A group of about 50 people stood silent outside the Metro jail on Harding Place last night to call attention to the recent immigration raids at Pilgrims Pride plants around the country.
A sweep near Chattanooga resulted in multiple arrests and five of the women arrested are being at Metro’s jail.
Faith groups as well as labor groups joined the vigil. Tennessee’s AFL-CIO president Jerry Lee says the arrests make union members more aware of the risks that undocumented immigrants take to be in the U.S.
“I believe that a majority of our workers know that the problem is not the people who are here but the root cause of why they are here.”
The AFL-CIO supports a broad legalization program for all undocumented workers.
Simultaneous vigils were held in Chattanooga and Memphis.
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