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Week-long day laborer convention begins in LA
Day laborers sit in front of a Shell gas station in Arizona.
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ThreadedThoughts/Flickr
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Starting Monday, hundreds of immigrant day laborers and activists from 14 different states, including California, will convene in Los Angeles to discuss immigration and labor issues.
The meeting is a product of the decade-old National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a country-wide alliance between 43 immigrant worker groups.
For the next four days, the gathering of workers and labor organizers will meet for leadership, media training and alliance-building workshops.
On Wednesday afternoon, organizers plan to rally outside L.A. County headquarters to protest the sheriff department’s participation in the federal Secure Communities program, which they say has led to the increasing deportation of undocumented workers.
This will be the first time the assembly is being held in L.A., home to the largest population of day laborers in the country.
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