06) VICTORY OVER TRANSIT PROFILING

People’s Voice Editorial

    Congratulations to the “Transportation not Deportation” campaign, which  won a huge victory on February 20 when the Vancouver Transit Police announced that it will end its agreement with the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) to help enforce racist federal immigration laws. The news came one week before an important TransLink meeting to discuss the controversial practice of armed transit cops checking on people’s immigration status during fare evasion sweeps. One of those caught up in this racial profiling strategy was Lucia Vega Jimenez, the so-called “illegal” woman who hanged herself in a CBSA holding cell rather then endure the terror of being sent back to an uncertain fate in Mexico. During 2013 alone, transit cops reported 328 people to CBSA, including Jimenez, who was picked up for an unpaid bus ticket.

    In effect, the agreement had established an internal border within the Canadian state, allowing random arrests of people accused of being on the wrong side of the line. This cooperation was aptly described by the Transportation not Deportation campaign as part of the privatization and militarization of the public transit system, a strategy which has undermined the current referendum to seek adequate public funding for regional transportation priorities. The scrapping of the agreement means that transit police will no longer ask for immigration status, or share such information with the CBSA. Migrants will now be able to access public transit without fear of detention or deportation.

    The victory is a direct result of grassroots community mobilizing and petitioning by Transportation not Deportation, especially No One Is Illegal and 40 other organizations. At a time when the federal government is pushing a divide and rule political agenda with a sharply racist edge, this campaign shows that unity and struggle is the best way to defend human rights.

(The above article is from the March 1-15, 2015 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)