On April 25, the INS and attorneys for the eight former hotel maids jointly announced the decision outside an immigration court in Bloomington, Minnesota, to cheers from more than 100 supporters of the immigrants.  Many of those cheering were members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees’ Union (HERE) Local 17, the union the workers had voted to join just days before they were fired.

In October of last year, after the manager of the Minneapolis Holiday Inn Express had notified the INS that they were illegally present in the U.S., the eight hotel maids were arrested, six were jailed, and all faced deportation.  The arrests came only four days after the hotel’s housekeepers had voted to unionize; all eight arrested had been members of the union’s negotiating team.

HERE and other Minneapolis unions took up the workers’ cause and mobilized community support.  "We don’t want employers to believe they can hire undocumented workers, and then, if they begin a union, they can turn them into the INS and walk away.  This is a new slavery.  This is economic slavery," Jane Rykunyk, secretary-treasurer of HERE Local 17, told the Minneapolis Star in October.

Along with the immigrants’ attorneys, the unions organized a letter-writing and petition drive and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charging that the immigrants had been illegally fired.  In the end, the NLRB, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices all ruled in the immigrants’ favor, finding that the hotel had illegally discriminated against them.  The EEOC got involved because shortly after the eight were arrested, the agency issued a guidance stating that under federal law, undocumented workers are "entitled to the same relief as other victims of discrimination" (see "Discrimination Case Involving Undocumented Workers Who Voted to Join Union Settled," Immigrants’ Rights Update, Feb. 11, 2000, p. 6).

Some labor leaders have linked this positive outcome for the workers to the quality and degree of support they received.  "This decision sends an important message to immigrant workers at every level of the economy—that if you stand up for your rights, you will be backed up not only by the community and your union, but also by the justice system," said Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO.

Jorge Saavedra, one of the attorneys for the eight defendants, echoed those sentiments.  The case, he said, "is a reminder that the most powerful voice does not come from any one individual, but from people united together."

"We feel this agreement is a good compromise, one that allows a generous period for the defendants to arrange their affairs before returning to their home country while still ensuring that the laws governing immigration in the United States will be upheld," said INS District Director Curtis Aljets.  He noted that unless Congress passes a new law in the next two years, there is no provision under current immigration law that would allow the immigrants to stay in the U.S. permanently.