Home > Our Blog > Civil Disobedience in New York for Immigration Reform

Blog Post

Civil Disobedience in New York for Immigration Reform

Posted May 17, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

I just received this from the New York Immigration Coalition:

Sixteen New Yorkers, including local clergy, labor and community leaders, and City Council members, were arrested in front of 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan today in an act of civil disobedience intended to escalate pressure on the Obama administration and Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform in 2010.

The civil disobedience involved participants linking arms to form a chain that temporarily impeded the flow of traffic around the Federal Building. It was the culminating point of a rally attended by one hundred New Yorkers demanding immediate action on immigration reform. Speakers criticized the Obama administration’s ramping-up of deportation and other counterproductive enforcement tactics and condemned the Arizona immigration law that effectively legalizes racial profiling and criminalizes immigrants at large. The action was led by clergy from the city’s Caribbean community in partnership with other religious, immigrant, labor, and elected leaders. Participants saw today’s action as carrying on the great tradition of peaceful non-violent resistance in the face of grave injustice, as practiced by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today’s action is the first of three consecutive Monday civil disobedience actions planned for New York. The use of civil disobedience marks an escalation in tactics by reform advocates nationwide. Monday’s action follows a March 21st rally in the nation’s capital that drew over 200,000, and May 1st rallies that turned out hundreds of thousands across the nation. Despite these massive showings, leaders in Washington still have failed to produce reform legislation, prolonging the moral and humanitarian crisis facing our nation over its broken immigration system.

Participants released the following joint statement concerning today’s civil disobedience action (see list of signatories at the end):

“Being conscientiously of opinion that our current immigration laws betray our core principles of democracy, inclusiveness and justice; that they allow for Arizona’s immoral and unconstitutional SB1070; and that their continued enforcement through detention and deportation separates families and destroys communities; we are compelled to escalate our call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the face of inaction from our nation’s elected representatives.

“Today we stand in solidarity with the millions who contribute to our communities and economy while being denied full access to them. Our act of civil disobedience is performed with the belief that our laws can—and should—be better, and that our nation’s leaders cannot stand on the sidelines as our society’s core values are betrayed by a broken and immoral immigration system.

“We invite the enforcement of the law upon ourselves in the hope that our arrest today will be the catalyst for principled leadership from the President and Congress and for meaningful Comprehensive Immigration Reform that will put an end to the arrests and other mistreatments faced by our friends, families, congregations, and communities.”

—-Unity Statement Signed by Those Arrested

Bishop Orlando Findlayter, Chair, Churches United to Save and Heal

New York City Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez, District 10

New York City Councilmember Jumaane D. Williams, District 45

SJ Jung, Board President, Minkwon Center for Community Action, Steering Committee Member of the NYS Immigration Reform Campaign

Deycy Avitia, Director of Advocacy and Organizing, New York Immigration Coalition

Lisa Sharon Harper, Executive Director, New York Faith and Justice, Steering Committee Member of the New York State Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform

Rev. Arnold Thomas, Minister with Education, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, The Riverside Church

Rev. Ian White Maher, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Queens

Betsy Palmieri, Executive Director, Hudson Valley Community Coalition, Steering Committee Member of the NYS Immigration Reform Campaign and the NYS Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform

Susan Julia, New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City

Estela Vazquez, Executive Vice President, SEIU 1199

Denise Allegretti, SEIU 1199

Katerenthia Green, SEIU 1199

Mariah Kercado, SEIU 1199

Anna Evet Ortiz, SEIU 1199

Jeremy Wilson, SEIU 1199

Tags : immigration movement, immigration rallies, immigration reform

Permalink Comments