By Jacob Hay, Good Jobs LA
A coalition representing the 99% – including labor, community, immigrants’ rights and religious groups – came together for an “Occupy ICE” protest on Thursday. More than one thousand people marched in downtown LA and rallied in front of the federal building calling on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop doing the dirty work of wealthy corporations by targeting hardworking immigrant families.
Holding signs that read “the 1% profits from fear” and “we are the 99%,” activists marched from La Placita Olvera to the Roybal Federal Building where they set up a tent, chanted and spoke about a broken immigration system that allows employers to threaten hardworking immigrants with ICE raids when workers join together to fight for respect on the job and better working conditions.
“The 1% profits from fear,” said Mike Garcia, President of SEIU United Service Workers West, California’s largest union of property service workers and headquartered in South LA. “The fear of not being able to find a job. The fear of losing your house that you have worked hard for. And the fear that immigrant workers feel that they may be separated from their children. But we refuse to be afraid. We are going to fight back.”
Dozens of South LA residents organized by Good Jobs LA joined the protest.
“Undocumented people are some of the most vulnerable of the 99% but we can’t just sit at home, afraid and doing nothing,” said Luciano Guadalupe of South LA. “We are demanding justice. We need to make our voices heard or corporations will continue using ICE to persecute hard working people like me.”
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