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Cristina Martinez arrives at work at 4 a.m., ties a white apron high across her chest, and starts preparing a lamb cooked in vapor for 10 hours.

An hour later, she and her husband, Ben Miller, open their South Philadelphia restaurant, Barbacoa, serving premium tacos - and hefty sides of activism - in their bid to mobilize restaurateurs on behalf of the many undocumented immigrants who work in America's kitchens.

Hosting organizational meetings and screening documentaries, the couple hope to spark a culinary crusade in a city famous for its restaurant scene - and pressure the deadlocked Congress to overhaul the immigration laws.

"Mexican undocumented workers are in every restaurant in this country," Miller wrote in one online post. "They cook, clean, and busboy for Marc Vetri, Steven Starr, Jose Garces, every hotel, every university dining hall, and in our restaurant . . . as well."

It's no secret that immigrants, many of them undocumented, are essential to America's $550-billion-a-year restaurant trade. The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that 20 percent of the nation's 2.6 million chefs, head cooks, and line cooks are here illegally, as are 28 percent of the 360,000 dishwashers.

"All I want," Miller said in an interview, "is for some chefs to step up and say, 'Yes, we are in favor of making a way for our undocumented workers. They matter.' "

The Philadelphia-area restaurant all-stars who Miller has called out on Facebook have thus far stayed silent. A spokeswoman for Garces said he declined to comment. Neither Vetri nor Starr responded to multiple interview requests.

But others said Miller's message begs an important conversation.

David Suro, a native of Mexico who opened the Center City restaurant Tequilas 29 years ago, estimated the city's commercial kitchens and dining rooms employ at least 1,500 Mexican immigrants as cooks, servers, busboys, and dishwashers. He said his policy is in line with what he believes is true of the other major restaurant employers: "Anyone hired must have papers."

Proper papers?

That's not always so easily determined, Suro said, acknowledging the possibility of forgeries. "But they pay their taxes" through payroll withholding, he said, "and are very hardworking."

Tom McCusker, chef-owner of Honest Tom's Tacos in West Philadelphia, supports Miller as someone who "kind of broke the barrier to talk openly about this."

But he said Miller needs big-name support if his cause is to get lift. "If one of those dudes signed off," he said, "we could run with this."

What Miller, 31, has in mind is a movement built on the testimonials of prominent chefs who might be more comfortable talking about a sensitive subject if they tackle it together. He wants the federal government to create restaurant guest-worker permits so workers can "travel home for five days at Christmas," or attend family funerals, without fear of arrest. He wants recognition that anyone who dines out benefits from the labor of immigrants, many of whom are undocumented.

A quirky, unlikely standard bearer - who said he lived in shelters for a while and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor indecent assault charge a decade ago - Miller said his knowledge of the restaurant scene comes from having worked at two prominent Philadelphia eateries alongside people he knew to be undocumented but otherwise upstanding.

"While they are here, they are paying taxes," he said. "They are consumers, shopping at the Acme, willing to do the [low-level kitchen] jobs . . . that kids who come out of culinary school don't want to do."

His desire to use Barbacoa as a platform for social change, he said, is driven largely by his love for Martinez. They met working at another restaurant, and married in 2012.

She was a 6-year-old in Mexico, she said, when her mother and father taught her to cook the succulent barbecue they sold at open-air markets.

Forty-six and moonfaced, with black hair in a tight bun now, she moves by rote in Barbacoa's kitchen, where her thoughts often turn to her daughter, Karla, 23, a nursing student in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Martinez said she came illegally to the United States in 2009 to earn money for Karla's tuition and expenses, about $2,000 monthly, which was unattainable as a barbacoa peddler in Mexico.

Then a single mother of four, she had made the perilous trek across the desert to the U.S. before and knew the drill: a bit of peyote to battle fatigue; a plastic bottle to scrounge water from cow troughs; the clothes on her back.

Caught by U.S. Border Patrol and fingerprinted in 2006, Martinez has an "unlawful presence" on her record, which makes her ineligible for a green card despite her marriage to Miller, a U.S. citizen, who was raised in Easton, Pa.

Among the hardships of being undocumented, she said, the hardest is being unable to go home to see her family and return to Philadelphia without another desert crossing and at least $8,000 to pay the human smugglers. She could leave and try to return legally but the law bars people with her immigration status from applying for 10 years.

So the couple behind Barbacoa, which began as a lunch cart near their home on South Eighth Street, and opened as a storefront on South 11th in July, saw no alternative but to add movement-building to their menu.

On Sept. 20, with 25 people in attendance, they screened the documentary The Hand That Feeds, about working conditions at a New York City sandwich shop. A meeting to discuss an unspecified "direct action" campaign to take effect in the spring is scheduled for Nov. 8.

