LCLAA Condemns Workplace Immigration Raids in Mississippi

Media Statement
8 August 2019

Washington D.C.- Today our sisters and brothers, many of whom are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), were blatantly attacked. The liberty and rights of 680 immigrant workers were taken away and disregarded as U.S. immigration authorities barged into their workplaces and arrested them. These raids took place in seven sites and in six different cities in Mississippi. They are now considered to be the largest immigration enforcement operation conducted in a single state in our nation’s history. LCLAA will continue fighting for the rights of Latino and immigrant workers.

“The detention of 680 Latino and immigrant workers will not be ignored. These families, along with thousands of others, have been ripped apart by this administration’s racist and anti immigrant policies,” said Yanira Merino, LCLAA National President. These men and women labor in dangerous conditions, and doing a job that puts food on the tables of American families across the nation. Our commitment to Latino and immigrant workers is reinvigorated in the wake of these nefarious aggressions against our communities.”

“These raids are part of the ongoing and loathsome attacks against Latino and immigrant workers,” said Hector Sanchez Barba, LCLAA Executive Director. “Not even a week has gone by since the heinous shooting in El Paso, which is telling of the climate of fear, uncertainty and repression that is being forced upon Latinos and immigrants under the current administration. We will not remain quiet, we will continue to organize, mobilize and resist, until our communities are treated with respect and dignity.”

###

The Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is the leading national organization for Latino(a) workers and their families. LCLAA was born in 1973 out of the need to educate, organize and mobilize Latinos in the labor movement and has expanded its influence to organize Latinos in an effort to impact workers’ rights and their influence in the political process. LCLAA represents the interest of more than 2 million Latino workers in the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), The Change to Win Federation, independent unions and all their affiliate unions. Visit LCLAA on the web at www.lclaa.org, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.