The Road to Citizenship - Immigrants and unions get on the same bus

In These Times ^ | 9-23-03 | David Moberg

[JustPiper]

Fifteen years ago, 43-year old Jose Gomez, fearing for his life, fled civil warfare in his native El Salvador and found asylum in the United States. Gomez works as a steward at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, where he and fellow workers have been on strike since June, fighting wage and benefit cuts. But because he doesn’t have permanent residence status, he hasn’t been able to visit his family in El Salvador or arrange to bring them here. He lives and works in limbo.

Gomez’s problems are common among the 18 million foreign-born workers in the United States, about one-eighth of the workforce. As immigration has escalated in recent decades, especially from Latin America and Asia, American policies have failed to adapt to the growing importance of immigrants in American society—including the 9 million out of 34 million foreign-born residents of the United States who lack proper documents and are here illegally, according to an Urban Institute estimate.

In late September, Gomez will join nearly 1,000 other immigrants and their supporters from around the country for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a union-led campaign to build public support for immigrant rights.

The Freedom Ride buses will be making stops in more than 80 cities in 30 states before converging in Washington and then New York City for an October 4 rally that could number a couple hundred thousand.

Initiated by Gomez’s own Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) union, the Freedom Ride aims to recover some of the progress toward a more rational and humane immigration policy that was drastically reversed in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The riders hope to make the rights of immigrants a broad-based campaign for civil rights and an issue in the 2004 election.

“It’s important to put immigration on the national agenda again,” says Eliseo Medina, Service Employees union (SEIU) vice-president. “It gives us the opportunity to go out and have a discussion with America.”

Immigrants are concerned with issues of legalization and education, he says, but neither political party has clearly demonstrated a meaningful commitment. “It’s not good enough to say a few words in Spanish,” Medina says. “Are Democrats going to speak to this? Is there a plan? Will President Bush do it? It’s not enough to wear cowboy boots and say I’m from a border state and understand Latinos.”

Freedom Ride organizers are advocating for an amnesty of immigrants who are already here. In 1986, Congress provided amnesty and a road to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but also attempted to crack down on illegal immigrants at work. Now, Freedom Riders want immigration policies that support reunification of families and unequivocally protect immigrants’ rights in the workplace. Although the Republican Congress will not be passing progressive immigration legislation anytime soon, the Freedom Ride campaign reflects the growing worldwide movement of individuals transforming traditional ideas of citizenship by claiming universal human and workplace rights that transcend national boundaries.

In the ’80s, the AFL-CIO supported anti-immigrant legislation in an effort to protect American workers from competition from low-wage “illegal aliens.” But in February 2000, the labor movement reversed course. Reflecting the experience of unions like HERE, SEIU, UNITE (the historic garment and textile union), and the Laborers, the AFL-CIO argued for action to expand immigrant rights and organize them into unions. Today, these same unions hope that the Freedom Ride will resonate in immigrant communities and get immigrants involved in both unions and politics.

--------------

Immigrant workers, especially those without proper papers, are more easily intimidated and abused, and as a result of their powerlessness, employers frequently exploit them. That exploitation, in turn, drives down wages for other workers.

A recent study by UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center found that concentration of new, especially Latin American, immigrants in an industry depresses wages. When recent Latino male immigrants make up 15 percent or more of a particular occupation, the study concluded, wages are driven down substantially for other minority workers, including both long-established Latino and black workers.

In many cases, the new, more poorly paid immigrants displace African-Americans, for example, in hotels, construction, meatpacking and other industries. Employers often play off one ethnic group against another. This is an increasingly common practice in poultry plants in the South, where newer Guatemalan immigrants are pitted against older immigrants from Mexico as well as blacks.

But the new immigrants, despite their vulnerability, are often willing to organize, as UNITE has found with laundry workers nationwide, the Roofers Union with home-construction workers in Arizona, Laborers with asbestos remediation workers in New York and New Jersey, and SEIU with its Justice for Janitors campaign. After years of successful organizing, SEIU used its increased control over local building service labor markets to win substantial wage and benefit gains for janitors around the country this year despite rising unemployment rates. In other cases, like the Guatemalan workers at a North Carolina poultry plant described in Leon Fink’s new book, Maya of Morganton, immigrant workers organize themselves. If immigrants come to identify gaining their rights with the power of collective action rather than as a purely individual accomplishment, they are more likely to develop a progressive view of politics.

