Immigrant workers in the Magnolia State are calling on the U.S. government to grant them Deferred Action for Labor Enforcement, or DALE. The protective measure would shield immigrant workers due to their connection to active investigations at Mississippi poultry plants. Before delivering the formal letter to the federal building in downtown Jackson, Erika Vasquez, who organizes for workers in Crystal Springs, Utica and Hazlehurst, told those gathered the request is only the beginning of the fight.
"I want to be very clear at this moment," she said through a translator. "This is only the beginning of our fight."
It has been two years since agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided poultry plants throughout Mississippi, detaining nearly 700 workers. Salvador Sarmiento says the raids were a retaliatory response to reports over sexual harassment and racial discrimination in the workplace. "The message has very much been sent to them - you speak out, you will be deported," says the Policy Director with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. "And in the context of the pandemic, you can imagine how scary it is where your colleagues are getting sick, you're scared to go to work, but you can't speak out and you need to keep working."
Sarmiento hopes the request for DALE will not only keep immigrant communities together, but provide protection for those speaking out against unsafe labor practices. Lorena Quiroz, Executive Director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equality, says she hopes DALE is one step toward more compressive reform. "We need to see more," she says. "There's immigration reform and we don't know if that entire piece of legislation is going to pass."
"Let's make sure some parts of it are passed, like what we're asking for."
Attorneys from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network expect a response from the the Department of Labor in two to three weeks.
