Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (Photo: Flickr/The National Guard)

Former members of a task force on Secure Communities sent a letter this week to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano calling on her to suspend the immigration enforcement program.

The letter also expressed their concern that an Arizona law enforcement agency that has committed a “wide range of civil rights violations” still has access to Secure Communities.

Brittney Nystrom of the National Immigration Forum and Andrea Zuniga DiBitetto of the AFL-CIO write in the letter:

As former members of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, Task Force on Secure Communities, we note with concern the multiple findings of racial profiling of Latinos and other civil rights violations by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 15.

The findings of a pattern and practice of racial profiling of Latinos in Maricopa County, Arizona, demonstrate that abuse can occur while the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is actively collaborating with enforcement agencies through both the 287(g) program and the Secure Communities program and through informal collaboration between DHS and law enforcement agencies.

“My understanding is that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is continuing to operate Secure Communities in Maricopa County despite the findings of discriminatory policing by that sheriffs department,” Nystrom tells The Florida Independent.

Secure Communities allows local law enforcement agencies to check the fingerprints of people they detain and match them up with federal immigration and criminal databases, with the stated goal of deporting undocumented immigrant criminals. All 67 Florida jurisdictions participate in Secure Communities.

Napolitano said in October that the termination of Secure Communities “would only weaken public safety, and move the immigration enforcement system back towards the ad hoc approach where non-criminal aliens are more likely to be removed than criminals.”

Opponents of Secure Communities have repeatedly called on the Obama administration to end the fingerprint-sharing program because immigrants who have committed no crime are being detained and deported, leaving behind U.S.-born children and families that, in many cases, will struggle to make ends meet.

Nystrom says that Homeland Security officials said they were “limiting” the Maricopa sheriff’s office’s “access to Secure Communities, but that in [her] thinking and Andrea’s thinking doesn’t go far enough to prevent someone who was picked up in a biased manner from being put into the deportation machine.”

The letter adds that the Secure Communities termination should also include Alabama, “where immigration enforcement laws that have been challenged as unconstitutional by the Department of Justice are in effect.”

Last session, the Chamber successfully lobbied for changes to the state’s unemployment benefit program. The result of their efforts: fewer benefit payments to the unemployed and a reduction of entrants into the program. In Florida, the maximum number of weeks someone can receive state unemployment benefits changed from 26 weeks to 23 — and if the state’s unemployment rate continues to fall, that could be shortened to as little as 12 weeks.

Businesses in Florida, however, were allowed to dodge an increase in taxes levied to fill the state’s unemployment trust. The trust has been frequently teetering on insolvency because of the state’s persistent unemployment.

New reports show that Florida currently has the fifth lowest unemployment benefits in the country, as well as the eight lowest unemployment tax. Florida was one of only three states that made significant cuts to unemployment benefits and eligibility over the past two years.

Rich Templin of the AFL-CIO says that businesses in Florida have been allowed to not contribute what is “legally their fair share.” According to him, while some argue last year’s legislation relieved businesses of a burden, it actually hurt small businesses, in particular.

“What ends up happening is that small businesses actually lose out on money at the cash register,” Templin says. “It’s actually a job-killer.” He says when unemployed people do not receive benefits or receive less benefits, they lose “purchasing power” that goes back into the state’s economy. Templin calls Florida’s unemployment program an “unmitigated disaster.”

In the Chamber’s 2012 agenda (.pdf), the group says that the state “must”:

• Modify the formula in current law that determines the unemployment compensation trust fund balance recoupment rate and reduces the taxable wage base.
• Encourage examination by the Department of Revenue and legislative committees of the array calculation and its potential impact on Florida’s unemployment compensation tax rate for businesses.

While the group has not asked for specific legislation, Templin says the fact that the influential Chamber has unemployment benefits on its agenda again is a “concern.”

Alan Stonecipher of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy says the state has been “declaring open season on the unemployed.” He says the plan to remove responsibility from businesses has been “unfair, as well as unwise.”

“Florida has had the deepest and most sweeping cuts to unemployment than anywhere in the country,” Stonecipher says. “Florida has been open for business — and businesses have been walking right through the door.”

Florida’s unemployment problem has not seen seen any real improvement. It was reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday that the state suffered 69 mass layoff actions during the month of September, which was the fourth highest number in the nation. The state’s employment growth has also mostly been in low-wage industries.

“The state is no longer digging into the bone of unemployment benefits,” Templin says. “They are digging into the marrow.”

Walker was at the Sheraton for a fundraising dinner benefiting the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank located in Washington, D.C. Branstad was among those attending the event.

Walker gained national attention earlier this year when he pushed a bill stripping some collective bargaining rights for public workers and requiring them to pay more for health insurance, among other things.

Among those demonstrating were Danny Homan, head of AFSCME Iowa Council 61; Ken Sagar, head of the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO; and Ed Fallon, a former state legislator and gubernatorial candidate.

The Heritage Foundation event was closed to the media, but a video is expected to be available online on Thursday.

The company and the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union resumed negotiations on Monday, but a statement from a company official indicates that talks broke down at some point on Tuesday. The company is now offering the workers a revised final contract, and has given the workers until 11 p.m. on Nov. 1 to accept the offer or continue to be locked out.

Workers have been locked out of plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa since Aug. 1.

The statement issued Tuesday by Brian Ingulsrud, vice president of administration for ACS, said, in part, that the company began this week’s negotiations with a high expectation of resolution.

“Despite public comments by the union regarding significant movement, their offer failed to adequately address the issues identified by both parities as being the keys to reaching an agreement,” Insulsrud said. “Their new offer had no change in position whatsoever regarding the issue of subcontracting and job security. In the area of health care they offered very minor changes, but continued their demands for free health care insurance. … The company offered to revise the subcontracting language to guarantee that no employee or position will be eliminated due to subcontracting. The company also offered to delay by a year implementation of the transition to the management health care plan.”

John Riskey, Grand Forks, N.D. BCTGM Local 167G president, issued his own statement indicating that the company is proposing only minor changes to a contract that workers have already refused.

“Company executives seem committed to continuing a lockout that is tearing the community apart, putting hardship on 1,300 families and costing a farmer-owned cooperative an unsustainable amount of money,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Minnesota farmers have harvested 95 percent of their sugar beet crops. Sugar beet producers in North Dakota are also nearing completion.

An action alert from the AFL-CIO said that the company was attempting “to break the employees’ union” and is “risking this year’s harvest and the stability of local communities by sacrificing these good jobs to sweeten its corporate profits.”

To: American Crystal Sugar CEO Dave Berg

Sugar workers have always stood shoulder to shoulder with American Crystal Sugar and growers to protect and advance the sugar industry. They worked hard for the sugar program, Farm Bill, and stood up against the North American Free Trade Agreement and many other unfair trade agreements that hurt the sugar beet industry.

Together, the workers, company, and farmers have built the local economy, supported families, and helped communities flourish.

We respectfully urge you to reconsider your take-back plans and let your union workers stay on the job.

Shar Knutson, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, believes the lockout at ACS is placing at risk the entire U.S. sugar program that places a limit on how much sugar can be imported.

“An agricultural bill backed by Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Republican Sens. Richard Lugar of Indiana and John Thune of South Dakota would eliminate the sugar program entirely and is gaining serious momentum in Congress,” said Knutson.

Previously, he indicated, such plans to eliminate the sugar program have been quashed by a coalition of organized labor and industry officials.

“Labor-friendly members of Congress without sugar beet farms in their districts or states supported the program in previous years because of the once-positive labor relations at companies such as American Crystal,” Knutson said.

“But with American Crystal’s recent treatment of union workers, it’s going to be extremely difficult for organized labor to get behind the sugar program once again. Labor-friendly members of Congress from non-sugar producing areas also will have a hard time supporting an industry that is treating workers as poorly as American Crystal is right now.”

