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Maria, a single mother, had supported her family by cleaning office buildings in San Jose ever since she arrived in the U.S. 11 years ago from Mexico. But after 9/11, she was fired for being undocumented. "This did not matter to them before," she explained. "They hired me and paid me $12 an hour for a decade. But I lost my job and couldn't find another one for nine months." During
that time, the family relied on help from their neighbors, and
eventually had to ask for food from churches. "We have not been able to send money anymore to our children (in the Philippines)," Escober said. "This is an injustice. We were doing our job well." Kavneet Singh Alag, a Bay Area activist, described the shootings of Sikh cab drivers and store owners whose turbans have made them one of the most targeted groups for racial backlash. After two murders in Arizona, and three cab drivers shot in Northern California in the last 11 weeks, Singh said, the Sikh community is wondering "not what's going to happen next, but really, when is it going to happen?” Another speaker related the story of Mr. "B," an Iranian who was in the process of updating his immigration status when he showed up for "special registration." The policy, begun toward the end of 2002, required non-citizens from 25 countries to submit to photographing and fingerprinting at federal immigration facilities. As a result of coming forward, Mr. "B" was interrogated, shackled, and moved around jail cells in San Francisco, Arizona, Colorado, Bakersfield, and San Diego before he was released on bond to await a deportation hearing. Thousands of other non-citizens during the special registration process have been deported. Kathy Takeda, a member of the Japanese American Citizen's League, spoke for her father, Ed Takeda, who recalled watching his father being taken from their San Jose home by FBI agents at the start of World War II. The rest of the family soon afterward was interned at Gila River in Arizona, with no word of their father's whereabouts for five months. Takeda
said that the comparisons of September 11 to Pearl Harbor brought
back traumatic memories to his father. "It really got to Dad.
He said, 'Here we go again. They'll be hauled off to jail.' It's
so eerie that he knew exactly what would happen - because it had
happened to him and his family." "Do not take advantage of an alien, a foreigner. Pay him his wages each day for he is worthy," Saavedra read. "Give a man or woman his or her dignity. Don't steal it from them." Re-printed from ColorLines RaceWire.
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