Miller imagines a "show of solidarity" in which restaurant owners would close for a day and issue a joint statement to raise consciousness about the needs of the industry's workforce.

The National Restaurant Association, the country's largest restaurant industry group, has lobbied Congress for immigration reform, including "a path to legalization" for undocumented immigrants. The industry has a lot of power, Miller said.

"Of course, it's a personal story, with my wife and me," he said. "But it is also about our customers and colleagues in food service. We want these people to have stability and comfort."

He said he's not advocating just opening the borders. But he wants debate.

"Donald Trump has his podium. He has his microphone," Miller said. "We can't let that be the only one."

There is some precedent for prominent people, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaking out on immigration. "Our businesses broke the law by employing them," he told Congress in 2006. "[But] our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported."

Speaking to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus last week, Washington, D.C.-based restaurateur Jose Andres, who recently backed out of a deal to open a restaurant in a Trump hotel after Trump disparaged Mexicans and called for mass deportations, echoed the sentiment. "Who is going to be feeding America," said Andres, "if we kick [out] everybody that is feeding America?"

For Barbacoa, immigration reform is about human rights and skin in the game at every level.

"I'm not saying anything that controversial," Miller said. "I just don't want it to be an option for a chef to look the other way."

mmatza@phillynews.com

215-854-2541@MichaelMatza1

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South Philly chef's special: immigration reform

Texas may be the face of opposition to President Barack Obamas executive actions todelay the deportation of some undocumented immigrants, but not all leaders in the state agree. Austin Mayor Steve Adler and Judge Sarah Eckhardt of Travis County, where Austin is located, want the lawsuit that Texas and other states filed against the program dropped, according to the Texas Tribune.

I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities, Adler said Saturday while standing with undocumented immigrants at the nonprofit Workers Defense Project.

Adler said at the rally that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott should meet with immigrant families in the community. Such a meeting, he said, could help in understanding the harm brought on them by trying to block Obamas immigration reform efforts.

In 2014, Obama tried to implement the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, also known as DAPA, but Texas and 25 other states blocked Obamas efforts soon after. Abbott filled the lawsuit while he was state attorney general, the Texas Tribune reported.

Those who have filed the lawsuit are playing politics with peoples lives, Eckhardt said. Immigrants are integral to the economic success of the country, she added.

A federal judge in February blocked Obamas executive actions on immigration, saying his administration didnt allow for a longer notification and comment period as required, CNN reported. In May, a federal appeals court sided with Texas and the 25 other states challenging the order, saying that eligible undocumented immigrants cant apply for Obamas program while it is being appealed.

Protesters gathered outside Abbotts home in April, asking him to drop the lawsuit against DAPA and sit down to talk with families about immigration, according to KTRK-TV in Houston.

See the original post:
DAPA Immigration Reform 2015: Austin City Leaders Want ...

The first Latino to be the sheriff of a major city recently announced her re-election campaign with a bit of a twist: Her office would no longer by complying with a federal law that requires law enforcement agencies to hold arrested undocumented immigrants beyond the dates theyre to be released.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez decided to change the policy for her department that was mandated by the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants arrested on minor charges for an additional two days, the Dallas Morning Newsreported. Hundreds of other jurisdictions in other states with heavy undocumented immigrant populations have already taken similar action, but Texas has come under scrutiny because itbordersCentral America, where the U.S. government has been deporting the immigrant group, according to a new report by the Guardian.

Valdez made the decision with her departments best interests at heart, she said, knowing that it may not make her more popular, especially during an election year. No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset, she told the Dallas Morning News.We cant base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole.

There has been an increased emphasis on immigration in the U.S., especially as it pertains to next years presidential election. Current Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has campaigned to Make America Great Again by ramping up rhetoric as it pertains to immigration, has famously saidof Mexicans: They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.

Trump last month visited Dallas, where he proclaimed, We are a dumping ground for the rest of the world, referring to the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. He has proposed to build a wall to keep immigrants from illegally entering the U.S.

The policy change in Dallas was based on the needs of Valdez's jurisdiction and not federal needs, shesaid. She would rather exercise discretion instead of being forced to comply with an ICE law that she says focuses more on committing civil or administrative violations instead of actual crimes.

Immigration is a federal law. I dont know why they keep expecting me to take care of federal issues, she said. We make our decisions based on reason, safety and whats best for the community.

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Immigration Reform In Texas: Undocumented Immigrants In ...

President Barack Obama promised Hispanic leaders on Thursday he'll continue to champion a comprehensive change to the nation's immigration laws and said America's greatness comes from building opportunities, not walls.