Despite the tensions that have developed between African-Americans and expanding new immigrant groups, the Freedom Ride has explicitly tied itself to the civil rights freedom rides of the ’50s and ’60s. An array of religious groups, such as Rainbow/PUSH coalition, have endorsed the ride. At a Chicago rally to build support, Denise Dixon, the African-American leader of Chicago’s chapter of ACORN, a heavily black, low-income community group, explained why she was going to be a freedom rider. “As long as working people let immigrants be harassed and intimidated, it keeps wages down for everybody,” Dixon told the crowd. “I don’t know about you, but I want to make some money.”

In Illinois, where immigrantion has increased rapidly, organizing for the Freedom Ride has brought together immigrant groups and unions that had until recently pursued independent, even conflicting, strategies. The Bush administration’s harsh policies towards immigrants have also convinced groups that they must work together. The detentions and deportations of Arab and Muslim immigrants, the prohibition of immigrants from holding airport security jobs, and tougher restrictions on students have received wide attention. But other policies—rationalized as in the interest of national security—have hit immigrant workers hard. Raids on airports, the Air Force Academy, and office buildings housing restaurants (like the Sears Towers) have led to the detention—and frequently deportation—of thousands of workers for immigration infractions. Last year the Bush administration sent out an unprecedented flood of letters to employers about workers whose Social Security numbers didn’t match their names. Some workers were frightened into quitting. In some cases, employers abused the “no match” letters to inappropriately threaten or dismiss workers—leading to successful protests at both unionized and unorganized Hilton hotels in Chicago.

The Supreme Court also ruled in its Hoffman Plastics decision last year that an undocumented immigrant who was illegally fired for union activity in an organizing drive was not eligible for back pay because he was in the United States without proper papers, leading to fears that courts and legislators would further deprive immigrant workers of legal protections. In a few cases, immigrants have been ruled ineligible for workers compensation, a particularly grievous action since Latino males are 2.5 times more likely to die on the job than other workers.

When Bush first entered office, he seemed interested in moving towards a new immigration policy, especially with Mexico, the largest source of recent immigration. But Republicans are divided on the issue. Free-market, pro-business conservatives saw open immigration as providing a supply of low paid workers that would suppress wages, while cultural conservatives, with their nativist suspicion of all that is foreign, opposed expanding immigrant rights. For their part, many corporations supported new “guestworker” programs that would regulate immigration by permitting businesses to bring in workers for specific jobs.

After September 11, Bush lost all interest in immigration reform, and a growing popular movement was dampened. But the political volatility of immigrant rights had already been demonstrated. In California, Democrats won control of the state, in part, because in 1994, Latinos (and other immigrants) mobilized against the Republican-supported Proposition 187 that denied undocumented immigrants many public services. But immigration issues are not just important in the major centers of immigration. In Chicago’s suburbs, for example, Latino factory workers who migrated to jobs in suburban locations and south Asian tech employees who first settled in the suburbs, may have played a role in shifting control of the Illinois state legislature and governor’s office to the Democrats in 2002.

With progress at the national level stymied, immigrant rights groups have focused thir efforts at the state and local level—opposing Bush administration efforts to make local agencies enforcers of immigration law, making driver’s licenses available to immigrants even without social security numbers (approved in September by the California legislature), and ensuring that children of undocumented illegal immigrants are eligible for in-state tuition (approved overwhelmingly this past May in Illinois, for example). In some cities, day laborers have won establishment of workers centers to make their job hunt more humane. In Chicago, however, the city recently destroyed an improvised hiring center despite laborers efforts to negotiate with a hostile city council member.

Winning the political allegiance of new immigrants could determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the government in many states. Yet it is not clear which party will prevail, despite the Democratic advantage among Mexicans, by far the largest immigrant group.

