Partisan Defense Committee Letter

12 May 2025

Partisan Defense Committee P.O. Box 99, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013

email: partisandefense@earthlink.net   www.partisandefense.org

Contact: Kevin Gilroy (212) 406-4252

The following letter was written by the Partisan Defense Committee.

Todd Lyons, Acting Director
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
500 12th St SW
Washington, DC 20536

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
1623 E J Street, Suite 2
Tacoma, WA 98421-1615

12 May 2025

We write to vigorously protest the detention and threatened deportation of Alfredo "Lelo" Juarez Zeferino, a leader of the farm workers union Familias Unidas por la Justicia. On March 25, Zeferino was arrested in Skagit County, Washington and transferred to a detention center in Tacoma. where he remains pending an immigration hearing tomorrow. An indigenous Mixteco immigrant from Mexico, Zeferino has been organizing since picking berries at the age of 14. He has successfully fought for improved state standards to protect farm workers from grueling heat, and won overtime pay and other basic improvements.

Across the country the government has targeted the largely isolated and vulnerable immigrant farmworkers. On May 2 in New York, ICE agents boarded a bus full of farm workers en route to work, called out names of 14 United Farm Workers activists, and dragged them off to jail where they await deportation. In California, hundreds have been arrested and targeted for deportation, where over half of farm workers are undocumented.

We demand: Release the detained farm workers! Hands off the farm workers unions! No deportations!

Sincerely,

Kevin Gilroy
For the Partisan Defense Committee