NEWSIMMIGRANTS & THE ECONOMY

Imagine saving up money for years, selling your house, packing your belongings, and leaving everything you know to embark to a foreign land where the promise of a new job awaits you. Then imagine you settle into that job, begin to feel at home in your new surroundings, and excel at the position, expecting to stay for several years, possibly permanently. Now, through no fault of your own, all of that is taken away from you immediately, and you’re told to go back to the country you left -- where you sold your home and nearly everything you own and where you have no promise of a job.

That is exactly what is happening to Filipino teachers in Prince George's County, Maryland. Under the H1-B visa program, companies are able to sponsor skilled foreign workers to fill hard-to-staff positions. H1-B visa holders are allowed to seek permanent residency, but that process is undercut if a worker is forced to leave the country. Because the visa is revoked as soon as an employee loses a job (they must find a new employer to sponsor the visa immediately, often with no grace period at all), employers have in many cases used their upper-hand to abuse and mistreat employees who hold this visa.

This was the case in PGC, Maryland, where the school district that recruited 1,044 educators from the Philippines illegally deducted H1-B fees from the teacher’s wages. Those fees are supposed to be paid by the employer. But when a Department of Labor investigation determined the teachers were owed back-pay of about $4,000 each, it wasn’t the at-fault school district or recruiting agency that were punished. It was the teachers, who had excelled in their positions and done nothing wrong.

Maria Isavel was only 17 when she died -- you can see in the photo to the left just how young the teenage farm worker was. She had her whole life ahead of her. She was engaged, pregnant, beloved. And she died due to an inhumane employer who forced her to work without rest, shade, or water. She died due to the failure of the California government to enforce its own safety regulations.

She died, and the employer and safety coordinator who caused her death -- who had been fined previously for the same dangerous work conditions that killed Maria Isavel -- got away with a bit community service. She died, and the government agency that fined Merced Farm Labor yet never bothered to collect the fine or check that conditions had improved faced no consequences. She died unnecessarily, and too many other farm workers have also died preventable deaths.

There has been no hint of justice for the severing of Maria Isabel's young life. But California Governor Jerry Brown has the opportunity to change things, to protect future farm workers like Maria Isavel. He can sign SB 104, the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act, which would give these mistreated workers the right to organize for their own protection.

Maria Isavel's uncle, Doroteo, has been fighting for the passage of this bill -- even losing his job in an act of retaliation -- along with his fellow laborers and United Farm Workers. The bill was brought up for a vote in the California Assembly on May 16, the anniversary of Maria Isavel's death. With its passage through both branches of the CA legislature, it now rests on Gov. Jerry Brown to do the right thing and sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act into law.

Later today, North Carolina’s E-Verify bill, HB 36, will be voted on a second time in the state’s house after passing an initial reading. If made law, the bill would make it mandatory for local governments and government contractors and subcontractors to check new employees against the federal E-Verify system to determine if they are “authorized” to work.

The problem isn’t just that this is an enforcement-only measure that fails to address any of the underlying push and pull factors of undocumented immigration, or the need for comprehensive reform. E-Verify also happens to be incredibly ineffective.

The federal government’s own independent evaluation of the program found that it was unable to correctly identify a worker as unauthorized more than half the time and that it incorrectly reported legal immigrants and citizens as unauthorized in various instances. A comprehensive study by the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think tank, went further, proclaiming E-Verify “ineffective, intrusive, and expensive.” And a review by the National Immigration Law Center of Arizona’s economy two years after implementing mandatory E-Verify found that the policy had led to a growth in the underground economy (loss of tax revenue) and had not been effective in stopping unauthorized work, with small business owners bearing the brunt of the costs.

Business at the Columbia Heights Chipotle location in Washington, D.C., was interrupted Thursday as dozens of former workers, activists, religious leaders, and city councilmen showed up and delivered a collection of over 7,000 petitions. That petition, hosted here on Change.org and sponsored by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, calls on Chipotle to treat workers with integrity. Change.org has exclusive video footage of the march below the jump.

"No more Chipotle! No more Chipotle!" the crowd chanted as they marched through northwest Washington D.C., a path that took them from Sacred Heart Church to the local chain of the national burrito franchise. With each step, workers and activists defied a company that so willfully and unscrupulously fired 40 workers earlier this year.

Get ready everybody, because Chipotle Mexican Grill is about to receive quite the rude awakening from so many of those pesky former employees the company abruptly fired.

Chipotle, the burrito-chain mired in controversy since it first fired dozens of its workers in Minnesota last year, will soon receive the weight of more than 7,000 petition signatures collected here at Change.org and in community organizations in Washington, D.C.

A coalition of leaders, activists, religious organizations and community groups in the Washington D.C. area will soon descend on Chipotle’s doorstep to present the signatures. They intend to gather at 5 pm at The Sacred Heart Church in Columbia Heights, at which point those in attendance will march to the store in a powerful expression of protest against the disgraceful actions of Chipotle Mexican Grill.

For some time now, Chipotle has willfully ignored its motto, “Food with Integrity.” Hundreds of  workers in Minnesota are still reeling from last Christmas, when scores of immigrant workers were terminated en masse, significantly bolstering the state’s unemployment figures overnight. Chipotle went to great lengths to deny those workers a proper explanation, opting for a severance package of evasion, denial and lame excuses.