“We’re not taking for granted this is a Democratic issue,” said HERE Local 1 president Henry Tamarin. “Let the parties compete for the voters.” While some conservative Republicans have recently led anti-immigrant initiatives, other Republicans favor expanded immigration and have proposed legislation designed to win immigrant support. In the U.S. Senate, conservative Republican Orrin Hatch has joined liberal Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin to co-sponsor legislation to encourage states to grant immigrant youth in-state tuition. But backlash is also playing a role in the California recall election. As anti-immigration forces have attacked Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamente, pro-immigrant groups have criticized Arnold Schwarzeneggar, and Gov. Gray Davis has reached out to immigrants, reversing his earlier position on driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Slightly more than a third of new immigrants are naturalized citizens who can vote, but their numbers will grow sharply in the future as more immigrants become naturalized. Unions like HERE, UNITE and SEIU are mobilizing immigrant workers for political work even when they can’t personally vote. But the political impact of this new movement will depend partly on whether immigrant rights becomes an issue with which workers who are citizens can identify.

The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride “is a huge step forward for people who care about immigrants,” says Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights executive director Josh Hoyt. “There will be no progress unless there’s a serious coalition between immigrants rights, community groups and organized labor. This has created a fantastic vehicle for doing that. But I don’t think there will be serious progress for immigrants, especially the undocumented, until their struggle becomes a civil rights struggle. We won’t win major progress because Bush and [Mexican president Vicente] Fox ride horses together, but because immigrants and their allies force it.”

Organizers are hopeful despite the setbacks of the past two years. “The immigrant freedom ride is not the end. It’s the beginning of the next phase of struggle for immigrant worker rights,” says the SEIU’s Medina. “I think it’s going to spark a whole new wave of interest in organizing in the community and workplace. This immigrant freedom ride is going to be like a match on a dry plain. It will spread everywhere.”

David Moberg, a senior editor of In These Times, has been on the staff of the magazine since it began publishing. Before joining In These Times, he completed his work for a Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Chicago and worked for Newsweek. Recently he has received fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Nation Institute for research on the new global economy.

[JustPiper]

Freeper's Unite- Greet Them!
2,500 join in march to launch Freedom Ride

[JustPiper]

Ping!

[raybbr]

In the ’80s, the AFL-CIO supported anti-immigrant legislation in an effort to protect American workers from competition from low-wage “illegal aliens.”

I wonder how many actual members of these unions support these cretins?

A lot of union members just "go with the flow" and don't stop to think what their leadership is doing to them and the United States.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[Pro-Bush]

We’re not taking for granted this is a Democratic issue,” said HERE Local 1 president Henry Tamarin. “Let the parties compete for the voters.” While some conservative Republicans have recently led anti-immigrant initiatives, other Republicans favor expanded immigration and have proposed legislation designed to win immigrant support. In the U.S. Senate, conservative Republican Orrin Hatch has joined liberal Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin to co-sponsor legislation to encourage states to grant immigrant youth in-state tuition.

Orrin Hatch, I got you marked..What a piece of crap he is. Now illeagals expect free college, while working American families must pay for it out of their pockets. This is complete insanity. Wake up call folks!

[JustPiper]

Make note for next week Hatch is on the call list!

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Fifteen years ago, 43-year old Jose Gomez, fearing for his life, fled civil warfare in his native El Salvador and found asylum in the United States. But because he doesn’t have permanent residence status, he hasn’t been able to visit his family in El Salvador or arrange to bring them here. He lives and works in limbo.

Initiated by Gomez’s own Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees (HERE) union, the Freedom Ride aims to recover some of the progress toward a more rational and humane immigration policy that was drastically reversed in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

For 15 years since September 11, 2001 he hasn't been able to see his family???

Must be a publik skool grad.

[JustPiper]

They have to know, there is word from INS?DHS not to stop, harrass, deport or arrest. They are not to be touched on this ride.

[mallardx]

He could always go back HOME.

[raybbr]

This is frightening. We are about to witness, in the United States of America, a mass crime committed with the full knowledge, consent and approval of Senators, Representatives, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and law enforcement. These criminals and their supporters are to be given a ride through the streets of our country lauded as if they are in a ticker-tape parade.

