Dear friends,
I’m hoping that Mondays don’t turn into mad Mondays, since being angry always seems like such a waste of energy. Still, there is so much to be angry about. This nonsense about ending mask mandates and reopening states in the face of rapidly spreading disease will no doubt manifest in lost lives, which is bad enough. Then, on top of that, is the violence and hatred against working people who are trying to stay alive in spite of failed leadership. The owners of two Mexican restaurants in Houston that sought to maintain their own mask rule reported that their staff have faced verbal abuse and assault by angry patrons who refused to wear masks, as well as intimidating messages, including several threats to call ICE on members of the restaurant staff.
“Being Hispanic, and going through that immigration process, and finally receiving your papers, and then for somebody to start threatening you after you’ve been through all that, that’s crazy,” [the owner of Picos] said. “It’s just heartbreaking.”
Undocumented residents in the US are still some our most vulnerable people. And they are our people — they pick our food and work in American homes and businesses. The new Administration promised a path to citizenship.
Sign the petition calling for a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented immigrants and an end to all detentions and deportations!
Donate to LaUnidad11’s Deportation Defense Network, a mutual aid and solidarity organization serving the migrant community in Houston, TX.
Here in NYC, there are landlords using threats of eviction against tenants who are undocumented. New York City’s Human Rights Law includes citizenship status and national origin as protected categories.
[I]t’s illegal for landlords (as well as employers and providers of public services) to discriminate against someone based on their real or perceived citizenship status or national origin.
Any time a landlord mentions what they think your immigration status or national origin is as a way to intimidate you, that’s probably tenant harassment and discrimination. So, they could be breaking housing law and human rights law in the city. This also includes any abusive language, slurs, suggesting you go back to the country you immigrated from or threatening to call ICE.
Please support Make the Road, a service provider and advocacy organization for immigrant and working-class New Yorkers.
As I was finalizing this post this morning, a friend sent me an image from her visit to the Met yesterday. She saw the Goya show. The drawing is called You won’t get anywhere by shouting ca. 1816-20. She knew I would like this one, calling to us across the centuries.
with love,
L