Early in the morning of October 4, as Rosa Flores was preparing for work, she answered a knock at her door. The couple standing there said they had been sent to investigate the labor dispute at Emeryville's Woodfin Suites hotel. They wore no identifying clothing and offered no credentials but said they were from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In April, Emeryville's Woodfin hotel had fired Flores and eleven other housecleaners in the middle of a labor dispute over Measure C, which requires hotels to pay housekeepers a minimum of $9 an hour. Flores had been an outspoken leader until she was fired for a Social Security number mismatch.
"Do you know that immigration was involved in that?" Flores said the agents asked her, referring to the labor dispute. She said they then showed her news clippings in which she had been quoted as one of the leaders on the picket lines. Flores said she needed to leave for work and told the officials, "Look, I'll come to your office to talk to you. ... I have to leave now." So they wrote down the local ICE office address and left their names: David Moss and Hermilia Flores.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastbay/whose-side-is-ice-on/Content?oid=1087635
[posted by: Alejandro Jimenez]
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