March planned for immigration, detention reform

Immigrants and advocates in Hempstead Wednesday announced a May 1 march through the village to press national leaders to reform the immigration and detention systems.

The demonstration, organized by The Workplace Project, a Hempstead nonprofit, is part of an effort by advocates nationwide to mark international workers' day with rallies for immigration reform.

"It doesn't matter who is in the White House, we immigrants have to make our own efforts if we want to achieve" immigration reform, organizer Carlos Canales said at a news conference Wednesday outside Hempstead Village Hall.

"There are many people who are afraid to organize because they're afraid of being deported," said Jose Edmundo Marinero of SEIU Local 32JB and the Long Island Civic Participation Project. "Immigration reform would help those workers to be able to organize, join a union and be respected at work."

Nationwide, the number of people detained by immigration officials has increased to more than 400,000 a year, according to published reports.

"Each one of those persons is tied to a family, so this situation is tearing families apart," said Luis Valenzuela, executive director of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance.

Valenzuela called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fulfill his remarks on immigration reform last Saturday at a Las Vegas rally, where he said Congress would take up the issue this week after a recess. "Let's hold him to his word," Valenzuela said.

On Tuesday, Reid stepped back, saying Congress would not tackle the issue this session.

Samantha Fredrickson, director of the Nassau chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, raised questions about potential privacy violations stemming from a draft immigration reform plan by Sens. Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham that would require biometric Social Security cards to ensure illegal immigrants can't work.

The march is scheduled to start at noon at North Franklin and Front streets. After the rally, buses will shuttle participants to a demonstration at Union Square in Manhattan organized by the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights.