Fighting the good fight for immigrant workers in Mississippi ... and winning
Four years ago, noted labor writer David Bacon had this to say about the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance and its fight for immigrant workers in the nation’s most conservative state: “Blacks plus immigrants plus unions equals power.”
Yet again this past legislative session, MIRA helped worked another miracle, preventing an arch-conservative state legislature from passing a draconian, Alabama-and-Arizona-style anti-immigration bill. Twice in this year’s session, Republican legislators tried to win approval of House Bill 488, the so-called “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act of 2012”, and both times they failed.
“We all know that the immigration debate is far from over,” MIRA said in a statement to supporters after the legislative battle. “It’s a small victory in a larger battle for immigrants’ and workers’ rights. … Don’t let this success lull you into thinking that the mentality behind the bill is gone. We know it’s only a matter of time until the intent of the bill is revived.”
Indeed, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican elected last year with strong backing from the Mississippi Tea Party, has vowed to pursue the matter and may even call a special session of the state Legislature to take it up. Last year’s historic elections also brought Mississippi a Republican House as well as Republican Senate in the Legislature.
However, MIRA is a formidable foe that has helped defeat an estimated 220 such bills over the past decade, a time when other Southern states like Alabama and Georgia were enacting laws identical to the ones being rejected in Mississippi.
http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/04/fighting-the-good-fight-for-immigrant-workers-in-mississippi-and-winning.html
Congratulations to MIRA and Mississippi Democrats for fighting so hard with such success.
