tom emmer

Update: Photos from 9/15 Protest

MIRAc preguntara a los candidatos a gobernador si apoyarian a los derechos de los inmigrantes

Yesterday, about 75 immigrant rights and LGBTQ advocates demonstrated in front of Target, over their connection to Republican candidate for governor Tom Emmer. They condemned Target’s $150,000 contribution to MNForward, which used the money for a television ad urging the election of Emmer who is infamous for his anti-immigrant, anti-gay, and anti-minimum wage views.

The protesters carried 4 four-foot-tall dia de los muertos skeletons, signifying Emmer's offensive positions on immigrants, GLBTQ people, and low income workers, as well as Target's corporate political contributions.

UPDATE: U.S. Judge Susan Bolton issued a partial injunction against elements of SB 1070 until the full case can be heard. Proponents of the law are disappointed, but the group PuenteAZ says the ruling is "NOT a victory."

St. Paul Demonstration on Thursday, July 29

Tom Emmer, the endorsed Republican candidate for MN Governor made a stab a damage control Wednesday. Last weekend Emmer emerged from a restaurant in St. Paul with tales of restaurant servers making $100,000 a year while the owners scrape by on leftovers. The problem he pointed to on Saturday was minimum wage laws. While he didn’t actually say the words: “ I want to cut minimum wages for servers”, he argued that minimum wages interfere with the “market” and presumably make things harder for owners who are the gooses with the golden eggs. (You can see the video here.)

In a series of protests at the Uptown restaurant, SEIU Local 26 members and organizers rallied to call attention to a critical contradiction – Baja Sol is a fast food restaurant that sells Mexican food and employs Latino and Latina workers yet owner Tony Sutton openly supports politically extreme anti-Mexican legislation.

As Local 26 highlights, this blatant hypocrisy means that enthusiasm for one popular facet of Mexican American culture is financing the politics of Mexican-American exclusion and criminalization.  Baja Sol did not respond to a request for comment on these allegations.