While prospects for an immigration overhaul are negligible during the remainder of his presidency, Obama used the speech to highlight differences with several of the Republican presidential candidates on the issue, which will help define the 2016 elections.

Obama said he wishes GOP lawmakers had followed the lead of former President George W. Bush when he sought changes that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He noted that Bush had said that uniting the country cannot be done by inciting people to anger.

"Think how much better our economy would be if the rest of his party got the message," Obama told about 2,000 people during an awards dinner for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, which seeks to open the halls of Congress to more Latinos.

Obama said he believes in changes in the law that would allow people here illegally to pay a fine, pay their fair share of taxes and then "go to the back of the line" before they earn citizenship. He contrasted that message to some GOP candidates calling for more walls on the U.S. border with Mexico.

"You can't just feed on fear," he said. "You should be feeding hope."

Obama used the speech to highlight gains he said Hispanics have made under his presidency, noting that 4 million more Latinos have health insurance and that the unemployment rate for the group has about fallen in half from 13 percent to about 6.4 percent.

Prior to Obama's arrival, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke briefly, saying that too many people in the U.S. don't see how vital Latinos are to the nation.

"It's a problem when a leading Republican candidate for president says that immigrants from Mexico are rapists and drug dealers," Clinton said, referencing comments that Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump made last summer.

She said it was a problem when candidates "use offensive terms like 'anchor babies,'" a phrase that Republican Jeb Bush used to describe infants whose parents come to America specifically so their children are born in the U.S. and granted automatic citizenship. Bush has said he was referring mostly to the so-called birth tourism industry.

To that, Clinton said, "Basta. Enough. End this," using the Spanish term for "enough."

Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.

Link:
Obama Touts Immigration Reform in Speech to Hispanic ...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama reserved his harshest criticism on immigration Thursday not for GOP presidential frontrunnerDonald Trump, but for the other Republican candidates who he said know what's right, but are bending to politics.

Obama didn't use names during his speech to a 2,000-person crowd at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute gala. But some of hisreferences were obvious, particularly to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who helped draft a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013 and has since tied himself in knotsover whether he still supports it.

"Some of the very same Republican politicians who championed reform, some of whom sponsored these efforts, suddenly they want nothing to do with it," Obama said, with a dramatic pause. "Hmm."

"In these circumstances, I always say, 'Don't boo, vote,'" he continued. "They can't hear the boos, but they can hear your vote."

The Latino vote helped Obama win in 2012, and may do the same for the 2016 Democratic nominee. Latinos lean Democratic, and there are even more eligible voters in the next election than in the last, meaning the GOP candidate may need to attract more than47 percent of them in order to win the presidency.

On immigration, though, most Republican candidates don't seem to be heedingthe lessons of 2012, when Mitt Romney was widely condemned for calling for undocumented immigrants to self-deport.

Instead, Republicans have been eager to say they're tough on immigration, whether by calling for a border wall or decrying amnesty. Like Rubio, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said he does not support a path to citizenship, and stirredcontroversy for using the term "anchor babies."

"That's not leadership, turning against what's right the moment the politics of your base gets tough," Obama said. "Leadership is not fanning the flames of intolerance and then acting all surprised when the fire breaks out. Saying clearly inflammatory things and then saying, 'Well, that's not what I meant,' until you do it again, and again, and again."

Obama said the American people need to decide whether they will stand up to bigotry -- a common theme of the evening. Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) told members of the crowd earlier that they must show they will organize against candidates who disrespect Latinos.

"We can't just sit on the sidelines hoping that things will get better," Sanchez said.

For most of the conference, the top target was Trump, one of the only 2016 candidates not invited to speak because of his statements on Latinos, which include calling for mass deportation, a border wall and an end to birthright citizenship for babies born in the U.S. He also has claimed Mexico is sending rapists and other criminals into the U.S.

"We need people who will stand up to this ugly rhetoric and extreme thinking, who will say with our words and our actions, basta, enough," Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said.

A 22-year-old undocumented immigrant activist,Juan Carlos Ramos with the advocacy group United We Dream Action,stood during Clinton's remarks to protest her for taking contributions from lobbyists for private prison companies, which operate many immigrant detention centers. It was not clear whether Clinton heard the man, and she continued speaking.

Obama was interrupted by an immigration activist at last year's CHCI gala, which took place about a month after he put off plans for executive action on immigration until after the 2014 election.

This year, things were decidedly friendlier for the president. He promised to continue fighting for the sweeping deportation relief he announced last November, which has been blocked by courts.

"Although it is taking us longer than we hoped, I know we are on the right side of the law," Obama said. "We are going to keep fighting to prove it."

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Obama: Backing Away From Immigration Reform Is 'Not ...