Homeland Security arrests

by Roberta Wood

Under the cover of darkness, in well-synchronised raids, scores 
of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents took the night 
shift cleaning crews into custody at 60 Wal-Mart stores across 
the United States. In what The New York Times called the largest 
immigration crackdown in years, Homeland Security arrested 250 
mop-and broom-wielding janitors. Homeland Security spokesman 
Garrison Courtney could cite no link between those arrested and 
security issues, although he told the People's Weekly World the 
department's first priority is national security.

In response to the raids, one labour union official charged, 
"They should be looking for terrorists, not hard-working 
immigrants".

The Bush administration "is trying to keep people scared, worried 
about national security", said Kat Rodriguez, organiser for 
Tucson-based human rights group Derechos Humanos. "They want to 
justify this department's massive spending."

In response to the raids, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called 
for changing the nation's immigration laws that "encourage the 
exploitation of workers", making them "easy prey for Wal-Mart and 
other companies bent on  exploitation".

Last month, thousands of Freedom Riders, undocumented immigrants 
and their supporters filled the Capitol, just blocks from DHS 
headquarters, demanding legalisation and a path to citizenship 
for precisely those hard-working immigrant workers like the ones 
caught in DHS's net. The Freedom Riders won the support of 
millions of people across the country.

The arrested workers, including Mexican, Eastern European, 
Mongolian, and Brazilian immigrants, now await deportation 
hearings.

Meanwhile, in 3474 Wal-Marts and millions of workplaces across 
America, immigrants and others returned to their jobs in stores, 
factories and fields in spite of news of the raids. "There are a 
lot of people worried", about being arrested and deported, an 
undocumented New England Wal-Mart employee told the People's 
Weekly World. But, he explained, they all came back to work 
because they need their jobs.

Reports stated that all but 10 of those arrested were employees 
of companies contracted to do cleaning by Wal-Mart, the nation's 
largest employer. But Wal-Mart spokesperson Sharon Weber told the 
People's Weekly World that cleaning crews in most Wal-Marts are 
direct employees, not contractors. She declined to give their 
wages, insisting, however, they are "competitive with the local 
economy". Arrested employees report working for US$6 an hour. 
"The 'Wal-Martisation' of our economy is driving down wages and 
workers' rights through a relentless search for the cheapest 
labour", said Sweeney in a prepared statement.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, representing the 
nation's grocery workers, have blamed the proliferation of Wal-
Mart stores and its standard of meagre wages and benefits for the 
current strike and lockout of 70,000 retail workers in Southern 
California.

DHS's Courtney had no explanation why the arrestees included only 
workers, not managers or Wal-Mart executives.

* * *

People's Weekly World