Tonight, Tuesday Oct. 18th, PBS will be airing a ground breaking documentary on PBS, Lost in Detention.  Join us as we live twitter chat with the National Day Labor Organizing Network and Detention Watch Network using the hastag #altopolimigra. 

Building upon the hard work we all have done together in the past year to expose the dangers of police/ICE collaborations, Lost in Detention’s debut will be a critical moment in swaying the hearts and minds against criminalization and towards human rights.

Click here for more info on Lost in Detention and to find your local listing.

And join the conversation at #altopolimigra Tuesday at 9:00pm Eastern.

In a unanimous vote, the Board of Governors For Higher Education of Rhode Island extended in-state tuition rates for residents to attend public colleges and universities in Rhode Island, regardless of their legal status.  To benefit from this decision, residents must meet the following:

1)     Attended high school in Rhode Island for at least 3 years

2)     Graduated from a Rhode Island high school or received an equivalent degree

3)     Will seek legal status in the US as soon as she or he is eligible

This change in policy means that higher education will be attainable to more undocumented students; for example, attending the University of Rhode Island will annually cost $9,824 compared to $25,912 for out-of-state students.

Juliana Romero, co-founder and active member of IDEAS for New England, one of the organizations that advocated for this policy change, commented, “Nothing is impossible! We fought for our dream to go to school! At the end of the day we all stood together, got hit with some haters (specifically ignorance and racism), but we won so it was worth it! Always have faith.”

Allowing Rhode Islanders to

Continue reading Rhode Island Passes In-state Tuition for Undocumented Students

South Florida Jobs with Justice and our community coalition partners on the Wage Theft Ordinance Task Force had a huge victory on September 22nd at the Miami-Dade budget hearings. The county removed the funding in the 2011 budget for the for enforcement of the Wage Theft Ordinance. Since the passage of the Wage Theft Ordinance in 2010, $580,000 in lost wages have been collected from scofflaw employers for the workers in Miami-Dade County.

Recognizing that without enforcement there would be little or no wage recovery, South Florida Jobs with Justice and the Wage Theft Task Force went into action. We visited Commissioners and deluged the Mayor’s office with phone calls. When we were called to speak at the budget hearings, the Mayor announced that the funding for the Wage Theft enforcement position in the Department of Small Business Development had been restored.

It was quite a victory! A big thanks to SF JwJ Board member, Fran Menes, who “herded cats” as the Wage Theft Task Force Coordinator. South Florida Jobs with Justice Board member, John Ratliff who attended the hearing, commented: “Good job at the podium and before

Continue reading Wage Theft Ordinance, Victory in Miami-Dade!

Hershey, PA—After six weeks of mounting national pressure on Hershey’s for exploiting J-1 student workers and depriving local workers of living wage jobs, former student workers at the Hershey’s packing plant organized a 1,000-strong march in Hershey for justice and jobs on Friday, Sep. 23.  Chicago Jobs with Justice, Stand UP! Chicago, and the Baker’s Union (BCTGM Local 1) mobilized solidarity actions at one of Hershey’s boutique stores there.

The students—who paid $3,000-6,000 each to come to the U.S. for a cultural exchange and instead became captive labors at Hershey’s packing plant—organized and became members of the National Guestworker Alliance. With support from Central PA residents and organized labor, the students held a walk-out and strike from the Hershey’s plant on Aug. 17.

Four federal agencies launched investigations into the exploitation of J-1 student workers at the Hershey’s plant, and nearly 70,000 Americans signed a petition in support of the students’ demands: 1) return the $3,000-6,000 students paid for false promises of a

Continue reading 1,000 march against Hershey’s corporate greed, for good jobs

Knoxville, home of JwJ of East Tennessee (JwJET), is also presently home to a major public works project. The main bridge that runs from our downtown, across the Tennessee River, and out toward the Great Smoky Mountains is in the midst of a top-to-bottom repair and reconstruction effort that will close the bridge for two years. Except for the temporary traffic headaches, and except for the fact that union contractors had pretty much been locked out of doing the work, a project of this kind would normally be a cause for celebration: through this investment of public funds we are strengthening our infrastructure, helping individuals and businesses that rely on free movement across the river, increasing safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists who use the bridge, and creating jobs for construction workers hard hit by the recession.

In this case, however, the bridge project has become a cause for mourning and outrage. On January 25, 2011, less than a month after work on the project began, a worker named John Womac was killed when he was struck by the arm of a track

Continue reading JwJ of East Tennessee Responds to Worker Deaths on Bridge Project

Today, in cities across the U.S., communities are coming together to stop H.R. 2164, legislation presented by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith.  H.R. 2164 would make it mandatory for nearly every employer in the U.S. to use a computer program to access an error-prone government database to verify whether or not a job applicant is eligible to work before any worker could start a new job through a process known as “e-verify.”  This legislation is expected to be taken up by the House Judiciary committee for markup tomorrow.

E-Verify will hurt all businesses and the fragile economy, and will leave workers more vulnerable to abuse on the job by giving unscrupulous employers yet another tool to use against workers who try to stand up for their rights.

TAKE ACTION NOW!  Tell Congress to Stop E-Verify

E-Verify will place a significant burden on small businesses, raising their costs even as they are struggling in this economy. Almost every business—no matter how small—will be forced to implement this complicated system.  The estimated cost to

Continue reading Tell Congress: No More Red Tape! Stop Job-Killing E-Verify Legislation

Today, in cities across the U.S., communities are coming together to educate and take collective action to stop H.R. 2164, legislation presented by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith.  H.R. 2164 will make the use of E-Verify mandatory for nearly every employer in the United States.  This legislation is expected to be taken up by the House Judiciary committee for markup at the end of this week.

Mandatory E-Verify is a jobs killer. It is bad for working people, bad for business and bad for the economy.  That is why community leaders, small business owners, and workers are speaking out today against the E-Verify program.

In Portland, Portland Jobs with Justice will join community leaders in a press conference telling Congress that forcing employers to use the flawed E-Verify system will harm U.S. workers and employers and undercut the country’s economic recovery.

A mandatory E-Verify system would require employers to perform a computer check for every job applicant

Continue reading Communities United as Part of National Day of Action Against E-Verify