Arrested Workers Speak Out on the Impact of the Tucson Panda Express Immigration Raid

CONTACT: Kat Rodriguez at 520-770-1373 or kat@derechoshumanosaz.net or Shonna Carter at 212-260-5000 or shonnac@riptideonline.com

Coalicion De Derechos Humanos holds Public Forum Looking at Lasting Costs to Community

WHAT: Public forum on the legal implications and impact of the Panda Express immigration raid

WHO: Attorneys for the workers will explain the legal implications of charging undocumented workers with identity theft and workers who were arrested and recently tried will discuss their cases and circumstances and their family members will talk about how the raids have impacted the community

WHEN: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

WHERE: Armory Park Community Center, 220 S. 5th Avenue, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson, AZ, November 6, 2008 – Coalicion de Derechos Humanos with support from the Rights Working Group will host a public forum to spotlight the legal implications and pervasive impact of the high profile immigration raid conducted at Tucson-area Panda Express restaurants. Eleven workers were arrested at Panda Express restaurants on March 18, 2008 for obtaining work with allegedly fictitious social security numbers. The charges against the workers are typical of a new tactic employed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to charge people suspected of breaking immigration laws, a civil offense, with the criminal offense of aggravated identity theft, which results in mandatory jail time and a felony conviction prohibiting their return to the U.S. Human rights groups have roundly criticized this policy for imposing draconian punishment on people who are no threat to society. The Supreme Court has recently decided to hear a separate but similar case to determine whether prosecutors must prove that defendants in aggravated identity theft cases knowingly used information from a real person.

The forum will consist of three panels: panel one will include some of the attorneys who represented workers in the raid discussing the legal implications, panel two will include four of the workers arrested in the raid and the testimony of other workers who have been deported or detained discussing their cases, and panel three will include family members of arrested workers explaining the impact on the community. Each panel will also be open for Q&A from the audience. The event is open to the public and free of cost.

This event follows the Tucson-area Night of 1,000 Conversations, when community members gathered to share their experiences and learn more about how DHS policies are violating the basic human rights and civil liberties of people living in this country. Hundreds of other public and private events involving more than 3,000 people in 28 states took place across the country profiling DHS human rights violations as part of the Rights Working Group's national campaign to Hold the Department of Homeland Security Accountable! The Campaign seeks to expose and rectify DHS policies that violate civil and human rights with a focus on raids without due process and inhumane detention conditions for immigrants. More information is available at www.rightsworkinggroup.org.

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The Coalicion de Derechos Humanos ("The Human Rights Coalition") is a grassroots organization which promotes respect for human/civil rights and fights the militarization of the Southern Border region, discrimination, and human rights abuses by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials affecting U.S. and non-U.S. citizens alike.

The Rights Working Group is a coalition of more than 250 community-based grassroots groups and national organizations formed in the aftermath of 9-11 that works to ensure civil liberties and human rights protections for all people living in the U.S.