Tell Greyhound: ICE off our buses!
By
August 20, 2019
The call to action below can be shared and signed at bit.ly/ICEoffBuses. Fight for Im/migrants and Refugees Everywhere is a multinational, multigenerational and multigendered organization based in the U.S., seeking to bring together all sectors of society to concentrate on abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immediately putting an end to all deportations and closing all migrant detention centers. The International Workers’ Solidarity Network is building an international network of working-class organizations and activists who understand that every struggle is a workers’ struggle and recognize the urgency of developing global working-class solidarity.
ICE off our buses! Build solidarity and worker power to end Greyhound collaboration with ICE!
Fight for Im/migrants and Refugees Everywhere (FIRE) and the International Workers’ Solidarity Network (IWSN) call for the immediate end of Greyhound’s collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Every day across the U.S., ICE, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents freely board buses with Greyhound’s permission and attempt to identify and detain migrants.
Greyhound is not required to allow immigration agents onto its buses, but rather does so voluntarily, conceding to the racist climate created by Trump to demonize migrant workers and divide working-class people.
It is imperative that all workers unite in solidarity to challenge this egregious collaboration with white supremacy by Greyhound.
The union that represents Greyhound drivers, mechanics and terminal workers — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1700 — has courageously spoken out to condemn the company’s complicity in the racist war against migrants being carried out by the Trump administration.
In a statement, President Karen Miller said: “I’ve seen this happen before. I used to drive a Memphis-Dallas Greyhound bus, and law enforcement would sometimes stop my bus, search it with dogs and ask for IDs, mostly from people of color. I hated it then, but now it is happening more often, and the consequences are devastating for our passengers and their families.
“At a time when our government has implemented inhumane and cruel immigration policies — such as separating children from their parents, holding families in indefinite detention and deporting people who have been in the country for decades — we cannot allow this to happen.”
In recent months, Trump and his allies have dramatically escalated the brutal and long-standing U.S. war on migrant workers, carrying out clandestine raids in communities across the country, separating children from their families and establishing a network of concentration camps along the border — an extension of the system of mass incarceration that imprisons upwards of 2 million workers in the United States, many of whom are Black and people of color. At the same time, a number of U.S. corporations are getting rich off their collaboration and participation in the attacks against migrant workers.
In an effort to divide workers from uniting to fight our true enemies, the small group of Wall Street bankers and the owners of big business, Trump has emboldened the most reactionary elements of society to come forward and act as foot soldiers in this war. White supremacists have recently carried out nothing short of terrorist massacres targeting Black and Latinx workers in Gilroy, Calif.; El Paso, Texas; and elsewhere. Trump, with his hate-filled rhetoric, is responsible for the horrific mass shootings in California, Texas and Ohio.
The Democratic Party is complicit in this war on migrants, themselves building and operating the massive machinery to carry out mass deportations and raids, and currently offering little to no challenge to the white supremacist forces being mobilized by Trump, or to Trump himself.
We urge the labor movement to follow the example set by ATU 1700 and other unions which have spoken out and mobilized their memberships in solidarity with migrant workers, reviving in struggle the slogan: “An injury to one is an injury to all!”
Nothing short of a mass mobilization or a general strike of workers is needed to fight against the atrocities being carried out against migrant workers in this period.
We call on all working-class forces to join this campaign to end Greyhound’s collaboration with ICE and to take any and all opportunity to mobilize in solidarity with migrant workers.
Actions you can take:
- Sign your name in support: bit.ly/ICEoffBuses.
- Call Greyhound (214-849-8966) and tell them: ICE, DHS and CBP off our buses! Buses are for transportation, not deportation!
- Organize or join an action near you. For a list of actions, go to: workersolidarity.net and fightformigrants.org.