There will be speeches and rallies in support of people who, by there very existence on our land, are criminals. People will cheer them on as they flaunt our Constitution and denigrate the very essence of our society.

I do not understand the broad support that these people receive. It has more to do with the Republicans want the for cheap labor and the Democrats for fraudulent votes. I cannot fathom anyone supporting this movement. It absolutely baffles me.

Were I not a law abiding citizen I migh actually advocate some serious "civil disobedience" against this "freedom ride".

[JustPiper]

Please help us and FAIR! All links how and they are effortless, are here:
Act NOW!

[raybbr]

Jobs with Justice is working with allies in cities across the country to build for events during the immigrant worker freedom ride. Below is a list of the events happening in JwJ cities. For more information about a particular event, please use the contact information provided. For a complete calendar of IWFR events, please visit www.iwfr.org.

ARIZONA
Tucson
Steve Valencia (520) 889-1927 chairperson@tucsonjwj.org www.tucsonjwj.org
Date ?
Ecumenical mass at downtown cathedral with Bishop.
Procession to downtown rally.
Press Conference at border
Rally with Roofers

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Mackenzie Baris (202) 857-1011 dc@jwj.org
10/1
2-6 pm : Welcoming Event at the DC Armory
6:30 pm: Rally at Bible Way church
10/2
Morn: Riders Lobby
Dinner hosted by the AFL-CIO
Eve Action in support of parking lot workers
10/4
Two buses leave for New York City

FLORIDA
Miami
Jonathan Harris (305) 623-4900 jonathan@sfjwj.org www.sfjwj.org
9/4
Press Conference
9/5
Presentation at Central American Independence Festival
9/7
Presentation at Peace and Justice event
9/9
Town hall meeting on civil liberties with ACLU and FL immigrant advocacy center
9/20
Send off soccer tournament in Homestead
9/23
Prayer breakfast in Little Haiti


GEORGIA
Atlanta
Kris Roehling (404) 876-5661 atlantajwj.org
9/29
MLK memorial at King's grave site
Rally and proclamation at City Hall
Town Hall Meeting at UAW Local 10
March and rally with Latino, African and Caribbean immigrants, labor, faith and community organizations to protest and publicize the Driver's Licence issue for undocumented immigrants

ILLINOIS
Chicago
James Thindwa (312) 738-6209 www.chicagojwj.org
9/29
Rider Send off

INDIANA
Indianapolis
Nancy Holle (317) 247-6661 nancyholle1@aol.com www.iupui.edu/jwjindy
9/29
12-2pm: Lunch sponsored by UFCW at local Catholic church

KENTUCKY
Louisville
James Johnson (502)582-3508 james@kyjwj.org www.kyjwj.org
9/29
Welcome riders
9/30
Breakfast in Shelbyville
Send off

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston
Ana & Russ Davis (617) 524-8778 bostonjwj@mindspring.com www.massjwj.net
Date
Event

MISSOURI
St. Louis
Lara Granich (314) 644-0466 info@stl-jwj.org www.stl-jwj.org
9/28
Welcoming Event

NEW YORK
Buffalo
Maria Whyte (716) 892-5877 cej_maria@yahoo.com
Date?
USAS teach-in at SUNY Buffalo
9/29
Lunch in Holy Cross: Welcoming remarks by Dan Boody, President of the ALF, and by Kevin Cartel, curator of the African American Church that was used during the underground railroad.
Forum on the 4 Points: Freedom riders speaking include an immigrant student, local clergy providing services to immigrant communities, and an immigrant worker at Adam's Mark hotel, who are organizing with HERE.
March downtown to Adam's Mark hotel.
Picket and rally outside of the hotel to support the organizing drive.

Long Island
Ericka Bozzi-Gomez (917) 284-0264 ebozzi@seiu32bj.org
Roger Clayman (203) 558-0423 mailto:rclayman@compuserv.com
9/10
Send off-Vans depart for New York City
Ongoing (Get specific dates, or is this OK?)
Van tour of Long Island workplaces to promote immigrant workers' rights-call your local JwJ Coalition for more information.

