WHAT HAPPEN IN VIRGINIA

Journey for Immigrant Justice in Virginia

The community and civil rights organizations from across Virginia come together in the Journey for Immigrant Justice. This Journey comprises four days of activities all designed to send one unified message to the Virginia legislature. Virginia’s economy and quality of life depend on the contributions of Virginia’s hardworking immigrants.

As you know, Virginia is presently undergoing the most aggressive anti-immigrant campaign in its history. Preceded by a series of initiatives and ordinances with intent to criminalize immigration and justify repression, the arrest and deportation of immigrants in a number of cities and counties, and a number of brutal raids against scores of workers and their families, the situation has fueled waves of terror in the immigrant community.

 A consequence of this anti-immigrant sentiment has been the intensification of activities by racist groups, and even the creation of a climate of xenophobia stimulated by such public figures in various government positions, not to mention the state Attorney General MacDonnell’s public call to Governor Timothy Kaine to endorse the Memorandums of Understanding between state police and ICE in order to enforce immigration laws. The campaign has been advanced through a series of proposed legislations that criminalize immigrants and those how assist them in any way whatever. The ratification of these proposals by the state legislature would have devastating consequences on immigrant worker families and the entire community. Such laws will open the larger possibility of human rights violations against immigrants and their families.

In addition, the economic crisis caused by the collapse of the construction industry has brought about a drastic reduction of incomes for workers, and a wave of high unemployment. Anguish and desperation are constant companions for the immigrant these days. Immigration laws of the United States have renamed a hard-working and long suffering immigrant people, who are willing to struggle for their families, as illegal, criminal and even suspected terrorists.

To define our people as criminal or illegal is not only to strip away their status as human beings but also to divest them of their dignity as a fundamental right and principle. To criminalize the presence of the immigrant is to make him vulnerable not only to laws and judicial procedures, but to abandon him before bosses, police, public officials, racist groups and unscrupulous individuals without conscience who would subject him to any imaginable abuse within our society. We must acknowledge that among the victims of these situations there are not only men and women, but elders, as well as the most precious of our treasures: our children.

We believe that the discussion of human migration must be centered not only in the political, economic and demographic concerns but we must also consider the moral rights of people to struggle for the survival of the family, the right to migrate when security and work do not exist within our countries of origin, as well as the right to have our human rights and dignity respected.

We have denounced the 40 plus bills being voted on in the General Assembly which target immigrants. The goal of this legislation is to force immigrants who are unauthorized to leave the state of Virginia. However, Virginia and the nation depend on and have always depended on the labor of foreign born workers.

Virginia’s elected officials must reject the dozens of anti-immigrant bills that are before the House and Senate. These bills attack the human and civil rights of both immigrants and citizens who support them.

They range from bills that would allow every law enforcement official from state troopers to game wardens to serve as immigration agents to legislation making it a felony to assist an immigrant that is undocumented with humanitarian aid. The bills would burden our faith-based organizations, encourage racial profiling, and divert scarce resources from the core missions of our state agencies and non-profits.

The VA legislature is seriously considering some of the most offensive bills that have been introduced in recent years. Where is this onslaught of mean-spirited and truly hateful anti-immigrant legislation coming from? In examining the history of Virginia we know that racial politics have played a significant role. This state was built on the backbone of slavery. While some legislators think we just need to “get over this history” many of us gathering this weekend wonder – has Virginia gotten over the bigotry that is so steeped in its past? Over forty bills are being introduced that hurt the residents of Virginia and specifically target people of color. They are designed to criminalize hard working people, people who are trying to survive, people with families and children. How do we let our elected officials run so wild with power that they are attempting to criminalize churches and teachers and social workers and community volunteers who believe that a person’s humanness is more important than their immigration status?

This anti-immigrant campaign that is dominating the political scene here in Richmond is being led by a small minority of legislators who are trying to make the rest of the legislators believe that such anti-immigrant actions are supported by the people of this state. We, the people of Virginia must support those legislators who are questioning or resisting this legislation. We must get the Virginia legislature back to the business of helping people and create a state that welcomes diversity. We are in the process of writing the legacy of Virginia- let’s make sure it is a legacy our children and grandchildren can be proud of.

The proposals before the legislature in America’s cradle of democracy are so shameful as to have brought messages of solidarity and support for Virginia’s immigrant community from North to South and from East to West. Already, we are not alone, and the Journey has just begun.