Then, they brought this same callous attitude to Washington, D.C. In a startling move last March, Chipotle chose to terminate an entire crew of workers in a Washington D.C. chain by bringing in a recently hired workforce and simply pushing the old team out. The company has repeatedly refused to meet with their fired workers and hear their claims. They have ignored numerous meeting requests from local D.C. Councilmembers Mike Brown and Jim Graham.

One worker who took his case straight to Chipotle management came back feeling insulted and dejected, but proud to have raised one small voice against the company.

“It’s not only me that I am speaking on behalf,” said Miguel Bravo, a former Chipotle employee. “There were pregnant women who were also affected by the Chipotle firing. I felt bad. I felt like they wanted to just push us aside."

It is this disgraceful treatment of Washington D.C. workers that has prompted the reaction we will see this Thursday, as a procession of activists will give voice to Chipotle’s victims. On May 5^th, (Cinco de Mayo, no less) fired workers will team up with everyday citizens to restore the “inherent dignity and worth of all individuals in our communities,” according to a press release.

These workers and activists are fired up and ready to go. Every signature counts, so please stand in solidarity and sign the petition to Demand Chipotle Treat Workers With Integrity, Apologize, and Pay Up.

Photo credit: Change.org

Chipotle, the national burrito chain behind mass firings of immigrants in Minnesota and Washington D.C., is fond of saying the company had no idea undocumented immigrants were working for them. This multi-million dollar company, whose meteoric rise sparked the envy of Wall Street, whose skyrocketing profits were credited to drastically low labor costs, whose business model called for ownership of each individual store rather than the selling of franchise rights -- this company had no earthly clue it was employing and ultimately exploiting undocumented immigrants.

As it turns out, Chipotle was lying. According to yet another shocking report, Chipotle continues to spread falsehoods in the aftermath of their recent immigrant firing binge. The company  claims to have no knowledge of employing undocumented immigrants and only moved on the issue (i.e. fired their workers) when told they were being investigated by ICE.

The Georgia legislature is currently considering two anti-immigrant bills, HB-87 and SB-40, both modeled after Arizona’s SB 1070. Arizona’s law faces a bevy of lawsuits, many focused on the fact that it requires law enforcement to establish “reasonable suspicion” to ask someone for immigration papers (a.k.a. racial profiling). But even though the law is caught up in federal court, and therefore the most controversial components have not been implemented, it has still had many unwanted effects on the state.

Last month, the New York Times reports, “Arizona lawmakers rejected new anti-immigration measures… in what was widely seen as capitulation to pressure from business executives and an admission that the state’s tough stance had resulted in a chilling of the normally robust tourism and convention industry.” A letter from 60 business leaders detailed economic “setbacks,” including estimated $15-$150 million tourism losses according to the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Chipotle's commitment to their slogan, "Food with Integrity," is in serious jeopardy with the recent news that Chipotle refuses to meet with its fired DC workers. As we have previously written, Chipotle Mexican Grill has come under fire for the way it has laid off major portions of its largely immigrant/Latino workforce. Beginning with the firings of numerous workers in the Minneapolis region late last year, Chipotle has since gone on a quiet rampage, terminating workers throughout the country with little or no warning, including a particularly appalling incident in a Washington D.C. chain where workers say they were replaced during a thirty minute break.

Fired workers have fought back, but Chipotle isn't ready to give in just yet, although they seem to have initiated a feigned negotiation effort. According to those advocating for the workers, Chipotle abruptly canceled a recent meeting set up with Washington D.C. city council members. The meeting was meant to discuss the massive firings in the district, specifically the inappropriate and borderline cruel way long-time employees were terminated. The prospect of sitting down and talking is apparently too much for Chipotle, as they are now formally refusing to meet with the numerous workers the company has fired.

There is no doubt that Cesar Chavez is the most widely known Latino civil rights leader. Inspired by Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Chavez's courageous non-violent fight for farm workers through boycotts, strikes, fasts, and rousing speeches led to pesticide-protective clothes, rest periods, clean drinking water, and other basic rights. And, as the Cesar Chavez National Holiday Coalition puts it, “When Cesar Chavez demanded union contracts, decent wages and safe working conditions, he extended the possibility for victory to all workers across the nation. He elevated the bar for equality and unity. He gave hope to the poor and under-represented.”

Chavez has become a symbol of peaceful resistance and his belief that "si, se puede" even inspired President Obama’s campaign assertion "yes, we can." Obama has also supported the coalition and California Representative Joe Baca’s movement to make March 31st a national holiday: Cesar Chavez Day.

Up until recently, if a police officer working a checkpoint in the city of Los Angeles, CA, pulled over an undocumented immigrant who lacked a valid driver's license, the individual's car would be immediately impounded for at least a month.

Now, if you've ever had to make a visit to the impound lot, you would know that getting your car out of that damp, dark parking lot can sink an average person's monthly budget deep into the red. And if you're an undocumented immigrant, this event is an utter disaster.

Most of the city's undocumented populace live paycheck to paycheck, relying on their vehicle to get them to work every day, without the luxury of living in a city with reliable public transportation or decent bike paths. The impact of an impounded car reverberates in a kind of supersonic wave, blowing a gaping hole in the livelihoods of undocumented immigrants unlucky enough to get caught in the web. That's why activists organizations are celebrating the Los Angeles Police Department's decision to back away from an aggressive policy disproportionately aimed at the city's undocumented immigrants.