“We remain here today, and we will continue fighting to remain”
Posted Sun, 11/17/2024 - 11:10pm
The reelection of Donald Trump will have a grave impact on Migrant Justice’s community and will shape our work in the coming years. Over the past two weeks, we have held many conversations on farms and around kitchen tables about what this election means for our organization.
Migrant Justice spokesperson Rossy Alfaro recently participated in a roundtable of farmworker leaders from around the country, interviewed by online newsmagazine truthout. In her interview, Rossy channeled the message of our members:
The election will of course impact our community and our work. But at the same time, we’ve faced criminalization and discrimination before.… There were a lot of people in our community who were deported during the first Trump administration, but many of us weren’t. We remain here today, and we’re going to continue fighting to remain.
In the coming weeks, Migrant Justice will closely monitor presidential appointments and policy proposals, as Trump’s campaign promises develop into governing plans. We will continue to communicate to our allies about the best ways to get involved and support our grassroots organizing. In her interview, Rossy articulated some of the early themes:
We’ve built up a strong network of allies in Vermont over the years. We’ve developed a rapid response network of people who can respond in cases of arrests and detentions. We also do a lot of work to educate our community about their rights during encounters with immigration.
We’ve been organizing a long time in Vermont to try to win protections for our rights as immigrants. We won our “No Más Polimigra” campaign that created “fair and impartial” policing policies in Vermont which ensure that local cops aren’t working hand in hand with ICE and Border Patrol. That will be an important protection in the coming years.
We know that the government repression of immigrants is ultimately about economic control. One of the goals of immigration restrictions throughout U.S. history has been to maintain an underclass of workers without rights protections who can be exploited and abused. Now is no different.
This is why Migrant Justice will continue to organize and fight for human rights and economic justice. We just wrapped up a month of action for Milk with Dignity, with fifteen actions at Hannaford Supermarkets around the region. Farmworkers led pickets urging consumers not to cross the picket line and not to shop at Hannaford. Hundreds of customers have signed pledges in support of the campaign.
Have you signed the consumer pledge for farmworker rights? If not, take a minute to sign it today!
As Rossy says:
We’ve been fighting for our rights, and we’re going to continue to fight for our rights. This isn’t just a moment about who has papers and who doesn’t. This is about a government that is against human rights. This is a fight that has been going on since long before this election. It needs to involve all of us.
p.s. This Thursday, 11/21 will be our next Hannaford call-in day. Sign up now and take a shift to contact Milk with Dignity supporters and urge them to call Hannaford