechne from leading chants at governor debate

Minneapolis, MN – As the candidates for governor were preparing to debate inside the Pantages Theater here Sept. 15, about 30 members of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, including folks from the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee and the Welfare Rights Committee were on the street out front.

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By staff

Manuel Jamines, killed by LAPD.

Los Angeles, CA – The Guatemalan community, especially the indigenous Mayan sector, has been protesting and angry over the brutal killing of their community member Manuel Jamines. Jamines was shot in the head and body on a busy street in the late afternoon in the Pico Union, a Central American community, by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on Sept. 5.

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By Kosta Harlan

Protest raises pressure on Senator Kay Hagan

Fifty people marched in Greensboro, NC to protest the federal 'tax and deport'

Greensboro, NC – Fifty people marched through downtown Greensboro on Aug. 27, past the offices of the Internal Revenue Service, to protest the federal policy of ‘tax and deport.’

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By Joe Iosbaker

¡Amnistía ahora!

Chicago, IL – En Chicago, julio 19 la voz de Emma Lozano se quebrantaba cuando hablaba a miles de marchantes para los derechos de los inmigrantes en Grant Park. “Estoy aquí para tocar la campana para un moratorio inmediato a las deportaciones y a las autorizaciones de las redadas en empleadores.” El fundador de Pueblo Sin Fronteras terminaba de ayudar a conducir en una marcha de tres millas y media a más de 20,000 personas en una temperatura de 90 grados de calor. El evento era una continuación de movilizaciones para los derechos de los inmigrantes que comenzó esta primavera por el movimiento de Chicago en marzo 10.

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By staff

_ Investigate Killing of Ruben Salazar!_

Activists raise a banner commemorating the August 29 Chicano Moratorium.

Los Angeles, CA – The August 29th Chicano Moratorium Organizing Committee held a press conference here Aug. 25 to announce a protest march and rally set for Aug. 28 in East Los Angeles. The march commemorates 40 years since the Chicano Moratorium.

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By Foster Richards

Major League Baseball’s place in the history of the battle for equality and civil rights is an embarrassment. Black ballplayers were banned from the major leagues for over 75 years until 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Nothing can make that right, but people of conscience are demanding that Major League Baseball (MLB) move the 2011 All-Star Game from its currently scheduled site in Arizona to “Anywhere else!” in protest of the recent passage of the racist anti-immigrant SB1070.

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By Molly Glasgow

“What city were you born in?”

Protesters being arrested at 8/11/10 Move the Game protest in Mpls

This essay was written by one of five people arrested at the Move the Game protest in Minneapolis on August 11, 2010. The protest confronted a meeting of Major League Baseball (MLB) team owners and league Commissioner Bud Selig, demanding that they move the 2011 All Star game out of Arizona unless the anti-immigrant law SB1070 is repealed. The essay focuses on part of the arrestees’ jail experience, bringing to light this largely hidden site of large numbers of immigrant deportations.

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By Brad Sigal

Immigrant rights protesters demand MLB move the All-Star game out of Arizona

Protest against MLB owners meeting 8/12/10 in Minneapolis

Minneapolis, MN – Chanting “Move the game! Move the game!”, 100 immigrants and supporters confronted a meeting of Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Bud Selig and team owners at a ritzy Minneapolis hotel on August 11, 2010. The protest was part of the national movement demanding that Major League Baseball move the 2011 All Star game out of Arizona unless the state repeals its recently passed anti-immigrant law, SB1070. Losing the All Star game would be a big blow to Arizona, resulting in an estimated $60 million loss of revenue. Thirty percent of MLB players are Latino, and many have spoken out against SB1070.

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By Brad Sigal

Protest vs Target funding of Emmer campaign, Aug. 5 in Mpls

Minneapolis, MN – The outpouring of online anger at Target turned to the streets on Aug. 5, as more than 50 people protested outside of Target’s store on Lake Street and Hiawatha Avenue in the heart of Minneapolis’s Latino community. Target is under fire for contributing $150,000 to MN Forward for television ads in support of Minnesota Republican governor candidate Tom Emmer, a man infamous for his extreme anti-immigrant, anti-gay and anti-minimum wage views.

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By Masao Suzuki

In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark that American-born Chinese were U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

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By Josh West

Hundreds protest at Utah State Capitol

Hundreds rally in Salt Lake City against SB1070.

Salt Lake City, UT- 200 protesters filled the Utah State Capitol Building in solidarity with undocumented immigrants on July 29. Their chants rang through the capitol, expressing outrage at Arizona’s latest piece of racist legislation aimed at Mexican and Chicano people. On the day that SB1070, the anti-immigrant law, went into effect in the neighboring state of Arizona, groups such as the Salt Lake Autonomous Brown Berets and the Revolutionary Student Union (RSU) joined with Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) for a rally. The coalition sent a clear message to Utah’s legislators, “Racist legislation not welcome here!”

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By Fight Back! Editors

The struggle against racist anti-immigrant laws continues

On July 28, Federal Judge Susan Bolton placed an injunction on most of Arizona’s SB1070 until a Federal Court of Appeals rules on whether the state law is legal under the U.S. Constitution. The Court of Appeals case is now set to begin in November.

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By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Over the summer of 2010, undocumented students organized a series of militant sit-ins and hunger strikes in support of the DREAM act, raising the level of struggle to legalize undocumented youth who attend college or serve in the military. In March, four undocumented student marched 1500 miles from Miami, Florida, to Washington D.C. to highlight the need for Congress to pass the Dream Act. In May, another four undocumented students were arrested at the offices of Arizona Republican Senator John McCain. In June, students held a hunger strike in North Carolina to pressure Democratic Senator Kay Hagen to support the DREAM act. Then in July, 20 undocumented students from across the country were arrested in Washington, D.C. as they protested to pressure more senators to support the DREAM act.

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