In wake of mass immigrant protests: US government arrests record numbers in factory raids

The raids come in the wake of massive demonstrations throughout the country protesting reactionary anti-immigrant legislation in Congress and demanding full legal status and citizenship rights for the millions of undocumented workers who have come to find jobs and a better life.

The immigration raids hit plants of the German-based IFCO Systems company, which makes and recycles wooden pallets and containers. Heavily armed agents in bullet-proof vests swooped down on factories in Texas, upstate New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Arizona, Virginia and Massachusetts at approximately 9 a.m., rounding up workers and loading them into buses and vans. Searches and arrests were conducted at a total of 40 facilities spread out over 26 states.

The Homeland Security Department held a press conference after the raids, proclaiming them to be part of a new “interior enforcement strategy” and promising a continuing crackdown. “Employers and workers alike should be on notice that the status quo has changed,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Many of those involved in the recent immigration demonstrations see Wednesday’s raids as an act of retaliation aimed at silencing these protests.

“This is a scare tactic,” Angela Mejia, who helped organize the massive April 10 march in Houston, Texas, told the Houston Chronicle. “We haven’t had raids for a very long, long time. It’s a sad thing if we have raids by the government to stop people from expressing their freedom of speech.”

The intimidation apparently had a significant effect. Reports from other cities told of weeping family members outside of factories and of immigrant neighborhoods where people were staying away from work and even stores for fear of being caught in a round-up.

Together with the raids and arrests, hundreds of immigrant workers have been fired or otherwise penalized by employers across the US in the past several weeks, in retaliation for their participation in the mass demonstrations.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/apr2006/immi-a21.shtml