Immigrant Rights Rally - Rochester

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May 1st - National Day of Action for Immigrant Rights
5:00 pm at the Federal Building
100 State Street Rochester NY

*Stop the raids and deportations
Raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are splitting up families and spreading fear throughout the immigrant community. We call for a moratorium on raids and deportations, and measures to keep families together instead of breaking them apart.

*Full legal rights for all immigrants
Undocumented workers are living under a state of siege, and are subject to the most blatant disregard of their civil and labor rights. Currently they are being detained and “disappeared” while at work, out shopping, or at home—and all for the “crime” of working hard and trying to provide for their families.

*Against the Bush Administration’s Immigration reform plan
President Bush’s plan stresses enforcement provisions--such as a fourfold increase in border fencing and a more than 50 percent increase in Border Patrol agents.

It would also establish a new “Z” visa, allowing undocumented immigrant workers to apply for three-year work permits--renewable indefinitely, but at a cost of $3,500 each time. To get a permit and become legal permanent residents, undocumented immigrants would have to return to their home country, apply at a U.S. embassy or consulate to re-enter, and pay a $10,000 fine. The cost for work permits and the green card application would total more than $20,000--well out of reach for the vast majority of low-wage immigrant workers.

*Respect the rights of ALL workers.
May First is the traditional day throughout the world for recognizing workers’ rights—a tradition which began in the U.S. during the struggle for the eight-hour day. The workers’ movement cannot allow there to be a class of workers who lack rights, without threatening the conditions of all other workers as well. “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

A year after the historic marches for immigrant rights in 2006, Congress and the Bush Administration are still proposing legislation that centers on punitive measures against undocumented workers, militarization of the Mexican border, and establishing a class of low-wage workers without rights ("guest workers"). Immigrants and their allies must promote an agenda that corresponds to THEIR needs, not the needs of big business.

Rochester Alliance for Immigrant Rights
Further information: email -- RochesterImmigrantRights@yahoo.com or call 454-7932 (Roberto)