Posted on 07/01/2014 5:10:26 PM PDT by mdittmar
A year ago, the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill that would address many of the flaws with the country's broken immigration system, but House Republican leaders have done just about everything in their power to stall the bill, and it hasn't even come to a vote. Today, the AFL-CIO and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) hosted an event to highlight the tragic impact the ongoing deportation crisis has had on workers and families.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that the labor movement has a two-pronged immigration agenda: 1. To convince Republican leaders to immediately schedule a vote on H.R. 15, the House version of the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, and 2. To urge the executive branch to provide all those who would qualify for citizenship under the bipartisan Senate bill affirmative status with work authorization.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) detailed the numerous stories of the alleged abuse of immigrant workers in a report called Detention, Deportation and Devastation: The Disproportionate Effect of Deportations on the Latino Community, which concluded:
No community has felt a larger impact as a result of the prevailing immigration enforcement policies than Latinos. In 2013, 96.7 percent, or 356,303, of all deportations were of Latino descent....The overrepresentation of Latinos in deportations is not simply a byproduct of the large undocumented Latino population, but also a direct result of discriminatory policies at the federal, state and local level.
In association with today's event, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement:
John Boehner has acknowledged that the Republican House of Representatives will not hold a vote on the bipartisan Senate immigration bill. Responsibility for the historic failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform lies squarely, completely and embarrassingly at the feet of the Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The president is right to bypass House Republicans and meet the enormity of this moment. The administration has unquestionable legal authority to provide all those who would qualify for citizenship under the bipartisan Senate Bill affirmative status with work authorization while making immigration enforcement more just, as laid out in our policy statement. The administration should act boldly and without further delay.
The AFL-CIO is running newspaper ads, calling out House GOP leadership for blocking meaningful action. "The abdication of responsibility by Republicans on immigration is unfortunately one for the history books," wrote AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Hauser in an email to Politico. "After spending more than a year pushing for a simple up or down vote on the Senate bill, the labor movement wants to make sure the constituents of the GOP leadership understand with complete clarity who is to blame for failing to fix our broken immigration system." Check out the ads for the Enquirer: http://bit.ly/1pE8igF; the Californian: http://bit.ly/1mMMPyE; La Opinion: http://bit.ly/1pE8lcj; and El Popular: http://bit.ly/1qJGzrP.
The AFL-CIO made four key recommendations in the policy statement:
Read each of the recommendations in detail.
Some of the key tweets from today's event:
RT @NCLR: Murguia: The Republicans may have given up on a permanent solution, but we will never give up on finding one.— Janet Murguía (@JMurguia_NCLR) July 1, 2014
"Reject the tranquilizing drug of gradualism" - @ThomasASaenz invokes MLK Jr. to emphasize importance of #CIR— LCLAA (@LCLAA) July 1, 2014
Leaders of "family values" (ie Boehner et al) have sat by as families are ripped apart - MALDEF's Thomas Saenz— Michael Wasser (@JWJMichael) July 1, 2014
Female Farmworker shares her story of sexual abuse on the job at age of 15 in NY,OH,FL— Andrea Zuniga (@andiezd) July 1, 2014
RT @LCLAA @Hesanche "We have become addicted to cheap,disposable,exploitable labor.Who benefits from having 11 million workers w/ no voice?"— NHLA (@NHLAgenda) July 1, 2014
RT @andiezd: "House republican leadership has embarrassed itself before history" @RichardTrumka #Failed2Act— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) July 1, 2014
Reality is that if a construction worker's paycheck doesn't include OT he takes a major risk to stand up and report #TimeIsNow @AFLCIO— Natalie Patrick-Knox (@NataliePK) July 1, 2014
"We will continue to educate our members and the general public on the effects of a broken immigration system" - @RichardTrumka— LCLAA (@LCLAA) July 1, 2014
An immigrant @Tefere_Gebre closes event w/ "we (immigrants) love this country, it's time for our country to love us back"— Andrea Zuniga (@andiezd) July 1, 2014
In addition to the AFL-CIO and LCLAA, other organizations participating in today's event included: the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, the National Council of La Raza, MALDEF, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Laborers (LIUNA) Local 55.
“Working Families” don’t work. They collect goodies on the dole.
Why on earth are rank and file union members electing leaders who are doing their damnedest to collude with the U.S. Chamber of Congress to flood our nation with cheap labor which puts massive downward pressure on wages for all, including union members?
Romney who???
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