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Mass. Labor Notes — December 2006
Police in Somerville clashed with Teamsters to shield scofflaw Russell
Somerville Five
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Somerville immigrants, allies respond to legislative threats
About 100 Somervillians, many originally from the nation of El Salvador, flocked to the school hall at St. Benedict's Church last month for a forum on immigration.
Sponsors included the Latino Task Force, Somerville Community Corporation (SCC), the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS), the Committee of Refugees from El Salvador (CORES), and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refuge Advocacy Coalition (MIRA).
The gathering was a response to the draconian immigration reform bill passed in December by the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 4437—the "Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act".
Representatives from the above organizations, as well as Centro Presente and Somerville's Human Rights Commission, briefed the audience on the state of the anti-immigrant legislation, and their rights under current law. As the Sensenbrenner-King bill gets taken up by the Senate, immigrant rights leaders are trying to lobby for a more compassionate and just bill.
Across the country, immigrant communities and supporters have been rallying in historic numbers, starting with over 300,000 in Chicago, 30,000 in Milwaukee, and over 500,000 in Los Angeles on March 25th. Over ten thousands of people took to the streets in Boston on March 27th as part of this mass mobilization for immigrant rights.