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Press Release 7/26/2007
National Organization for Women Calls for
Moratorium on Immigration Raids
The National
Organization for Women of New Jersey (NOW-NJ) will call for a
moratorium to halt the immigration raids that have been
devastating families and our communities across the United
States at a rally being held this Saturday in Morristown, NJ.
Women of Color and Allies Essex County Chapter and NOW-NJ
Combating Racism Task Force rallied for justice and equality
when Richard Barret, founder and leader of the Nationalist
Movement, a white supremacist organization based in Mississippi
marched through Morristown on July 4, 2000. Barret
declared it as Independence from Affirmative Action Day.
Seven years later, on July 28th, NOW-NJ will rise to the
occasion again when Rob Pearson founder of ProAmerica Society
and the Mayor of Morristown, Donald Cresitello hold their rally
behind Morristown City Hall. They will be rallying for the
enforcement of immigration laws and calling on Homeland Security
to deputize police officers under federal 287-G program in order
to seek out immigrants, have them deemed “illegal,” and to
ultimately evict them from the United States.
Pearson’s and the Mayor’s actions give the impression that
immigrants in the United States are placing us in danger.
And that they are the cause of all the nations problems.
It’s not poverty, it’s not racism or sexism, it’s not
homophobia, and it most certainly can’t be the billions and
billions of our tax dollars being spent on a preemptive war in
Iraq that’s causing cutbacks in health care, cutbacks in
education, and the loss of jobs. It’s all the immigrants
fault. Right? No, it’s wrong to point the finger at
the victim and place the blame for societies ills on such a
vulnerable group of people. It’s a divide and conquer
process that will only keep workers fighting against each other
and not fight for the things we really need. Non citizens
today are seeking to become United States citizens and live in
this land of opportunity the same as so many immigrants have
historically done for decades.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers use
military-style tactics to terrorize communities, families, and
workers by barging into homes and arresting residents,
apprehending parents picking up their children from school,
confronting immigrants about their legal status, raiding
factories where many undocumented women work, and sweeping up
workers and separating families by sending workers to inhumane
detention centers that are scattered across the country.
Tens of thousands of undocumented workers, many women, have been
unfairly detained, terrorized and arrested by immigration and
customs enforcement as part of a program dubbed “Operation
Return to Sender” that has separated hundreds of children from
their mothers who often were their only care takers.
The National Organization for Women continues to recognize the
contribution of immigrant women and a right to due process and
fairness that results in equitable and fair immigration policy
that provides legal and safe immigration options as a path to
citizenship, reproductive freedom and economic justice.
Maretta J. Short
NOW-NJ President
Office 609 - 393 - 0156
Cell - 973 - 752 - 4484
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