La Virgen Meets Eliot Spitzer ARTICULATING LABOR RIGHTS FOR MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS Alyshia Gálvez “We’re being taken advantage of. We’re not being respected. If you’re undocumented, you have no rights.” 1 This is a common refrain among undocumented Mexican immigrants and often signals the start of a strug- gle against exploitative employers or landlords. 2 Indeed, it would seem that undocumented immigrants do not enjoy many rights. After crossing the border, they are told by other recent immigrants that they must avoid detection by and interaction with the state at all costs, or risk deporta- tion. In the five years María Ramírez, 3 a young mother who migrated from Puebla, Mexico, and her husband have lived in New York City, they have never visited the Statue of Liberty, the Bronx Zoo, or their cous- ins in New Jersey. They fear that even buying an admission ticket on a commuter rail train, they might be forced to reveal their lack of English proficiency, asked to show identification, or otherwise risk revealing their undocumented status. Many immigrants report that they are mistreated by employers, refused services by medical providers, and charged exor- bitant rents for ill-maintained housing by landlords on the premise that they are undocumented. Further, their undocumented status is given as a rationale by those who tell immigrants that they not only must accept such treatment but have no one to whom they might complain. The U.S. news media circulate xenophobic opinions about immigrants: that they gave up their rights by crossing the border illegally, and their status as “lawbreakers” makes them undeserving of any consideration, rights, or benefits. While many immigrants do live in constant fear and under the impres- sion that they have no rights, there are many other immigrants who claim that they deserve respect, humane treatment, and services. There is a long history in New York City, and indeed in every city that has received mas- sive influxes of immigrants, of organizations that advocate for immigrants’ rights and services provision. Churches have long provided services and space for immigrant conviviality and religiosity. Many of the large agen- cies that continue to serve immigrants today began as mutual aid and philanthropic organizations to serve the waves of immigrants to the city at the turn of the twentieth century. Each immigrant group also forms its Social Text 88, Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall 2006 DOI 10.1215/01642472-2006-007 © 2006 Duke University Press