Mid-Hudson Valley
Ed Felton (888) 631-8776 edwardtfelton@mybizz.net
Date
Event

New York City
Simon Greer (212) 631-0886 newyorkjwj@mindspring.com www.nyjwj.org
10/4
Rally and All Day Festival at Flushing Meadows

Rochester
Rachel McGuire (585) 262-7167 labor_religion@cfcrochester.org
9/29
Welcoming Event

OHIO
Columbus
Reg Dyck (614) 236-6427 rdyck@capital.edu columbus_labor@hotmail.com
9/29
Busses arrive. Dinner and welcoming cultural event.
9/30
Breakfast with religious and civic leaders.
Rally with Justice for Janitors.

Toledo
Karen Krause (419) 475-8380 kkrause@accesstoledo.com
9/28
11 am: Rally w/ FLOC


OREGON
Portland
Margaret Butler (503) 236-5573 margaret@jwjpdx.org www.jwjpdx.org
Date
Event


PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
Fabricio Rodriquez (215) 735-3615 phillyjwj@mindspring.com
9/30
Cintas rally
10/3
Interfaith send-off/prayer vigil
Buses depart for New Jersey
10/4
Buses depart for New York City

RHODE ISLAND
Providence
Matthew Jerzyk (401) 454-4766 info@rijwj.org www.rijwj.org
Date
Event


TEXAS
Austin
?

Dallas
Rudy Anderson (214) 331-0865 randerson@txjwj.org
9/27
Rally at the Kennedy Memorial in downtown

San Antonio
Mike Muniz (210) 224-9688 mmuniz@afm.org
Date
Event


UTAH
Salt Lake City
George Neckel (801) 606-2074 utjwj@xmission.com www.utahjwj.org
9/25
Rally at the State Capitol, 5 pm
March to the Federal Building
Dinner and entertainment at Centro Civico
9/26
Breakfast send off for the riders


WASHINGTON
Seattle
Jake Carton (206) 441-4969 wsjwj@igc.org www.wsjwj.org
9/7
Kickoff Event
9/11
JwJ Workers' Rights Board hearing on immigrant workers' rights
9/20
Send off at Seattle center
9/4 - 9/17
DC Labor Filmfest

[raybbr]

I posted this info because I went on the original website and it appears to have been shut down. Here at least is a partial agenda so freepers might know how to disrupt this travesty. I can't find any info on where or when it will be in the New Haven, CT area, though.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

A get pissed link:http://www.millionamericanmarch.com

[ETERNAL WARMING]

Well said, ray.

[JustPiper]

Thank you very much Ray! Here are two great lists to add to yours from Dana:
List of supporters- WARNING-Hazardous to your health!
Current Counter Protest List

[ETERNAL WARMING]

OFF YOUR A$$ & ON YOUR FEET AMERICA!

IT IS TIME TO RAISE HELL

On September 20, 2003, the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride will set out from cities across the nation - Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Houston, Miami and Boston - and converge two weeks later in Washington. The nine buses will carry immigrant workers and their allies in a new push for equal rights, improved work conditions and - for illegal immigrants - amnesty and a path toward legal residency and citizenship.

The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride includes stops in dozens of communities from Walla Walla, Wash., to Shelbyville, Ky., before meeting with members of Congress in Washington on October 2. The trip concludes with a mass rally in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, N.Y., on October 4. The Freedom Riders are traveling with the endorsement of hundreds of community groups, union chapters, religious groups and elected officials like Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante of California and Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a leader of the original Freedom Rides.

It is imperative that Americans challenge this mockery of our national sovereignty. There is much more at stake than a few million aliens who "only want to work." If the demands of these so-called freedom riders are met, it will mark the beginning of the end for our country as we know it.

Take a good, hard look at the long list of names on the endorsements page at their web site, or view the entire list at the bottom of this page. Make note of how many openly racist, communist, socialist, and Marxist organizations and names litter the page. Make special note of how many of YOUR representatives - mayors, city councilmen, senators, congressmen, etc. - have aligned themselves with COMMUNISM and CRIMINALS.

