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LABOR SOLIDARITY DEFENDS AGAINST DEPORTATIONS  
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In These Times Editors
November 24, 2025
In These Times
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_ In 1978, immigrants won a long fight with U.S. Border Patrol after
a raid meant to union-bust. _

Los Angeles activists announce a meeting to recruit factory-based
committees to defend immigrant workers against raids by immigration
authorities., Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections,
Stanford University Libraries.

 

In 1978, amid deportations of undocumented workers in East Los
Angeles, one raid at the Sbicca shoe factory went differently: Lawyers
brought in by the AFL-CIO, which had been organizing at the factory,
were able to halt many of the deportations on Fourth Amendment
grounds. Larry Remer, for In These Times, detailed how the raids
impacted Mexican-American communities and how, in the Sbicca case,
labor solidarity helped in their defense. 

The events described sound awfully familiar. Nationally, immigration
sweeps are still a common form of union-busting. And the labor
movement is still one of the strongest allies for undocumented
immigrants, helping organize anti-ICE responses in L.A., Chicago and
other cities.

In 1978, Larry Remer wrote:

East Los Angeles — Mariachi music drifts out from the cantinas
and the smell of chile and salsa fills the air. Nearly all
advertisements are in Spanish. So are the greetings from brown-skinned
passers-by. Were it not for the distinctively Southern California
stucco homes and wide-paved boulevards, this district could be
a shopping area in any major Latin American city.In fact, many people
consider East L.A. just that. With a population of more than one
million, the mini-metropolis of East L.A. serves as cultural capital
to the Chicano population of the southwestern U.S. East L.A. has its
own indigenous newspapers and radio stations, its own political power
structure, and its own burgeoning art and theater scene. Were it
a separate political entity, East L.A. would be the third largest
Spanish-speaking city in North America after Guadalajara and Mexico
City.But, in all things economic and political, East L.A.’s Chicanos
are in an inferior position compared to the whites who live in the
affluent suburban areas surrounding the barrio. This inequality is
aggravated by restrictive immigration statutes limiting the number of
Latinos permitted to enter the U.S. in search of work. Tens if not
hundreds of thousands enter illegally, many of whom are attracted to
East L.A. where they form an economic underclass of
​“undocumented” workers and a large pool of exploitable, cheap
labor.Suddenly, however, one of the linchpins of this system of
exploitation is being subjected to a serious legal challenge. Backed
by labor unions frustrated in their efforts to organize Chicano
workers, a group of legal aid lawyers have thrown a monkey wrench
into the government’s ability to deport ​“undocumented”
workers. If their challenge is successful, both Chicano citizens and
undocumented workers will benefit from the restriction of the power of
the U.S. Border Patrol.When the lime green vans of La Migra — as
the Border Patrol is called — creep through East L.A., the
streets go quiet. Practically every Chicano can count a close friend
or relative among those vulnerable to summary arrest and deportation.
There are an estimated seven to ten million ​“undocumented”
workers living and working in the U.S. Each year, La Migra deports
more than 750,000 people. Yet more come. As part of their constant
search for aliens, La Migra periodically conducts massive sweeps
through Chicano communities, as well as raids on factories and
workplaces where aliens are believed to be employed.

SPECIAL POLICE FORCEKnowledge of illegal workers from Latin America
and elsewhere, living in barrios like East L.A., give La Migra its
excuse for constantly policing the Chicano community. Over the years,
the Border Patrol in the Southwest has emerged as a special police
force for suppressing the Chicano population. And it is this
harassment which is now under legal attack in the courts.The test case
arose from a raid by La Migra of the Sbicca shoe factory in South El
Monte. Last spring a force of 40 armed immigration officers
surrounded the factory and demanded that all employees produce their
immigration documents. In the sweep, ​“undocumented” workers
were arrested and taken to the L.A. INS office to be fingerprinted,
photographed, and put on a bus for Mexico.The raid was typical of
dozens conducted each month by La Migra in the Los Angeles area. Those
arrested were usually hurried out of the country so fast that by the
time they had been missed by friends or family they were on the other
side of the border.But the Sbicca raid turned out differently. For
several weeks, the Retail Clerks Union, AFL-CIO, had been organizing
at the shoe factory. As often happens, La Migra had been called by the
Sbicca management to rid the shop of unwanted union agitators. But
this time, before the workers had been put on the bus, one of the
union’s organizers brought in Peter Schey, an attorney with the
Legal Aid Foundation.Together with other lawyers from the ACLU, the
People’s College of Law, and the Los Angeles Center for Law and
Justice, Schey went to court to seek a restraining order to stop the
deportation. Their contention was that the Fourth Amendment rights of
the workers had been violated when — before they were
arrested — La Migra failed to advise them they were entitled to
an attorney and that what they said could be used against them.LAWYERS
WIN CASEThe court order was granted and INS was ordered to stop the
buses. Then, Schey and several other lawyers met with the workers to
advise them of their rights and to offer their assistance. Of those
arrested, 65 decided to fight deportation.