The lockout affects workers at facilities in Moorhead, East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Chaska, Minn.; Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D.; and Mason City. American Crystal Sugar is a cooperative that provides 38 percent of the nation’s sugar from sugar beets and 15 percent of all sugar production.

Mathis and Golding are locked in a special election that will determine control of the Iowa Senate. Former State Sen. Swati Dandekar (D-Marion) recently left office to take a position on the Iowa Utilities Board, leaving Democrats with a slim 25-24 advantage in the Senate.

Mathis spent $22,564 and had $40,842 on hand at the end of the reporting period, while Golding spent $35,549 and had $9,258 on hand.

Liz Mathis

Mathis took large contributions from labor unions and federal political action committees:

• $17,960 ActBlue non-federal in Cambridge, Mass.
• $5,000 from Linn Phoenix Club in Cedar Rapids
• $5,000 from Iowa Committee on Political Education – AFL-CIO in Des Moines
• $5,000 from Hawkeye Labor Council AFl-CIO PAC in Cedar Rapids
• $4,000 from Laborer’s Local Union #566 PAC in Ottumwa
• $2,500 from I.B.E.W. Educational Committee in Washington, D.C.
• $2,000 from United Steelworkers of America District 11 PAC in Minneapolis, Minn.

All of the in-kind contributions to the Mathis campaign were from the Iowa Democratic Party, mostly for advertising as well as printing, postage and mailing. Most of Mathis’s expenditures were through a $20,000 contribution to the Senate Majority Fund.

Cindy Golding

Golding took large contributions from Team Iowa PAC, as well as from the Plymouth County GOP and herself:

• $12,500 from Team Iowa PAC in Des Moines
• $5,000 from GOP of Plymouth County
• $5,000 from herself
• $5,000 from Tammy Bertrand of Sioux City
• $2,000 from Wapello County Republican Central Committee in Ottumwa
• $1,000 from Lyon County Republican Party in Rock Rapids
• $1,000 from State Sen. Tim Kapucian (R-Keystone)
• $1,000 from State Sen. James Hahn (R-Muscatine)
• $1,000 from Brenda Kelly of Marion

Golding’s in-kind contributions were almost entirely from the Republican Party of Iowa, including $60,557 for advertising. Most of Golding’s expenditures were through an $11,000 contribution to the Republican Party of Iowa; and printing, advertising and campaign signs.

The documents, filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board, cover fundraising from July 15 to Oct. 14.

“We’re just going as participants,” Texas AFL-CIO spokesman Ed Sills told the Texas Independent before the Austin protest’s first day. “We haven’t organized it.”

Now that the demonstrations have turned into campouts — proper “occupations” of city parks — workers’ unions continue to have a presence at Occupy protests, as union spokesmen stress their groups aren’t calling the shots or financing the efforts.

For demonstrators wary of being, or appearing to be, co-opted by larger groups, there’s a delicate balance required as they accept support from workers that believe in their cause.

Members of the Texas State Employees Union, a state chapter of the Communications Workers of America, submitted an open letter from Occupy Austin to other local union groups, urging their members to join in.

Spokesman Mike Gross told the Texas Independent that while many of the group’s members have turned up to join in the protest, most can’t keep skipping work to stay camped out at Austin City Hall. After the national CWA endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement, he said, they decided to support the local protest.

“There are a lot of streams of political positions, but the original core is that we’re a country being dominated more and more by corporate powers,” Gross said. “We agree with the outrage on those things, so we think we ought to be there.”

Bus drivers from the Transport Workers Union Local 260 marched with Occupy Houston protesters last week, demanding a livable wage.

“When I tell you that a group of people started this that I didn’t know — it kind of freaked me out,” Stephen Benavides, an officer with the North Texas Association of Public Employees, a local United Steelworkers chapter, told the Texas Independent.

After deciding to endorse the nationwide movement along with other labor leaders at the the AFL-CIO’s Young Workers Summit in Minneapolis in early October, Benavides said he was amazed at how the movement grew in Dallas.