___________________________

FOR ALL EVERYTHING. IT CAN BE DONE!!!

Ricardo Juarez Nava statement

Richmond, VA, February 5, 2007

Hermanos y hermanas inmigrantes,

Pueblo de Virginia.

Today we are bringing to a closet the activities of the first Immigrant Journey for Justice in Virginia: a March, interdenominational vigil, a dialogue with legislators, and a fast which started February 2 and ends today.

We want to recognize and thank all those who participated in the actions of the past four days, for their courage, clarity and commitment; also those lawyers and persons who minute by minute have given us direction; to our Virginian brothers and fellow citizens who have stood by us and to the churches that unconditionally opened their doors, prayed for us and offered solidarity; to the many organizations and persons who have supported us throughout this journey and have given resounding support to our call for justice; and finally we thank our immigrant people for their courage and for the confidence they have placed in us, the least of their brothers.

As reflected by the politics of the state, today Virginia resorts to the anti-immigrant legalization of persecution; resorts to an oppression that denies the American dream and the life-style promoted in the entire world for all of humanity, and withholds that dream from those of us who are the color of the earth, who are the children of poverty and who have labored to make this nation great.

The more than 40 legislative anti-immigrant proposals are undeniable evidence that racism still runs rampant in the Old Dominion. It is our hope that from this day forward Virginia’s legislators will unite not to criminalize our presence but to honor the most sacred of all human activities: that of working to protect, feed, shelter and educate our families. It is our hope that the legislators will understand that barriers and walls, be they of steel or laws, only support exploitation, injustice, and symbolize a step back in the story of human progress.

No human, whatever his station in life, has the moral or civil authority to legalize hunger by restriction of work, to legalize death by medical neglect, to legalize ignorance by denying education to our children, nor to punish human solidarity in the acts of kindness toward the most vulnerable among us.

We firmly reject the notion and the practice that pretends to treat us as though we are criminals. Our demand to be acknowledged as humans before we are recognized as immigrants is sufficient reason to be respected as such.

This year marks the 400 anniversary of the coming of the first immigrants who stepped upon and remained on this continent illegally. Today, Virginia would send history and memory into oblivion by forgetting the atrocities committed against our Indigenous brothers and sisters, the original and only stewards of this land. Today, also, the state still engages in a belated debate and a long overdue pardon for the genocide by slavery that brought to these shores thousands against their will.: our brother and sister Africans.

We do not want a belated pardon. Many atrocities have been committed here against humanity in the name of justice, and we do not wish the present acts to be added to that number. The United States does not deserve such a mark and we deserve justice now. We would prefer the Virginia known for lovers than the one that the state’s Attorney general is calling for. We want to trust in the legislators of good conscience and will, and the intelligence and the generosity of Governor Timothy Kaine.

We demand publicly that the right to migrate be considered a right of all people, of workers and their families; and that it be the responsibility of states to protect them from abuse. We demand the immediate end to immigration raids against immigrant workers and their families.

We demand a just and dignified migratory reform for those who by day construct our roads, hospitals, homes and schools; and by night reside in the clandestine basement of this country.

We end this part of our journey today in hopes that our words will be heard and honored. To our immigrant brothers and sisters we say this: the journey that we have begun will not stop here, for we are determined to make greater sacrifices. We have an appointment with history on May 1 st, and we call on all the organizations, coalitions and pro-immigrant institutions to join in a march for justice and dignity such as has not been seen in all the public spaces and in all the towns of this nation, so that the entire world may acknowledge our rights, our culture and the right to legalization for the undocumented. Let no one work on May 1 st.

After today we will begin a tour that will take us from city to city, town to town, and state to state. To listen to all our brothers and to unite ourselves in a wide network of solidarity that will make our demands a reality that we can only hope for today.

We give our most sincere thanks to the generous people of Virginia and the United States, who have shared their homes with this migrant people, and we offer our committment to continue our struggle for as long as it is necessary.

Stop the legalization of injustice! Stop attacks against immigrants!

FOR ALL EVERYTHING. IT CAN BE DONE!!!.......GRACIAS  

For Mexicanos Sin Fronteras: Ricardo Juárez Nava, Coordinator

Capitol Square, Richmond Virginia. Monday February 5, 2007

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