Immigration

Omaha, NE--(HISPANIC PR WIRE – BUSINESS WIRE)--
ADVISORY for August 16

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) and community members will discuss and condemn misconduct by agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charged with enforcing failed immigration policies. At a national meeting on Thursday, the group will investigate worksite raids where workers have been routinely and illegally held against their will, denied access to telephones, attorneys and even bathrooms.

UFCW International President Joseph T. Hansen will join others in the civil rights, immigrant rights and labor movements to condemn the government's policies of detainment and physical force.

WHEN:
Thursday, August 16, 2007
9:30 a.m.

WHERE:
Westside Community Conference Center
3534 South 108th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68144

More than 12,000 meatpacking workers were swept up in ICE raids on December 12, 2006. Since then, many workers in other industries have been arrested, detained against their will and denied contact with their families in subsequent raids. Thousands of workers affected by these raids are U.S. citizens and legal residents.

The meetings Thursday will also lead to a "National Working Group in ICE Misconduct and Violations of 4th Amendment Rights," which will help develop a national strategic response to the increasingly militant ICE raids.

The UFCW represents 1.3 million workers, 250,000 in the meatpacking and poultry industries. UFCW members also work in the health care, distillery, retail and other industries.