Immigration
We believe the answer to the immigration crisis is to reform immigration law in a way that places all workers' rights at the forefront. Our nation’s current immigration policies are broken and are a pretext for the exploitation of immigrants in a way that drives the conditions for all workers downward.
Yet Congress has not had the political will to enact comprehensive immigration reform, spending billions of taxpayer dollars on border walls and ineffective enforcement-only policies. Even though the federal government increased enforcement spending from $1 billion to $15 billion between 1990 and 2009, the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country increased from 3 million to almost 12 million. A policy without regard to violations of workplace laws has enabled employers to exploit workers and retaliate against them when they join with other workers to assert their rights.
The majority of the American public supports comprehensive immigration reform, reform that reaffirms the understanding that throughout the history of our country, immigrants have played a vital role in building our nation and its economy.
Click here to read the Long Island labor movement's resolution on immigration reform and check out our latest op-ed on the subject, "All Workers Need Immigration Reform."
