Fusion
By Daniel Rivero
February 18, 2016
Dairy production in famously cheesy Wisconsin may be slowing to a drip today.
Thousands
of Latinos from across the Badger State have mobilized today, walking
out of their jobs and schools in protest of two bills in the state
legislature that activists
say are anti-immigrant and by extension anti-Latino.
Organizers
at Voces de la Frontera, a Wisconsin immigrant-rights group, are
calling the action “A Day Without Latinos.” Some Latino-owned businesses
have closed in support,
while others around the state are closing in solidarity.
On Thursday morning, this was the scene at the state capitol in Madison:
An
estimated 14,000 people were in attendance in front of the Capitol
building, an official at the Madison Police Department told Fusion.
There have been no reported arrests.
“It’s a very, very peaceful crowd,” said the official. “Lots of
families there with their children.”
That
number does not include the people inside the Capitol building. Capitol
Police estimate that about 1,500 people were inside the building during
the peak hour of noon
to 1 p.m., an official told Fusion. Overall, the Capitol Police
independently estimated 14,000 people were in attendance, lining up with
the city police account.
One
of the bills being contested is Assembly Bill 450, which aims to
prohibit “sanctuary cities” from being created in the state. “Sanctuary
cities” direct their police
departments not to inquire about a person’s immigration status when
they come in contact with law enforcement. Republicans in the state
assembly (Wisconsin’s version of a State House) passed the bill along
partisan lines.
“It’s
similar to Arizona’s bill that was passed that went on to the Supreme
Court,” Marisabel Cabrera, a Milwaukee immigration attorney who drove to
Madison for the rally,
told Fusion, referring to the controversial Arizona law that was mostly
struck down by the Supreme Court in 2012. The bill is expected to be
heard by the state’s Senate in the near future.
Another
bill that has drawn ire from Latino groups is SB 533, which would
restrict local governments from issuing local photo IDs for people who
cannot get state IDs for
some reason or another. The bill was passed by Republicans in the
Senate earlier this week, along partisan lines. It will soon go to the
Assembly.
Milwaukee
recently passed a law that would allow it to start issuing the local
IDs to the city’s undocumented immigrants and homeless populations. The
law has not yet
gone into effect.
“[The
bills] increase the fear of anyone who is undocumented, and it’s going
to negatively impact the state in general, because if people think
they’re gonna be asked
for their papers they’re not gonna go to school, they’re not gonna go
to work; they’re gonna go more underground,” said Cabrera. “And that’s
not gonna be helpful for anybody.”
Part
of the reason the state’s “Day Without Latinos” is so important is
because it will “let people know how much Latinos contribute to this
state,” said Luz Sosa, a University
professor at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, and organizer with
Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a progressive activist group.
“We’re
not going to stand by and be discriminated against and have our rights
trampled on,” she told Fusion while en route to the capitol building
from Milwaukee.
The economic impact of the action is not immediately clear, but it will likely have a big impact the state’s dairy industry.
In
preparation for the action, dairy farmers expressed to local papers
that were concerned that the production would drop sharply, as workers
leave to show solidarity.
Approximately 90% of people in the state’s dairy industry are from
Mexico, according to a study cited by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The
head of one dairy farm told the paper it reached a compromise, where it
agreed to give full pay to a handful of its employees while they go to
the rally and represent
their coworkers, to avoid working with a skeleton crew. The bills stand
to make his employees feel less welcome in the state, he said, even
though all his employees are in the U.S. legally.
“That
disturbs me very much because my employees are very welcomed,” Don
Niles, a dairy farmer owner, told the paper. “The vast majority of my
workforce, with the exception
of my family and two other people, are all from outside the United
States originally.”
In
Madison, restaurants and businesses surrounding the capitol have closed
in support of the action. Other businesses including tattoo parlors,
tax preparation services,
daycares, coffeeshops and more are also closing for the day across the
state, according to a press release issued by Voces de la Frontera.
“In
2006 we defeated [a bill] by mobilizing a massive Day without Latinos,”
said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la
Frontera in a statement. “It
is urgent that we do the same on February 18th.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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