Since election night 2016, the streets of the US have rung with resistance. People all over the country have woken up with the conviction that they must do something to fight inequality in all its forms. But many are wondering what it is they can do. In this ongoing “Interviews for Resistance” series, experienced organizers, troublemakers and thinkers share their insights on what works, what doesn’t, what has changed and what is still the same. Today’s interview is the 74th in the series. Click here for the most recent interview before this one.
Today we bring you a conversation with George Miranda, the president of the 120,000-member Teamsters Joint Council 16, which is an umbrella group made up of 27 different local unions in New York City.
Sarah Jaffe: Let’s start at the beginning. One of your members was deported last week, right?
George Miranda: Correct, Eber Garcia Vasquez was deported basically because his asylum case had been turned down … (I believe) in 2012. He has been a Teamster for 26 years and has been working in this country and raising his family on that. He has been reporting in routinely as he is required to. He has had no felony convictions, no arrests, no nothing. Clean, clean, clean record. He just reports in once a year, routinely, a few questions are asked, and they know exactly where he is.
Eber Garcia Vasquez holds his newborn granddaughter. (Credit: Courtesy of the family of Eber Garcia Vasquez)This time, he went in and they kept him and scheduled him for deportation. He left behind his family, three kids. He married an American citizen, and his three kids are US citizens. He was on his way to a green card — about a year off, I guess. But he is on application for a green card and eligible for it, obviously, until this incident. Now he is in Guatemala. That is the story. If it happens to him, it could happen to anybody. Clean, clean record. Absolutely nothing wrong.
You guys had a campaign trying to stop his deportation, right? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Yes, we had a campaign and we still have a campaign to stop his deportation. Unfortunately, events and time overtook us, but we had a lot of organizations come to our aid. We had a protest and rally, and we still have a campaign petition going around to stop the deportation, but unfortunately, like I said, he was on the fast track for some reason. Still don’t know why. Nobody is telling us why. From the time they picked him up, [to] the time he was in Guatemala, was 13 days.
Again, there was absolutely nothing whatsoever that he did wrong. In fact, the only reason they picked him up was because he was adhering to his release, that he had to report in once a year and routinely, he does.
I think a lot of people don’t understand that. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, the fact that a lot of people like him are checking in with authorities…?
It is a condition that they have to remain here, that they are not a threat or anything. You have to report in to immigration folks to let them know — they ask the same questions…. “Where are you? Are you working?” Your address, and so on and so forth. Obviously, there are no red flags, there is no criminal record on them or anything, then all they have got to do is just report in so they know exactly where they are. That is it. And he did. Routinely.
Eber’s family with flier asking supporters to call ICE. (Credit: Courtesy of Teamsters Joint Council 16)
After this, your union passed a resolution to become a sanctuary union. Tell us what that means and how that decision came to be.
Immigrant rights and labor rights are explicitly tied together. You can’t have one without the other. If you lose on one issue, whether it is immigrants or the labor, you lose the other. It is obvious that we are tied together, and there is no way that we could say that we are not a union of immigrants.
It seems to us that we need to protect our members. We are all immigrants, but we need to protect our members more than ever now since this administration has taken the position that they have taken on immigrants. So, we have decided to be a sanctuary union, meaning that we protect our members. They are working, they are earning their living, they are supporting their families, and they are not doing anything that is criminal or whatever. We are not going to cooperate with the immigration service whatsoever in going after our members.
We are going to … help them with attorneys and whatever other expertise they need in order to protect them and their families and, hopefully, get them out of the mess that they may find themselves in. That is what sanctuary unions mean. We are going to indoctrinate all of our members, all our stewards, as to exactly what that means.
George Miranda speaks at press conference to free Eber. (Credit: Courtesy of Teamsters Joint Council 16)
George Miranda with Eber’s family. (Credit: Courtesy of Teamsters Joint Council 16)
You mentioned that you will try to bargain for protections for undocumented workers in labor contracts, as well.
Yes, we put language in to try to protect them so that if they have to go to court or whatever it may be so that they don’t end up losing their jobs or their rights on the job just because ICE came up and is trying to deport them. So, they maintain their rights and their benefits.
These days, the labor movement is pretty invested in the rights of immigrant workers, but that wasn’t always so. People like Trump still try to play off immigrant workers against US-born workers saying, “Oh, they are coming for your jobs.” Talk about why it is important for unions to fight on this front.
Again, the labor movement was made up of immigrants [going] back [to] the early days of this country. You cannot separate us from the immigration situation in this country. They are explicitly tied together. These people earn a living, they are in building trades, they are mechanics, they are in every walk of life that we have, that we represent members of. They are part of the fiber of the labor movement, the immigrant movement. We are tied at the hip.
Transform Don’t Trash NYC coalition at Teamsters press conference to free Eber. (Credit: Courtesy of Teamsters Joint Council 16)
Your union also has been involved in other protests and actions that have gone on about the Muslim ban, the border wall, things like that. Talk about what that organizing in the community looks like for your union.
They are awakening a giant right now. Little by little, people are seeing that we are all tied together and we all have the same issues, whether it is putting a wall up or whatever it may be. All of it is designed to weaken unions and weaken the unity of immigrants and send them back. Over time, people are now seeing that we are more alike than we have ever been before and we have got to start waking up and fighting back. That is what this is all about.
Do you know of other unions that have passed similar resolutions?
I do not off the top of my head. I am sure that there probably will be some that have taken the position. I am sure that unions have taken positions to protect their members who are immigrants. I am not sure whether they have taken the position of being a sanctuary union to the extent that the Teamsters have.
Do you see this as a model that should spread and could spread to different places?
I would hope so. They can call it whatever they want, but I would hope that they are taking the same action that the Teamsters have taken with our resolution and our different local unions.
Anything else people should know about this?
I think it is going to start developing over time more and more. It is going to start having legs and growing as this immigration situation continues to fester and fester in this country.
How can people keep up with you and with the union?
They can contact me at the Teamsters Joint Council 16 and follow us on Facebook.
Interviews for Resistance is a project of Sarah Jaffe, with assistance from Laura Feuillebois and support from the Nation Institute. It is also available as a podcast on iTunes. Not to be reprinted without permission.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy