San Francisco Fails to Mobilize for Immigrant Rights

by Randy Shaw, 2006-03-27

All across America, labor unions, religious groups, immigrant rights activists, and Latino families are mobilizing against Republican legislation that would turn undocumented immigrants and those that assist them into criminals. Over 20,000 people took to the streets in Phoenix, 30,000 brought business to a halt in Milwaukee, 50,000 rallied in Denver, thousands protested in Atlanta and over 100,000 took to the streets in Chicago. In Los Angeles, SEIU, the Catholic Church, Korean and Latino immigrant groups and the Spanish-language media spurred over 1,000,000 predominately Latino families in a march and rally that included Mayor Villaraigosa and much of the city’s political establishment. Immigrant rights has become the national progressive movement’s top domestic priority, and California’s Dianne Feinstein could play a decisive role in the outcome. Yet at this critical time in our nation’s history, when San Francisco’s activism could help shape the national debate, the city’s churches, labor unions, and political leaders are nowhere to be found. Sadly, a city that prides itself as being in the vanguard of civil rights struggles appears unconcerned about defending the tens of thousands of San Franciscans who are undocumented immigrants.

During the lead up to the Iraq war, thousands of San Franciscans took to the streets believing they had a moral imperative to publicly oppose America’s planned invasion. San Franciscans also mobilized in support of gay marriage, which many argued was the defining moral issue of our times. Yet when tens of thousands of San Francisco Latinos face deportation and/or prison under federal legislation to be heard by the Senate this week, the immigrants rights group La Raza Centro Legal was left to fight this battle alone through a little-publicized hunger strike at the Federal Building.

Can it be that liberal San Francisco does not really care whether thousands of its residents are made criminals due to racist attacks on the current generation of predominately Latino immigrants? Based on the city’s inaction, it is difficult to draw a contrary conclusion.

It was not always this way. In the 1980’s, San Francisco exceeded any American city in its support for immigrants rights. But those were the days when San Francisco Archbishop John Quinn mobilized the Catholic Archdiocese against US intervention in Central America, and on behalf of the rights of the undocumented who had arrived in San Francisco after fleeing the region torn apart by US-backed military regimes.

In the mid-1980’s an estimated 10,000 people encircled the Cathedral Hill Hotel on Van Ness while El Salvador’s US-backed President Jose Napoleon Duarte was inside. Progressive activists played a key role in this massive turnout, but it would not have happened without the leadership of the Catholic Church.

Pope John-Paul II then came in and put a stop to the San Francisco Archdiocese’s mobilizing for social justice. Under Archbishop Levada, who will soon become a Cardinal, San Francisco’s Catholic Church moved as far away as possible from the social activism of the Quinn era.

While the religious community has prioritized immigrant rights throughout much of America, the Catholic Church has done nothing in San Francisco. Whether as punishment for its support for gay rights, or in retaliation for its once being a liberal Catholic hotbed, San Francisco now has the most politically conservative Catholic leadership in America.

But despite the current Pope’s conservatism, the Vatican has not deterred American Catholic leaders from aggressively advocating for undocumented immigrants. This position is based both on morality and self –interest, since the deportation of undocumented Latinos would have parishes closing down across America.

Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles has gone so far to announce that should the House bill making it a felony to help the undocumented become law, his diocese will refuse to abide by it. Catholic leaders in other cities have expressed support for Mahoney’s position. Mahoney played a key role in organizing Saturday’s mammoth turnout in Los Angeles.

As for San Francisco’s labor unions, if there has been a local labor protest around the immigration bill it is news to me. The most heavily Latino union is SEIU Local 87, the Janitors Union, and it has been invisible in this fight (Local 87 voted to leave the state SEIU Local 1877, which has played a leading role in protecting the rights of the undocumented).

It is often said that if the people will lead, the leaders will follow. Since the religious and labor community has not held major protests or rallies, or apparently asked Mayor Newsom or the Board of Supervisors to take any public action to protect San Francisco’s undocumented immigrants, it may be unfair to blame politicians for not doing more.

On the other hand, Mayor Newsom did not wait to be pushed on the issue of gay marriage. And he and his colleagues certainly know about the protests across the nation, and the public support elected officials have given to this struggle. But it appears San Francisco’s political establishment has other priorities.

On Monday, March 27 at 11:00am, La Raza Centro Legal concludes its week-long protest activities by leading a march from the Federal Building in San Francisco to Senator Feinstein’s office at One Post Street. At the same time Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Bevan Dufty will be joining Family Builders By Adoption in the Mayor’s Office to announce a new program supporting LGBTQ Foster Youth.

San Francisco politicians are frequently criticized (wrongly) for taking stands on the Bush impeachment, Iraq war, and other allegedly “non-local” issues. Mayor Newsom chided Supervisor Daly’s impeachment resolution on the grounds that nobody in Congress would care about San Francisco’s action. But with Mayor Feinstein a key player in the immigration debate, this is the rare opportunity where vocal opposition from Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors could have an impact.

And where, for goodness sake, is Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi? Her views on the immigrant issue are correct and she says all the right things, but should not she and the Mayor be leading major protests at the Federal Building rather than a small, politically unconnected nonprofit like La Raza Centro Legal?

(Had Renee Saucedo and her allies at La Raza not taken full responsibility for organizing an immigration protest, San Francisco could fairly have been said to have ignored the entire issue)

Despite little help from San Francisco, the House bill that criminalizes illegal immigration, and those that provide services to such immigrants, will likely fail in the Senate. Senate Republicans are split on the “guest worker” part of the legislation, which has also divided labor; the AFL-CIO does not believe that provision should be part of any agreement, while SEIU and the Change to Win federation accepts the provision as part of a deal to secure amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants.

But with Republicans desperate for some kind of win to take before the voters in November, the defeat of the worst immigration bill does not mean that a bad piece of legislation will not eventually pass. Before this occurs, San Franciscans might reconsider the city’s neglect of the undocumented immigrants that make the city work, and join the rest of America in fighting for what’s right.

A National Day of Action has been called for April 10, so San Francisco will soon have an opportunity to send a different message about its commitment to immigrant rights.

Send feedback to rshaw@beyondchron.org