Here's an article from the Yale Daily News which exposed the attempts by two New Haven based anti-immigrant groups, Community Watchdog Project (CWP) and the Southern Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Reform (SCtIR), to spread misinformation throughout the campus.
For those who are unaware of these groups, they use the EXACT same tactics as Elise Marciano's local anti-immigrant whack-pack, United States Citizens for Law Enforcement (USFILE).
As reported by the News article “Workers urged to sign petition” (10/26) hatemongering and divisive methodologies have risen on campus in attempts to turn Yale workers against undocumented immigrants. The members of groups such as Community Watchdog Project (CWP) and the Southern Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Reform (SCtIR), Connecticut’s own version of the Minutemen Project, are not merely opposing programs like the municipal ID card program, but are employing deceitful and reactionary tactics such as harassing city hall clerks as they issue the Elm City ID card, demanding the names and addresses of municipal ID card holders, and now convincing Yale workers to turn against their union by dispelling incorrect messages about Latino immigrant workers. The outrageous propaganda spread by these groups of how undocumented immigrants are stealing jobs without paying taxes is only a product of their divide-and-conquer methods and is completely unacceptable in our community.
Groups like the CWP and SCtIR promote these myths as a means of raising antagonism against the undocumented, but facts and history disprove these claims by instead showing the many contributions these workers have made in the nation and the New Haven community.
All immigrants pay taxes, and in many ways offer more benefits to the United States, its labor force and its economy than they receive themselves. Tax payments from immigrants are consistently $20 to $30 billion more than the amount they receive in government services. As they find jobs in key sectors they contribute significantly to the U.S. economy as well as become members and allies of local workers’ unions. Since 1996, the percentage of foreign-born wage and salary workers in unions has risen from 8.9 to 12.3 percent in 2006.
In New Haven, Latino workers have demonstrated their solidarity with members of the Local 35 union. In 2003, during a strike held by Local 35 workers against the University, Latino scabs brought in to replace union members ended up joining the strike and supporting the cause of the African American workers. The majority of workers in UNITE-HERE, Local 35’s national union, are Latinos, and probably many of them are undocumented, which is one reason why UNITE-HERE has taken a strong stance nationally on immigration reform in support of undocumented workers.
Immigrants’ rights and workers’ rights are closely linked; a statement signed by many community leaders in New Haven, including the presidents of Local 34 & 35 and director of Local 217, declares that “no human being is illegal and no worker’s wages and conditions are secure as long as another worker’s vulnerability is exploited.” In trying to turn Yale workers against immigrant residents of New Haven, reactionary and racist groups are seeking to divide communities that, when they organize and unite around common issues, have the ability to affect real change in this city and in this country.
The tactics of groups like the CWP and SCtIR only seek to create divisions between the communities and thus cannot be tolerated.
As students and members of the Yale community, we stand absolutely against these hateful messages and divide-and-conquer methodologies being used on our campus. These practices, common amongst larger organizations such as the Minutemen Project, are disgraceful and unjust and we will not sit passively as fear-mongering and prejudiced groups like the CWP and SCtIR spread destructive messages aimed at New Haven residents.
If New Haven can expose the crap behind these hate-groups, shouldn't Danbury do the same with Marciano and her followers' brand of bullshit?
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On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.
As reported by the News article “Workers urged to sign petition” (10/26) hatemongering and divisive methodologies have risen on campus in attempts to turn Yale workers against undocumented immigrants. The members of groups such as Community Watchdog Project (CWP) and the Southern Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Reform (SCtIR), Connecticut’s own version of the Minutemen Project, are not merely opposing programs like the municipal ID card program, but are employing deceitful and reactionary tactics such as harassing city hall clerks as they issue the Elm City ID card, demanding the names and addresses of municipal ID card holders, and now convincing Yale workers to turn against their union by dispelling incorrect messages about Latino immigrant workers. The outrageous propaganda spread by these groups of how undocumented immigrants are stealing jobs without paying taxes is only a product of their divide-and-conquer methods and is completely unacceptable in our community.
If New Haven can expose the crap behind these hate-groups, shouldn't Danbury do the same with Marciano and her followers' brand of bullshit?
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
