A Broken Immigration System
From the AFL-CIO
After a week of family separation, workplace raids and even more bad legislation, it is clearer than ever that we must fix our broken immigration system.
“The Trump administration is using enforcement overreach to terrify immigrant workers and is directly threatening our freedom to stand together and fight in unions for fair pay and treatment,” said AFL‑CIO President Richard Trumka.
Trumka added: “Nothing embodies our broken immigration system more than the unnecessary pain and suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters as families are torn apart at the border.”
America’s broken immigration system and threats of detention and deportation have been used as leverage to lower pay, worsen benefits and make workplaces less safe for decades.
The brutal policy of ripping children from the arms of parents at America’s borders adds a new low to this legacy.
A first priority of any nation must be to safeguard families and our most vulnerable people, especially those who come here seeking safety and refuge.
Necessary, too, are good jobs and the freedom to stand together in unity to raise pay and lift up our communities.
Working people want real solutions, not the two bad bills put forward by Congress, because both choke off legal immigration, expand abusive temporary work visa programs, and fail to protect families and children.
The AFL‑CIO demands comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship and an end to a system that hurts working people.
Sixty nine percent of participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly known as DACA, got a higher-paying job because of work authorization, said a survey from the Center for American Progress. The results illustrate the way good immigration policy can raise pay.
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