NEW BEDFORD — The Boston-based Student Immigrant Movement on Saturday announced the launching of a New Bedford branch in partnership with the local workers’ advocacy group, Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores.
Started in 2005, SIM leaders said they had decided to expand to New Bedford as a result of the 2007 raid on the Michael Bianco factory, an event that has had far-reaching effects on the city’s Latino immigrant community.
“We noticed more than anything the fear caused by the raid five years ago,” said Luis Gomez, a New Bedford resident and team coordinator for the city’s SIM branch. “We can’t start anything unless we get rid of this fear.”
Gomez was speaking in Spanish to about 15 people at Centro Communitario’s headquarters in the South End.
The president of Centro Comunitario, David Rolando Oliva, said he believes having a student immigrant group in the city is important.
“Our goal at CCT is to get a greater number of young people involved,” he said.
“We believe this partnership will do just that and encourage the youth to fight for their rights.”
The group has already made progress, stopping two deportations.
One deportation was Noelia Ramos, 27, a woman from Honduras who had just started working at Bianco when Immigration and Customs Enforcement executed the raid.
“I was detained for one month but my case didn’t end there,” she said.
Ramos was set to be deported on April 18, one month before giving birth to her son, Steven. But after contacting SIM, she was able to have her deportation order rescinded and gain permission to stay in the United States for another year.
“It was like I met a group of angels,” Ramos said.
SIM officials said they intend to continue to help New Bedford immigrants.
“We are here to help through activism,” Gomez said.
In partnership with CCT, SIM leaders said they hope to launch a campaign over the summer to halt the deportations of 100 Bianco workers. One of the events in the works to reach this goal is a march from New Bedford to Fall River.
The Michael Bianco factory, a New Bedford-based manufacturer of U.S. military backpacks and survival vests, was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on March 6, 2007. A total of 361 workers, mostly Central American women, were detained. Some of those arrested have returned to their countries of origin and others have fought to stay in America.
An estimated 112 children were separated from parents in the immediate aftermath of the raid.
Francesco Insolia, the owner of Michael Bianco Inc., was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison for harboring and concealing illegal immigrants.
