Detention, Meatpacking & Workers’ Rights

Date: Thursday, May 28

Time: 7:00 – 8:30 pm CST

Join us for a virtual (Zoom) panel discussion on immigrants and COVID-19. Panelists from Southern Poverty Law Center, La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, and the Greater Minnesota Worker Center will speak about the impact of COVID-19 on immigrants in detention as well as how workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant in Cold Spring are fighting to protect themselves, their families, and their community in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 at the plant. There will be time for Q&A and opportunities to learn how you can take action. (REGISTRATION REQUIRED, see below)

Panelists include:

• Erin Argueta is Lead Attorney at SPLC’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) office in Lumpkin, Georgia. SIFI provides pro bono legal services to immigrants detained at Stewart Detention Center. She will discuss the heightened dangers facing immigrants in detention during the COVID-19 crisis, new obstacles they face as their legal cases continue to move forward, SIFI’s support of federal litigation to improve conditions in detention and to secure the release of vulnerable immigrants, and SIFI’s work to secure immigrants’ release on bond or parole.

• Maria Elena Gutierrez is a co-founder and organizer from La Asamblea de Derechos Civiles in St. Cloud, Minnesota, a statewide, faith-based non-profit organization which organizes to build power for changes in the immigration system and the underlying systems behind it.

• Mohamed Goni from the Greater Minnesota Worker Center, who helped to organize the walkout at Pilgrim’s Pride plant in Cold Spring, MN.

This event is hosted and facilitated by Project Starfish Minnesota, in collaboration with Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance and Professor James Read, Professor of Political Science at the College of St. Benedict/St. John’s University and St. Cloud community member.

Instructions to participate:

The online platform we’ll use for this event is Zoom. You can use a phone or a computer to join the event.

You must register in advance for this meeting (CLICK HERE TO REGISTER).

After you register for the event (it’s free), you will be sent a confirmation email from Project Starfish Minnesota with a link (URL), PASSWORD, and a telephone number. Choose one to use to join the event. The link joins you via video (but you can mute your own video). The phone number allows audio only. You will need to enter the Password to join the meeting online or by phone.

You can use your smartphone or your computer to join the video event.  If you are using a computer or a smartphone, you will need to download Zoom. This video LINK explains how to join a Zoom meeting, including how you download Zoom.