Immediately following the deportation of one of its members last August, Teamsters Joint Council 16, “the umbrella group for 27 Teamsters locals in and around New York City,” declared itself a “sanctuary union,” saying it would “not voluntarily cooperate with federal agents in the prosecution or attempted deportation of Teamster members.” And since then, “across Long Island and throughout the city,” Teamsters are making good on their word:
In 27 shops, business agents, supervisors and front-line workers are getting schooled on their rights under U.S. law — and when and how to challenge federal immigration agents who show up to search their work sites.
The training is complex and technical — hinging on specific types of warrants and the definition of a raid.
But in fundamental labor terms, it follows one simple rule: Union solidarity first, immigration status second.
While “many Teamsters are white, blue-collar men—a demographic that in some unions skewed toward Trump in the 2016 presidential election,” about 40,000 members are immigrants, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. “Vinnie Marino of Local 917 said one of his members—a Dreamer brought to the U.S. by his Guatemalan mom when he was 10—is in constant fear of being grabbed”:
“He’s a great kid, 22 years old, works really hard and shows up on time every day,” said Marino, whose truck-driving members supply the city’s bars, hotels, restaurants and stores with wine and liquor.
“He has to check in with authorities every two years and this last time they gave him a really hard time — we had to get a lawyer involved,” he said. “He got through it, but he has to do it again fairly soon, and the lawyer said there’s not much she can do. He’s just living in limbo and terrified he’ll get deported.”
“We saw and felt that concern, and we are responding to it,” said Teamsters Joint Council 16 President George Miranda. “And that includes all our members, from all backgrounds. When we’re out on strike, we’re all the same on the picket line—what matters is that you’re a Teamster, and fighting with us.”
Teamsters Local 813 member Eber Garcia Vasquez had worked for nearly three decades at a waste facility, when he was taken into custody during what was supposed to be a routine meeting with ICE. But as we’ve seen throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, these routine meetings are becoming anything but routine. Despite the fact that Garcia Vasquez had no criminal record and was only about a year away from gaining a green card through his wife, he was deported:
After what happened to Garcia — one of many recent forced deportations — worry ran through Teamster shops, Miranda said. “We saw and felt that concern, and we are responding to it. And that includes all our members, from all backgrounds. When we’re out on strike, we’re all the same on the picket line — what matters is that you’re a Teamster, and fighting with us.”
At a Wednesday class, funded by the Consortium for Worker Education, Mike Spinelli of Local 553 listened carefully as trainer Luba Cortés walked everyone through the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial one.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents often present a document that says “warrant” on it — but that doesn’t mean that it’s a judicial warrant, Cortés warned.
Under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, only a judicial warrant allows authorities to search a home or business or make an arrest.
“A judicial warrant will be signed by a judge and will have the name of a state or federal court at the top,” says the training guide handed out by Cortés. “An administrative warrant will be signed by an ICE supervisor — and that does not allow ICE entry.”
Knowledge can make all the difference in getting to stay here with your family or being swept up by immigration agents. In one incident last November, Seattle residents were able to thwart an apparent ICE raid when they refused entry to half a dozen agents, including some in plainclothes, who attempted to step into a residential building without a proper warrant.
In a joint statement, Seattle Council members Lorena Gonzalez and Lisa Herbold praised the actions of the residents, who were “armed with knowledge from a Know Your Rights training.” Following unshackled ICE agents raiding nearly 100 7-Eleven stores nationwide in what the AP called “the largest single operation against an employer under Donald Trump’s presidency,” Spinelli wants members similarly armed with that knowledge:
“We deliver all the dairy to all the 7-Eleven stores in the city — you can imagine how scared some of these guys are,” he said. “It’s a scary time in general, and we’re hoping this can help the workers feel prepared and help protect them — and also so employers know they don’t have to just roll over.”
A key part of the Teamsters training is how to bargain future contracts that contain clauses to force employers to follow proper procedures before granting federal authorities access to a work site.
Many times employers are as rattled as workers when a raid occurs — or even when feds come politely knocking, Cortés said.
Employers also have the right to three days’ notice if the feds instigate what’s known as an I-9 probe — basically, a review of employees’ working papers, Cortés said.
“I wish I had known that when we had an I-9 raid,” said Adrian Merced, business agent with Local 210. His shop was investigated in the waning days of President Barack Obama’s administration. “They came flying in, it was a furniture distributor place, they had big guns out and everything. There was no three-day notice,” he said.
“You are not obligated to turn over extra information if authorities come looking for a certain person. You don’t have to say, ‘Oh, he’s not here but you can find him at the corner store,’ or offer to look up a home address or things like that.”