Published: August 8, 2008

COURTHOUSE - Shame! Shame! Shame on ABM!

This chant in both English and Spanish echoed outside on the steps of the Montgomery County Court House as some 150 people rallied in support of 42 workers arrested last week by federal agents for administrative immigration violations.

The workers, employed by the King of Prussia janitorial services company of ABM Industries Inc., are charged with entering the United States illegally or violating the terms of their immigration status by remaining longer than they were authorized.

Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents the janitorial workers and which sponsored the rally, is irate with alleged "lies" by ABM to workers in that company's effort to cooperate with the enforcement action undertaken by agents from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

ABM officials last week directed their employees to report to Plymouth Township for what was billed as a mandatory training meeting, according to union shop steward Rob Houston.

Once everyone had gathered in a large room, ABM personnel left the room and ICE officers walked in, he said.

Houston, who is white, and several others were allowed to leave.

He maintained the enforcement action was racially motivated. Outside the room, Houston said, he heard an ICE agent allegedly telling someone that Houston and others who were allowed to leave were "not it."

"I guess if you have an Hispanic name, you are not a human being but an 'it,'" said Houston.

"I was once proud to be an American and still am but somehow that has been diminished, tarnished a bit," said Houston, a Vietnam War veteran.

"We find that ABM's decision to leave their workers, the people they profit from, after leading them into that room under false pretenses, we find that deplorable," said SEIU Mid-Atlantic Area Director Wayne MacManiman.

"These tactics are not just morally unjust, they do nothing to deal with the problem of a broken immigration system," said MacManiman.

Sources claim ICE gave ABM two options: gather the employees at one location or agents would pull them off the jobs at their work site.

Local 32BJ Vice President Valarie Long said that "ripping parents from children" and "lying to workers" is not the answer.

"These raids do not fix a broken immigration system," she said.
Many of those attending the rally were union members including members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776.

However, there was one man clad in a black T-shirt and claiming to be a Teamster union member who was not there in support of the action.

"They are illegal," he shouted, briefly breaking up the speeches in support of the workers. "They do not belong here."