Our nation is in a crisis. If this parody of civil rights is successful, we can all say we watched history in the making as our borders were erased. What kind of nation we leave for our posterity, or whether we even leave a nation for our posterity at all, might well depend on our strength and unity as Americans in rising to meet this challenge.

Time is short, but it is imperative that we rally in national protest against this travesty of justice.

At no time do we encourage violence, but making lots of American noise is HIGHLY recommended.

Since this represents the potential death of our nation, our first suggestion is to fly a black flag on our cars and/or homes during the entire two weeks of the illegal aliens' joy ride to signify our protest and solidarity as Americans.

We encourage everyone who possibly can to make the trip to meet the joy riders in DC. It is vital that as many people appear to greet the unwelcome guests as possible.

However, we still have to recognize that many, if not most, Americans cannot jump up and run to DC. If we have jobs, unlike the illegal aliens, we have to work. If our jobs have already been taken by illegal aliens or H1b aliens, we can't afford to travel. In lieu of traveling to DC we suggest the following.

A warm send off in each of the nine cities of origin is encouraged. Bring both your American flags and your black flags, along with your picket signs.

It would be un-American to allow these solicitors to travel alone.

We encourage a convoy of Americans to accompany them on their travels, every step of the way. Adorn your car with flags and signs, plug in your CB, and join the convoy. You may join the convoy for as long or short a distance as you like. Besides the itinerary published on their web site, we are coordinating HAM radio operators and truckers using CB radios to track the progress of each bus for each hour of each day until they arrive in DC so you will be able to pin point their location at any time to join the convoy. If you are a HAM operator, please contact us. If you are someone who can greet the communist criminals at their origin to accompany them for the entire trip, we definitely encourage you to do so, and you can also become a significant part of our network. We will also be asking for support from local radio programs to relay the proximity of the convoy to their listeners who might want to join.

These visitors should not make their stop offs in your town or city without being greeted by a welcoming committee. Bring your flags, your picket signs, and your anger to make sure they understand how welcome they really are, in spite of what that person giving the speech at the microphone says. If it is merely a rest stop at a retail location the pilgrimage is making, don't forget to let the business catering to them understand how their future profits might turn in view of their community service. Vigils can be arranged at the locations where the solicitors sleep each night. Don't forget to bring your flags, your picket signs, your anger, and some maybe some entertainment for an all night stay.

The convoy will terminate in DC when the aliens arrive to solicit and collaborate with OUR government for amnesty for their crimes against our nation and our society. We beg everyone who can skinny their way into DC on that day to attend. Bring your flags, both American and black, and your picket signs, and your rage to stand watch over the demands being placed on our representative government by these criminal aliens and anti-American solicitors.

Neither is this the time for being politically correct. Being politically correct has done nothing but have American voices silenced and ignored for the past 20 years, ever since the one and only alien amnesty of 1986. Let your anger create your picket signs for you. Don't hold back. No matter how harsh or angry, make your voice heard. If you are feeling short on creativity, we will put some suggestions up on the web site, but recommend using your imagination to make your voice unique.

Again, at no time do we advocate violence, but making lots of American noise is HIGHLY recommended.

Off your ass and on your feet, America.

It's time for answers. Do we have borders, or have they been erased and our politicians forgot to tell us???


millionamericanmarch.com/

[Clock King]

I do not understand the broad support that these people receive.

It may also have to do with race and white guilt spawned by liberalism.

[HadEnough]

"A lot of union members just "go with the flow" and don't stop to think what their leadership is doing to them and the United States."

Just substitute "American Sheeple" for "union members"
and your statement describes why this country is a goner.

The current comfort of a nice home, SUV in the driveway and easy credit is a gilded cage waiting for the 'massa' to let the cat in.

[HadEnough]

"Do we have borders, or have they been erased and our politicians forgot to tell us"

1. NO, we do not have borders. 9/11 made that perfectly clear

2. The politicians are ELECTED by only 30% of the eligible
voters, most of whom are VOTING THEIR JOBS.

3. The politicians know the voting demographics mentioned in #2 and are BOLDLY telling us DAY and NIGHT that they support this invasion.

4. Store up the supplies, lock'n'load, Civil War II is getting closer every day.