32BJ Condemns Workplace ICE Raids in Mississippi

The following statement may be attributed to Kevin Brown, Vice President and NJ State Director of 32BJ SEIU: 

“As one of the nation’s largest unions with majority immigrant membership, we thoroughly condemn he Trump administration’s massive workplace raids in Mississippi yesterday. By arresting almost 700 men and women at their jobs, the administration has ripped apart families, communities and local economies, traumatizing thousands upon thousands of native and foreign-born residents alike, while further terrorizing immigrants of all statuses across the country.  For over a dozen years, administrations both Republican and Democratic have refrained from these massive militarized assaults on workplaces, knowing that the damage they wreak to residents of American soil is simply indefensible.  All workers — black, brown, white — deserve to be treated with dignity in the workplace, and the wellbeing of their children and communities should always be a top priority for government. The Trump administration, however, counts working people’s pain as their political gain. The timing of the raids also adds reprehensible insults to this grievous injury, coming months after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission won a lawsuit in support of abused Latinx workers, and on the very day that President Trump travelled to El Paso in the wake of a white supremacist terror attack that was apparently emboldened by Trump’s hateful words and deeds. We offer our deepest condolences to all those affected by these raids, and our solidarity to all those committed to defeating this rogue and racist administration through action in the courts, votes at the polls, and voices in the streets.”