There is a change in the air. The word immigrant no longer evokes only feelings of despair, humiliation, and an incommunicable feeling of civic isolation. Instead, we are learning to associate the word with the great march of civil rights in this country.

On the eve of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, Pakistan News spoke to John Wilhelm of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union.

This union began in the late 19th century and historically has had a membership of Italian, Irish, and Scandinavian origin workers.

In the last fifteen years the composition of the union membership has changed dramatically, said Wilhelm. He said that in 1999 at the national convention of the AFL-CIO he was made the head of the committee for immigrant rights. The struggle is not just for the rights of a worker in the workplace but also for the civil rights for that worker and their family.

Post September 11, the Bush administration found immigrants to be the perfect scapegoats. The administration’s policies target future immigrants as well, particularly Arabs, South Asians, and Muslims from all over the world, said Wilhelm. When terrorists struck the federal building in Oklahoma, the government did not target all white people as the enemy. After the WTC attacks, the terrorists should have been seen as a mafia that had to be brought to justice. Instead the whole world’s Muslims, and many immigrant communities of the United States had to deal with this administration’s wrath, said Wilhelm. He said that Patriot Act II will usher in a very dark time in this country.

At the Immigrant Freedom Ride this weekend, most unions and immigrant community groups will come together and send a historical message to the administration.