On May 1, otherwise known as May Day or International Workers’ Rights Day, thousands of immigrant rights and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) activists took to the streets in 40 cities across the U.S., including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle. Immigrant advocates, who are protesting harsh immigration laws like SB 1070, and OWS, whose target is an unfair financial system, may seem unlikely allies. Yet both groups are increasingly articulating the need for fair wages, more jobs, socioeconomic equality and a revival of the American Dream. “There has been a growing understanding that both movements cared for the other, and that both movements were part of the 99 percent,” according to Jorge-Mario Cabrera of the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

It’s no surprise that many of Tuesday’s protests focused on immigration policy, as the Supreme Court began hearing the arguments over SB 1070 only last Wednesday. To the dismay of the laws opponents, by day’s end it appeared that several justices were “sympathetic” to key provisions, including the requirement that police question individuals about their immigration status is they have reasonable doubt that the he or she may be undocumented. If the Supreme Court decides to uphold even parts of SB 1070 in June, the door will swing wide open for states that—like Arizona, Georgia and Alabama—think the federal government has been too lax on immigration and want to take matters into their own hands and pass harsher laws. It could also breathe new life into pending legislation that has lost popularity, in many cases due to pressure by businesses.

While the Supreme Court case is the most attention-grabbing challenge to SB 1070 and its copycat laws, it is certainly not the only one. Yesterday, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the Asociación Nacional de Abogados Democráticos (ANAD) filed a complaint against HB 56 with the Mexican Department of Labor. The organizations claimed that the Alabama law contradicts the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, a supplemental labor agreement to NAFTA. Meanwhile, immigrant activists staged a protest of HB 56 at the Georgia State Capitol with support of Occupy Atlanta, though it only drew about 100 people.

With misinformation, political opportunism and xenophobia fueling the spread of harsh immigration legislation, it is increasingly important for businesses, advocacy groups, labor organizations, the public sector—and yes, even OWS protestors—to make their message about the rights and contributions of immigrants heard. With a unified voice, May Day was an opportunity to force the country to listen.
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Yesterday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it had arrested 3,168 undocumented immigrants in a six-day operation that the federal agency referred to as “Cross Check.” Arrests took place across all 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. According to an ICE press release, among the number of those arrested 1,477 had prior felony convictions while 2,834 had prior criminal convictions. ICE referred to the arrested as “more than 3,100 convicted criminal aliens, immigration fugitives and immigration violators.”

This was the third nationwide iteration of ICE’s “Cross Check” procedure, with the first two having occurred in May 2011 and September 2011. This sweep, however, resulted in the single largest-scale roundup in ICE’s history. Although the arrested population comprised 116 nationalities, the majority was from Mexico and various Central American nations.

While ICE maintains that the agency “prioritizes the arrest and removal of those who game the immigration system including immigration fugitives or those criminal aliens who have been previously deported and illegally re-entered the country,” many immigration advocates remain skeptical. Notes Laura Lichter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, “Just because someone had an encounter with the criminal justice system, that could have been just for driving without a license.”

Ryan Berger is a policy associate for Americas Society/Council of the Americas.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department announced on Tuesday that it would join 13 other Latin American nations in signing an amicus brief supporting the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit against Utah’s restrictive immigration law, HB 497. Utah’s law “dangerously contributes to a patchwork of laws that impede effective and consistent diplomatic relations,” according the brief filed on behalf of the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

Following the lead of Arizona, Georgia and Alabama, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed HB 497 (titled “Utah Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act”) into law in March and it went into effect in May 2011.

While some Utah lawmakers have marketed as more human than other copy-cat laws, many of HB 497’s provisions are just as harsh as those of its predecessors. For example, the law requires police to verify the immigration status of people arrested class B or C misdemeanors (including minor offenses like littering, jaywalking and traffic violations); prohibits any policy limiting state and local agencies from assisting the federal government in the enforcement of federal immigration law; and makes it a third degree felony to encourage or induce any immigrant to come, enter, or reside in a the state illegally.
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Some supporters of Alabama’s controversial immigration law, HB 56, are having second thoughts. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, speaking in front of over 600 businessmen and lawmakers at the Birmingham Business Alliance (BBA) in mid-November, admitted the law needed to be simplified and said he is already collecting suggestions for amendments from businesses and law enforcement groups. But the governor still held some ground, saying “we’re going to keep the essence of this bill that has already been upheld in federal court.” In early December, Governor Bentley got what he asked for: Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange sent a memo to Alabama lawmakers suggesting a series of changes to the law to address some of the “unintended consequences.”

A series of developments in Alabama have helped convince many of the state’s residents, including some lawmakers that strongly supported the bill at passage, that HB 56’s provisions may be too harsh and difficult to enforce. Perhaps the most salient worry is that the law’s effect on the immigrant labor force might hurt Alabama’s business environment, which like many other states, is still reeling from the recession.

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