Oakland residents protest on May Day against the new attacks on immigrant workers

In the last few weeks, the US government has arrested hunded of immigrant workers nationwide as part of a sweep called Operation Tarmac..

According to the San Diego Headline News,
"Operation Tarmac began after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and is aimed at identifying employees with access to restricted areas, working without the proper authorization. None of those arrested is believed to have terrorist ties."

Operation Tarmac has resulted in arrests in Seattle, Portland, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Boston and Las Vegas.

See The Following Links For Details:
http://www.americas.org/news/nir/20020405_ins_seizes_airport_workers.asp
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/55122_airport19.shtml
http://www.bayinsider.com/news/2002/03/26/26_immigrants.html

There have also been changes in laws surrounding airport workers that have had devistating effects on immigrant communities. The following is from http://www.kilusan.info/articles/20020301_casualtiesoftheusw/index.html :

On November 19, 2001, an Aviation Security Act, was passed by U.S. Congress and signed by President a Aviation law imposing citizenship requirements for airport screeners. There are over a thousand Filipinos who are airport screeners nationwide, a large percentage are green card holders, and not yet citizens. In international airports such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, New York and Oakland, Filipinos comprise up to 90% of the workforce. This new legislation would result in the racial and ethnic "cleansing" of Filipinos by mass firing and lay-offs. Already, two Filipino airport screeners, Marina Neri at the Oakland airport and Romy Pappas at the San Jose airport, have been suspended because of their stance against the new legislation.
Filipinos comprise a large percentage of airport screening positions as our largely immigrant community have historically filled low-wage jobs in this country. Like the manongs and manangs at the turn of the century, who worked the fields for meager pay, airport screeners have suffered deplorable working conditions of low salaries (i.e.-$7.50/hr), no benefits, staff shortage, and inadequate training. The job requires workers to stand for hours on end and face aggravated customers who are always rushing and late for flights. A job, historically, nobody else wanted to do.

What exactly is the underlying meaning and message of this new Aviation law? Is the U.S. government saying that Filipinos are not smart enough to do federal screening? Are they implying that Filipino immigrants, who are not citizens, cannot be trusted? The new aviation law is supposed to professionalize the screeners position to ensure the safety of passengers. But far from ensuring the security of travelers, the new law is slated to get rid of hundreds of legal immigrants who have held these positions for years, leaving a brand new workforce of screeners without experience. This law is another brazen example of immigrant-scapegoating and racial profiling that have become fashionable with the post-911 U.S. war hysteria. Ironically, pilots, aircraft mechanics, and even the armed National Guard soldiers posted in the airports, are not required to be citizens.
In fact, Filipinos did not have to be U.S. citizens to be enlisted and die in World War II under U.S. military command. While Filipinos died in battle side-by-side with white American soldiers, Filipinos only received a fraction of the veterans benefits as did white soldiers. The 1946, the Rescission Act took back all the promises made and deemed Filipino veterans ineligible for benefit. For the last 12 years, legislation to provide benefits has been stalled in the House and the Senate, although two bills ask for merely $60 million. Two veterans a day, die waiting for equity. To this day, this is a racial injustice which has not been corrected and stands out as a sore thumb of America's legacy of racism and national chauvinism.