ICE Targets Organized Labor: Farmworker Union Leader Detained in Washington State

Photo courtesy of Edgar Franks, Political Director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia

Farmworker and union leader Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino was taken into custody by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) on Tuesday, March 25^th. An explicit politically-motivated targeting of a union activist, Zeferino’s detainment occurred in Sedro-Woolley, WA while he was driving his partner to her job. Zeferino defended himself by exercising his 5^th Amendment rights and refusing to exit his vehicle, to which ICE officers reciprocated by breaking his car window. He is confirmed to be a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Zeferino helped found Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a farmworker union in Skagit County, WA as a teen. He is also a volunteer with Community to Community Development (C2C) and a former member of the City of Bellingham’s Immigration Advisory Board.

House Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) remarked, “The Trump administration and ICE have claimed that they are going after ‘the worst of the worst’ — but there is no indication that Alfredo Juarez Zeferino and the other people detained today represent the worst of the worst … Immigrating to the United States is legal. Union organizing is legal.”

Zeferino is currently being held in ICE custody pending removal proceedings, according to an ICE spokesperson. The illegal detention of Zeferino is not just a sign of the continued attacks on immigrants, but a direct attack on the labor movement. Class-oriented trade unionists must take the lead in standing up against these fascist attacks. If we don’t, in the near future we may hear, “First they came for the immigrants …”

Author

Driss El-Hassan SBWU Member

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