Thursday and Friday’s vigils are an effort to illustrate the ongoing, human cost of this agency’s misguided, out-of-control immigration enforcement strategy—which only serves to waste taxpayer resources, hurt hardworking people, and devastate local communities.  ICE’s “strategy” of sowing misery in workplaces and communities not only fails to tackle the underlying issue of our broken immigration system—it also contradicts efforts to improve wages and working conditions of all U.S. workers.

WHAT:           Prayer vigil of area cleaners and immigrants rights activists to call on ICE to stop the enforcement outrages and get its house in order

WHEN / WHERE:       Oakland, Thursday April 8: 11:00 a.m. PT

ICE office at 15th & Broadway, Oakland CA

Sacramento, Thursday April 8: 7:00 p.m. PT

ICE Office 650 Capitol Mall, Sacramento, CA

San Jose, Friday April 9: 11:00 a.m. PT

ICE office 1817 Monterey Rd, San Jose, CA

Los Angeles, Friday April 9: 4:00 p.m. PT

USCIS Office, 300 North Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA

Boston, Friday, April 9: 4:00 p.m. ET

JFK Federal Building by Government Center, Boston, MA

Minneapolis, Friday, April 9: 9:00 a.m. CT

Location TBD

Additional sites are pending

VISUALS:       SEIU janitors with American flags holding peaceful signs, candles, carnations.

BACKGROUND: SEIU’s Immigration Enforcement and Reform Principles.

SEIU believes that America deserves a professional and well-managed immigration enforcement agency that sticks to the constructive mission of punishing criminals and the most abusive employers. DHS and ICE must be able to distinguish between bad-actor-employers and those who are merely caught in a broken system. They should focus scarce resources on the bad actors who intentionally take advantage of our dysfunctional immigration system to exploit workers and push down wages for everyone.

SEIU also believes that over the long-term, the only real solution to our broken system is comprehensive immigration reform. As the largest union of immigrant workers, and also a union that represents more than a million workers who are not immigrants, we hope and expect that our nation’s leaders will enact workable solutions to our immigration problems and that they will recognize that punitive, anti-immigrant measures are neither realistic nor workable.  Read more about SEIU’s Immigration Reform Principles and about Change to Win and AFL-CIO’s joint labor framework.

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With 2.2 million members in Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico, SEIU is the fastest-growing union in the Americas and the largest union of immigrants. Focused on uniting workers in healthcare, public services and property services, SEIU members are winning better wages, healthcare and more secure jobs for our communities, while uniting their strength with their counterparts around the world to help ensure that workers--not just corporations and CEOs--benefit from today's global economy.