Since then, he’s joined the campout and says he’s “the only union guy” out here. While he’s heard charges that the unions are paying people to camp out or protest, Benavides said that’s something he hasn’t seen — in fact, he’s losing work hours to join in, he said.

Benavides said he’s helping with the campsite’s library and an education tent. “We may buy a tent, we may donate a generator,” he said, but the union’s involvement is really about moral support.

South Florida Jobs for Justice, together with local labor unions, held a press conference this morning announcing their support for Occupy Miami.

Occupy Miami, a local group protesting in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, is currently occupying government center in Miami. The group held a rally this Saturday that drew more than 1,000 supporters.

Kit Rafferty, executive director of South Florida Jobs with Justice, tells The Florida Independent that, together with multiple labor unions, the group is supporting the occupiers and their “right to peacefully assemble and to build power for the 99 percent.”

South Florida Jobs With Justice is a “is a membership network” with affiliates that “includes small and minority businesses, community service groups and labor unions,” the group’s website says.

Rafferty says that the AFL-CIO, SEIU and the painters union, to name a few, are standing behind the protesters. She says that even the president of the national chapter of the AFL-CIO has expressed his support for the group.

“There is huge disparity in this town,” Rafferty says, describing a city where extreme poverty exists side by side with extreme wealth. ”Anything we can do to support them, we will do,” she says.

Rafferty says that labor unions are fighting for fairness and working families, just like the occupiers, and that at least six different unions were represented at Saturday’s rally.

“We are really happy that we are seeing people committed to change,” she says.

The rally, organized by Moveon.org and the AFL-CIO, said Bank of America has become a symbol of greed. The bank recently announced a monthly $5 fee for ATM, and many groups have been critical of the bank for not paying more in taxes.

“This is as close to Wall Street as we can get,” said Wilbur Wilson of Des Moines, who organized the rally. “This company here paid no taxes in 2009 and they foreclosed illegally on people and it’s just not right. That’s why I picked this corner.”

Wilson said people are upset with the banking system, Congress and what he sees as a lack of support for the lower and middle classes.

“I’ve always believed that I am my brother’s keeper,” Wilson said. “I may not be a real religious guy but we are our brother’s keeper. If we cease to remember that we’re nothing more than barbarians.”

Mark Cooper, president of the South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, said the trickle down economics concept won’t work and people need to get behind President Obama’s jobs plan.

“We need to get an influx of money into the economy,” Cooper said. “In essence that’s why we’re out here, that we need to create jobs and it’s not about giving tax breaks to corporations, giving tax breaks to Bank of America.”

Rep. Bruce Hunter (D-Des Moines) said he thinks the Occupy movement spreading across the country along with demonstrations like this one will have an impact on state and federal governments.

“This is just the beginning stages of it and as it becomes more organized and coalesces there will be a message coming out of it and a movement that is it’s time for people to take over their government,” Hunter said.

“I encourage members of the progressive caucus or any public official or any public figure, don’t try to inject yourself into this,” Ellison said on MSNBC over the weekend. “Show up and support it, if people want you speak—speak—but respect the fact that this is a citizen thing.”

Ellison said he’s convinced the Minneapolis occupations are peaceful, and that people are rightly concerned about predatory banks, unemployment and the “expanding wealth gap.”

“It’s deeper than a bill, and it’s deeper than what party’s in the majority,” Ellison said. “There is a growing sense among many Americans that the American dream is getting out of their grasp.”

The event is receiving significant institutional muster, with the Metropolitan Washington Council of AFL-CIO lending its organizing hand. Chris Garlock, a spokesperson for the labor group told The American Independent a march onto The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is planned for 3pm.

The Washington Peace Center has organized music and guest speakers to energize the demonstration crowds, whose numbers are skyrocketing. Tuesday’s turnout had only about 30 participants.

Sources close to the planning of the event told TAI that labor employees have been asked to volunteer their time and vehicles to corral more attendees.

Stay tuned to our network’s coverage of the Occupy Wall Street-styled proceedings springing up across the country.