Labor & Employment Law

Join National Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice

By James Parks

Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) has launched a three-part campaign to fight Arizona?s draconian anti-immigrant law, known as S.B. 1070. During the weekend of July 29?Aug. 1?the time the law is supposed to take effect?IWJ is asking workers and other people of faith to join in a national Weekend of Prayer and Action for Immigrant Justice.

Whether through prayer vigils or other actions, people of faith and conscience must make it clear that the way we treat immigrant workers is a moral question, not just a political or economic issue, says IWJ Executive Director Kim Bobo.

Welcoming the immigrant is a clear message in our religious texts. Welcoming is not a theoretical matter. It is practical and day to day. Welcoming demands opposition to Arizona’s approach and fighting for comprehensive immigration reform. 

You can join with faith groups and people of conscience around the country in the Weekend of Prayer and Action. Just click here to register and receive IWJ?s toolkit ?Immigration through the Lens of Faith: A Toolkit for Prayer and Action? for ideas on organizing actions in your community. To find out if there?s already something planned in your area, or to plan an action, contact IWJ organizer Kristin Kumpf at kkumpf@iwj.org.

As part of the campaign, IWJ also is sponsoring Freedom Summer 2010, patterned after the 1965 campaign, when hundreds of young people traveled to Mississippi from all over the country to register voters and conduct civil rights trainings. This summer, people of faith and conscience from around the nation are coming to Arizona to stand in solidarity with those who are engaged in the struggle for worker justice and human rights. Like their predecessors, they will register voters in Arizona and participate in civil rights trainings. If you would like to spend time at Ground Zero of the struggle for immigrant justice, contact Trina Zelle at trina@azworkerjustice.com or Noel Andersen at noelsy79@gmail.com with the Arizona Interfaith Alliance for Worker Justice to coordinate your visit.

You also can sign IWJ?s petition to President Obama and members of Congress condemning Arizona’s new immigration law and calling for a real, lasting solution to our broken immigration system. To sign, click here.

The AFL-CIO, political leaders and numerous religious, civil rights and human rights groups are working to have the law rescinded. The U.S Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the law this month.

IWJ?s campaign is part of its ongoing efforts to bring justice for immigrant workers. Through its efforts to stop wage theft, IWJ is fighting to ensure that low-paid workers, regardless of race or nationality, are paid a fair wage.

In December 2009, the IWJ Board of Directors issued a statement on immigration reform, saying all workers should be respected and treated with dignity and justice .The board emphasized that immigrant workers should not be stigmatized and blamed for “economic problems that greed, unregulated markets, and the lack of coherent government jobs policies have created.?

Reforming our immigration laws and their enforcement is morally imperative and fundamental to restoring justice and equity in the workplace and the community.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on July 17, 2010 (boomark / email).