Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where many immigrants rights activists are upset with Senator John Fetterman .
Fetterman Abandons Pledge to Protect Dreamers
Yesterday, the United States Senate passed the Laken Riley Act by 64-35 with 12 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.
The bill would give the federal government and state attorney generals the authority to deport any undocumented immigrant that is arrested for a crime, regardless of whether or not they are convicted. Many unions and immigrants rights groups opposed the bill.
Without support from the 12 Democratic Senators, it is unlikely that the bill would have cleared the margin needed for a filibuster. The first Democrat to break was Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), whose wife Giselle came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant from Brasil.
Given that his wife had arrived here as a child of an undocumented mother, Fetterman always promised to never vote for a bill that would hurt the so-called “Dreamers,” immigrant youth, who arrived undocumented as minors and were backed by DACA.
However, not only did Fetterman vote for the bill, but he co-sponsored it with Republican Alabama Senator Kate Britt, a close friend of his, who visited him while he was hospitalized last year.
Pablo Manriquez at Migrant Insider has the story;
“Senator John Fetterman (D-PA), who co-sponsored Britt’s bill and had long-promised he would never vote to harm Dreamers, admitted the Laken Riley Act did not protect undocumented youth. Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, a formerly undocumented migrant from Brazil, are famously in a group chat with Britt and her husband, Wesley, a former professional football player. We asked him why he changed his mind about harming Dreamers. Fetterman did not provide a coherent response.
Similarly, Senator Ruben Gallego (AZ), the Democratic cosponsor of the Laken Riley Act whose support was widely seen as breaking the dam on his party’s resistance to the anti-immigrant proposal, a move that caught Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer completely off guard, has avoided answering press questions since falsely claiming to Chad Pergram of Fox News that the bill protected DACA recipients and minors.”
For more, check out Migrant Insider.
Pittsburgh Advocates Launch Rapid Response Deportation Defense
As Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) was selling out immigrants, advocates here in Pittsburgh were preparing to defend them.
Casa San Jose, an immigrants rights group here in Pittsburgh, has been preparing a plan for months to provide legal support for immigrants facing ICE raids. They are preparing for legal clinics here in Pittsburgh.
Casa San Jose also asks anyone who sees ICE in Pittsburgh to call their Rapid Response Organizer Laura Perkins at (412) 736-7176.
The AFL-CIO has launched a toolkit on how unions can defend their members. Please, take a few moments and read it.
Donate to Help Us Cover the Fight to Defend Immigrants & Unions
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AFGE Says Eliminating Diversity Program is Smokescreen for Union Busting
Yesterday, Trump issued a series of far-reached executive orders that would hurt federal employees. Trump imposed a federal hiring freeze and ended telework for federal employees.
Trump also eliminated diversity programs designed to make the federal workforce more diverse. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) says that the ending of diversity initiatives is a “smokescreen” for union busting and eliminating merit-based hiring.
“Undoing these programs is just another way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests,” said AFGE President Everrett Kelley in a statement. “Programs that promote an inclusive workforce ensure that the rules are applied evenly to everyone, plus they help build a federal government that looks like the diverse population it serves.”
For more, check out AFGE’s website.
Shakir Calls for DNC to Mobilize Members in Real Ways
Finally, Faiz Shakir, the founder of the labor publication More Perfect Union, is making a serious bid for DNC Chair. Shakir is calling for the Democratic Party to mobilize its membership to engage in strike support and other actions beyond fundraising.
Dave Dayen at the American Prospect has an interview with him:
“Shakir has some interesting ideas for how to achieve this: making the DNC a media outlet in the mold of the one he runs (More Perfect Union), actively walking picket lines and taking on union fights, building civic bonds through Super Bowl watch parties and other meetups. But maybe the best case for Shakir’s vision, ironically, is that his ideas could have been tapped at any point over the past four years. Because Faiz Shakir was a DNC member that entire time.
When Bernie Sanders’s campaign dropped out in 2020, Shakir was asked by the Biden team to join the party as an at-large delegate. He had never been involved with the DNC before; such a role was essentially the kind of superdelegate that Sanders ran against in both of his presidential races. But if Shakir and others were let into the party structure, they could in theory change it from within, bringing new life to an outlet that, though often overstated as the puppet masters of Democratic politics, still has a historical lineage and 57 affiliated local parties and $100 million or so to make a difference.
The problem, Shakir quickly found out, is that DNC members are pretty much given nothing to do.
“The way I was asked to participate, they said, ‘Pick two councils to be on,’” Shakir said. “I think I checked rural and labor. You get added to this roster, you go the DNC meeting. I said, ‘Where’s the discourse about the strategy to win? Are there polling presentations? Do we discuss in group settings?’” But as Shakir described it, the councils were mainly social gatherings, a place to hear speeches and rally and chat.”
For more, check out the American Prospect.
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
