November 9,Newark, NJ—150 protestors and supporters rallied outside of the Federal Building today, demanding the release of Jorge Chajón who has now been detained, for over a year now. At the tender age of thirteen, Jorge made the perilous trek from Guatemala to reunite with his family in New Jersey, accompanied by a caravan of 75 workers, fleeing the capitalist violence,that is all too pervasive in his homeland. For over a decade now this has been Jorge’s new home. Here, he graduated High School, and had it not been for his immigration status at the time, he would’ve attended Rutgers University, he later married, and recently became a father to a baby girl.
Despite sorting out his immigration status, and qualifying for DACA (Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals). Jorge’s status as a dreamer was brutally crushed when he was detained by ICE, costing him half a million dollars, and 15 months in detention facing inhumane treatment. Today at our demonstration. many blamed the Trump administration for ongoing fascist policies. Yet criminal separation of children from parents within the borders of the U.S is part and parcel of decades of systematic U.S sponsored oppression in Central America. Rulers here reap even more benefits by dividing immigrant from “citizen.”
The fear of deportation--of even more than the 2.5 millions of Obama’s regime--drives wages lower for “citizens”, too, who are pitted against immigrants for jobs. What Jorge’s experience shows us is that the capitalist bosses can only offer workers nightmares not dreams of a better life. The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) stands in solidarity with Jorge Chacón’s family but takes a further step into the future. We recognize that fighting for an egalitarian world has to combat policies like Reagan’s genocide in Guatemala of the ‘80’s that planted the seeds of violence Jorge and other workers in Central America fled, and continue to flee today.
The crowd today included members of Unitarian Universalist Faith Action, NJ Alliance for Immigrant Justice, Make the Road NJ and members of  PLP. We held a banner displaying 2500 signatures demanding Jorge be released, and reunited with his wife and two young children. Unfortunately our rally resulted in no “justice ( the hearing is postponed to November 20). His previous hearing was scheduled for June 26th, but ICE officials failed to transport him to that hearing as well as to a previous hearing!
 Members of PLP and workers engaged in this fight say Enough to false promises! We vow to continue fighting alongside immigrant workers like Jorge, for a new system free from exploitation, that would ultimately smash the profit system and its deadly borders.