Buses filled with immigrant workers and their allies next month will begin a historic journey from 10 cities, including Seattle, to Washington, D.C., and culminating at the Statue of Liberty and New York City, to demand respect for all people regardless of immigration status.

The Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride, starting Sept. 23, is designed after the freedom rides of the early 1960s that exposed the brutality of legal segregation in America.

The themes of the national campaign, which will have stops in more than 100 cities, are: a clear path to citizenship that includes legalization of undocumented workers; reunification of families; justice on the job regardless of immigration status; and civil rights for all.

The immigrant workers' ride is about standing up for justice together, affirming what it means to be community, and reclaiming the promise of America. Our commitment is that the coalition we are building will last long after the freedom ride is over.

The contributions of immigrants are obvious. We are a community of immigrants and children of immigrants. In Washington state, immigrant labor grows, harvests and prepares our food. Our regional hospitality industry welcomes visitors with immigrant labor. Even our Seattle high-tech industry relies on immigrants to make it hum.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before Congress that without immigrant labor, the U.S. economy would collapse. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, immigrants annually earn $240 billion, pay $90 billion in taxes, and receive only $5 billion in welfare. In fact, many taxpaying immigrants are not even eligible for the benefits that accrue to all other taxpayers.

Especially since Sept. 11, 2001, our nation's immigration policies have taken an enormous step backward. Divisive us-versus-them language has fueled anti-immigrant sentiments, encouraging people to view immigrants as a problem rather than the integral part of this country they actually are.

Efforts to legalize hardworking immigrants who provide essential labor to this country have also been halted. Since 9-11, immigration policies are also being used in the name of national security, with the burden of these policies falling primarily on Muslims, Latinos, Arabs, Africans, Asians and many other immigrants who embrace the American ideals of justice, equality and liberty for all. A zero-tolerance policy around immigration violations has resulted in mass deportations and detentions, too often carried out in secrecy and without any judicial process.

Today, some immigrants wait for as long as seven to 10 years simply to be able to be reunited with their families. Many immigrants are not given sufficient information to know how or when they can apply for citizenship. Under new Liberty Shield provisions, the attorney general will detain all asylum seekers at the border and hold them until their application is finished.

On the job, discrimination against immigrants has increased dramatically. A recent Supreme Court decision disappointingly denied undocumented immigrants the same protections that native-born workers enjoy when employers are proven violators of federal labor law.

Immigrant workers also lose out when it comes to unemployment and worker-compensation claims. In workplaces and schools across Washington state, Muslim, Sikh and Arab adults and children have been the victims of hate incidents and direct discrimination.

In spite of all this, recent struggles by Seattle janitors and hotel workers along the Sea-Tac Airport strip, and forums where immigrants are speaking out about the abuses they have faced, show that immigrants and allied communities are standing up for their rights. We're standing with them to say the issue of immigrant rights as human rights can no longer be ignored.

The Seattle City Council, with Mayor Greg Nickels concurring, unanimously passed a resolution Monday supporting immigrant rights and endorsing the Seattle Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride.

In Seattle, our bus is driven by a combination of outrage and promise. We are outraged at the injustices immigrants face. We believe, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." But we are also inspired by the possibility of building power and voice through our new coalition.

We aim to bring the voices of real immigrants to the forefront so they can tell their powerful stories directly to all of America. Ultimately, if we stand together to demand justice, we will be standing for America. The Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride is just the beginning — not the end — of our recommitment to the promise of the American dream.

Pramila Jayapal is executive director of the Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington. Steve Williamson is executive secretary of the King County Labor Council, AFL-CIO. They are co-chairs of the Seattle Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride steering committee.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

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