National Leaders Join in Support of Immigration Reform
Feature Story by Suzanne Lee - 4/12/2002
Washington, D.C.?The events of September 11th have had an unprecedented effect on the priorities of the United States. The state of homeland security and the war in Afghanistan have eclipsed important issues, particularly the need to ensure equal rights and due process for immigrant workers currently residing and working in the United States.To put immigration reform back on the agenda, the Service Employees International Union sponsored a gathering of the nation's top civil rights, labor, business and religious leaders April 11th in Washington, D.C. The SEIU is the largest and fasting growing union in the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
The varied organizations came together to call upon Congress and the Bush Administration to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would provide immigrant workers with the same protections and rights as any native-born worker. The bill would also make it easier for undocumented workers who are already living and working in the Untied States, paying taxes, and contributing to their communities to be legalized. "What we need now is reform that keeps out those who want to do us harm, admits those who want to work hard, and contributes to a stronger America," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina stressed the importance of immigrant workers and the need to protect them: "The reality is, millions of undocumented workers are here who fill an economic need, and we can't afford to send them home. The sooner we fold then into an expanded immigration system the better for all concerned."
John Sweeney, the President of the AFL-CIO, agreed with Medina and reminded the federal government of the security of the nation does not just lie in tightening up its borders and chasing terrorists, but in the workers that make up its economy, as well. "The message we deliver today to the President and the Congress is not only that we must get back to work, but that this is an even more important time for America to stand behind its principles."
The press conference comes just two weeks after the Supreme Court invalidated the National Labor Relations Board's rule to provide limited back pay to undocumented workers who had been fired as a result of violations of federal labor laws by their employers. This raised questions over the protections of immigrant workers compared to workers born in the United States.
"The U.S. Supreme Court's decision, in Hoffman Plastics Inc. v. NLRB, means we will work harder, faster, and with greater purpose to win legalization for hard-working, tax-paying immigrants already living in the United States," assured Medina.
Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, echoed Medina: "The civil rights community believes it is essential that we restore due process to immigration law because history has proven, time and time again, that if the civil rights of one group are undermined, everyone else becomes vulnerable as well."
Henderson also called upon Congress to take the long-overdue step of repealing employer sanctions, which since 1986 have led to widespread discrimination in the workplace.
During follow-up questioning, the speakers discussed a bill that had been cleared by the House Judiciary Committee the day before, that would reform the Immigration and Naturalization Service by breaking it into two agencies. Several argued that the two agencies must be coordinated and that Congress must make sure that adequate resources are provided to the "services" currently provided by the INS, as well as to its enforcement efforts.
Other speakers pointed out that restructuring the INS is only a partial solution to the massive problems at the agency, and that many more problems are the result of the actual immigration laws themselves. The LCCR and a number of other organizations had also, the day before, sent a letter to members of the Judiciary Committee urging them to provide the INS with not only a "facelift," but also with changes to "the heart and soul of the system" as well ? by passing several bills to amend some of the harshest provisions in the immigration laws.
SEIU was joined at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in Washington, D.C., by the heads of AFL-CIO, National Council for La Raza, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, National Immigration Forum, American Hotel & Lodging Association, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
