Immigrants fast on Thanksgiving to protest amnesty rule

Jace Radke

Friday, Nov. 27, 1998 | 11:18 a.m.

Veronica Salgado was one of millions who traveled this Thanksgiving. But Salgado's trip was different than most: She traveled away from her family for a fast, not a feast.

She was one of 250 from Las Vegas,, Texas, California and Washington who showed up at the Clark County Government building Thursday morning while most Las Vegans were basting turkey and watching parades to make a plea for temporary work permits to be reinstated for late amnesty-class immigrants.

The group staged a Fast for Justice hoping to bring attention to their cause.

For Salgado, that meant arriving in Las Vegas at 11 p.m. Wednesday night amid the crush of holiday travelers and flying back to her home and two small children in Houston Thursday afternoon.

"We've been in this country working for too long to all of a sudden have our permits revoked," Salgado said. "We're going to continue to fight, because we are entitled to the same rights as anyone else."

As of a Sept. 30 appellate court ruling, the Immigration and Naturalization Service stopped giving temporary work permits to those immigrants who never reported to the INS under a 1986 amnesty law passed by Congress.

The law permitted all illegal aliens in the country at the time to remain in the country if they reported to the INS, but a large number failed to report because they feared they fell into a class excluded from amnesty: those that had left the country during the amnesty period but returned.

Melena Burnett, organizer of Thursday's fast and head of Fair Treatment for Immigrants, estimates that 350,000 immigrants nationwide and 18,000 immigrants in Nevada have lost their right to work and provide for their families.

"It has reached the point where we need to bring this to the President's attention," Burnett said. "These people have been going without work for two months, and their children are going to bed hungry at night."

Burnett and the protesters fasted Thanksgiving Day. At the rally, they dramatized their plight by seating children at a table with empty plates.

Salgado flew to the rally from Houston because she said she wants to make sure that her children to continue to eat.

"I've been here for 20 years, and my children were born here and are American citizens," said the 25-year-old Salgado, who is originally from Michoacan, Mexico.

Like Salgado, many of the late amnesty immigrants have been working and paying into Social Security for 10 years and are homeowners with community ties, Burnett said.

Salgado works is an assistant dental hygienist in Houston but she does not know how long she will be able to keep her job.

"Right know I'm working without a work permit, but if my boss found out I'd be let go," Salgado said. "We need to find a resolution to this problem."

Burnett said that protests similar to Thursday's have taken place over the last two months in Washington, D.C., Texas and Los Angeles. The next step will be to hold a march in Washington, D.C. that will be accompanied by a hunger strike, Burnett said.

"If we march on Washington I'll be there," Salgado said. "I'll borrow money if I have to, but I'll be there to protect my and my children's rights."