Immigrant workers freedom ride kicks off

Starting September 20, nearly 1,000 immigrant workers and their allies began to board buses in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Miami and Boston. They plan to ride across the United States, stopping at more than 100 cities, towns and workplaces as they travel to Washington, D.C. After spending October 1 and 2 meeting with members of Congress, they will travel to New York for a rally.

Their legislative objectives are a clear path to citizenship, workplace rights and family reunification. Just as important are the less tangible objectives: claiming their human dignity and their right to fair treatment.

“I always tell my kids: We are all human beings; we are all the same. With or without documents, we’re still people,” said Armando Blas Garcia, one of the Minnesota Freedom Riders. Two buses carrying about 80 Minnesota Freedom Riders left Sunday morning, September 28.

In 1961, Freedom Riders were part of the Civil Rights Movement. Black and white activists rode Greyhound buses south from Washington, D.C. They refused to obey laws that separated black and white people in buses, bus stations, waiting rooms rest rooms, and restaurants. Angry white Southerners attacked them with bricks, bottles, guns, fists and feet. Opponents set buses on fire. And then Southern sheriffs arrested the Freedom Riders and threw them in jail.

Their example inspired immigrant workers to stage the 2003 Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. Marv Davidov, a Minnesota veteran of 1961 Freedom Rides, will be on the bus again with the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride.

Though this year’s Freedom Riders do not expect the same dangers, two buses of immigrant workers were detained September 26 by the U.S. Border Patrol in Marfa, Texas. After an e-mail alert prompted a deluge of phone calls from around the country, the buses were released.

For more information on the Minnesota buses and Freedom Riders, contact Teresa Ortiz at 612-276-0788 ext. 22 or tortiz@americas.org.
For ongoing coverage of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, and to read reports from the routes already underway, visit the national Freedom Ride Web site, www.iwfr.org, and the special Web site set up for the Seattle route, www.seattle-iwfr.org.