Before Sbicca, deportation hearings were typically handled quickly and
efficiently. ​“Undocumented” workers who, by their own
admission, lacked the proper permission for entering the U.S.,
typically did not even bother to fight the proceedings. Told that they
could either be immediately expelled from the U.S. or — if they
chose to fight — formally deported, in which case they would be
jailed the next time they were apprehended inside the U.S., just about
everyone chose immediate expulsion. Once released inside Mexico, they
would painstakingly begin the process of sneaking back into the U.S.
and getting established in a new job all over again.

But the attorneys for the ​“Sbicca 65” attempted a new
strategy. Assured that previous admissions to Border Patrol officers
would be inadmissible, they instructed their clients to invoke the
Fifth Amendment when questioned about their status, place of birth,
and length of time spent in the U.S. This forced immigration officials
to ask representatives of the U.S. State Department to travel to the
workers’ hometowns and search for their birth certificates to prove
that these peo- ple were born in Mexico and therefore not legally in
the U.S.The State Department not only lacked the staff to cooperate
fully with La Migra, but even when it tried to obtain records, the
cities of rural Mexico where most of the workers are said to be from
proved too far-flung and record keeping there too inexact to produce
any useful material.Thus far, nearly half the Sbicca cases have been
dismissed for lack of evidence. Moreover, the hearing process has
forced immigration officials to bring their other activities in L.A.
to a halt.The Sbicca attorneys are optimistic that they can force La
Migra to abandon altogether their factory raids and street sweeps.
Notes Mark Rosenbaum of the ACLU, ​“I can’t understand why
nobody realized this before. These are people, not cattle. And they
have the same rights against self-incrimination as you or I or
anybody else.” 

 

UNIONS FIGHT DEPORTATIONHowever, the most significant development in
the Sbicca case has been the emergence of organized labor as a force
on behalf of ​“undocumented” workers. The existence of two
categories of workers — those with documents and those
without — has been the principal dynamic in the exploitation of
Chicanos in the U.S. Under the guise of searching for so-called
​“illegal aliens,” La Migra and local police agencies have
harassed and threatened Chicano communities throughout the Southwest.
More importantly, whenever Chicano organizing efforts — whether
in the fields or in the factories— have started to coalesce, the
green vans and buses of La Migra would soon appear on the scene to
cart off the agitators and all the sympathizers, if possible. Even the
fear of deportation has kept Chicanos from organizing at the workplace
and — in many instances — from registering family members
to vote here legally.

Over the past two years, several unions — notably the
International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), the International
Longshoreman and Warehouseman’s Union (ILWU), the Retail Clerks, and
the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of
America — have begun to organize ​“all workers” among the
Chicano workforce in those industries where these unions are active.
For the ​“undocumented,” this has helped hasten the day when
they can achieve full rights in the workplace.The experience of the
ILGWU is typical. ​“More than 75 percent of our members are
Spanish speaking,” notes Christina Ramirez, an ILGWU organizer.
​“And whenever we would start a campaign, the first thing the
employer would do is call La Migra. Several times, it would be the day
of a representation election and they’d show up and take away half
the workers.”Ramirez states that wages for workers in unorganized
shops rarely are above the minimum, with ​“undocumented” workers
typically receiving even less.​“After Sbicca,” Ramirez
continues, ​“things have changed a lot. We’re advising workers
that they don’t even have to talk to immigration. It makes them feel
more secure and they’re not afraid to get involved. Also, the number
of raids has decreased and we’ve been more successful. Just this
week 125 workers at Motif Apparel went on strike. All of them are
​‘undocumented.’ And they went back today — with
a victory.”

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* Immigration raids; Sbicca shoe factory; Union Organizing; La
Migra;
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