Vol. 73/No. 17      May 4, 2009

In their announcement for a “roadmap toward real reform,” Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, spoke for Change to Win alongside John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. They were joined by Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, and Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers.

The “roadmap” has five main proposals: formation of an independent commission to “manage future flows” and “determine the number of foreign workers to be admitted for employment purposes, based on labor market needs”; “a secure and effective worker authorization mechanism”; “rational operational control of the border”; “adjustment of status” for some undocumented workers already in the United States; and “improvement, not expansion” of guest worker programs.

The union bureaucrats complain that the current system has “failed to curtail illegal immigration” and say that rounding up and deporting the 12 million or more workers without papers “is not a realistic solution.” Instead they propose that more “effective” enforcement be achieved by “trained professional border patrol agents and not vigilantes or local law enforcement officials.” They want to supplement this with a system to verify work authorization that “relies on secure identification methodology,” code words for a national ID system.

The joint announcement says that their proposal “is a critical sign of support for the Administration and Congress to address immigration reform…”

On May 1, 2006, millions of immigrants and their supporters marched in the streets across the United States demanding legalization, proclaiming, “We are workers, not criminals.” Those actions defeated a bill that would have made it a felony for undocumented immigrants to be in the United States.

Largely as a result of stricter enforcement of anti-worker immigration laws, Latinos now make up 40 percent of the federal prison population. Almost half of Latinos in jail are there for the alleged “crime” of being in the United States without papers.
 
 
Related articles:
Chicago conference calls May 1 action
No deportations! End the ICE raids!
Immigration raids, patrols on borders to continue
Legalization for all immigrants! Join May Day actions!  
 
 
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