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Solis and Trumka: Our Future Depends on Immigration Reform
The nation’s immigration system is broken and how we treat immigrants will determine what kind of economic future our country will have, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.
On a live webcast, Solis and Trumka, both children of immigrants, called for reforms that secure our borders and provide a clear path to citizenship for those immigrants who are already here.
Both said the nation has benefited and will continue to benefit from the contributions of immigrants. Solis says we must face the fact that millions of undocumented immigrants are working at jobs in the United States and they are part of an underground economy that is not paying taxes and is depriving the nation of badly needed revenue.
At the same time, she pointed out, it would be a logistical and humanitarian nightmare to try and deport 11 million immigrants and break up families orphaning children, many of whom were born here and are now U.S. citizens by birth.
In fact, we have green-card soldiers who are serving us in the military, coming home from Afghanistan or Iraq to find their spouse is about to be deported. What kind of civilization allows that? That just tears apart what we know as our history in America.
In response to a question as to why the AFL-CIO is supporting legalization when so many Americans are out of work, Trumka said: The system is broken and employers are using the broken system to drive down wages for everybody.
As wages go down, there’s less economic growth, less economic consumption, so we don’t create jobs….The undocumented workers are already performing jobs out there, but they’re doing it at substandard rates. If everybody has to compete by the same rules, everybody will do a little bit better to create more economic activity and we all start to win in the future.
Trumka also warned that working people must look carefully at the members of Congress who are opposing comprehensive immigration reform. Almost all senators who voted against immigration reform also voted against the Employee Free Choice Act, he said.
It’s the same people who are against any kind of reform, whether it’s [extending unemployment insurance], giving aid to state and local governments so they can prevent the layoff of teachers, firefighters and police officers. All of it ties together. If you’re going to have an economy that works for everybody, you really do have to look at the tax laws so that they start rewarding people for producing here, trade laws so it’s a fair playing field both ways, manufacturing policy so that you make things here and immigration policy so that the workers get the fruits of what they’re doing, pay taxes and create an economic base so everybody wins a little bit.
Solis said the effort to reform immigration should not be a partisan issue:
It should be about helping our economy, about helping us to keep our competitiveness. Many immigrants who do come here contribute so much to our innovation. Many of the businesses that have been created over the last few decades have come because…immigrant populations have started up new businesses.
Trumka concluded by saying how we treat immigrants will define us as a nation and determine the economic future of every worker, whether you’re union, nonunion, high-wage or low-wage.
Fixing this [immigration] system is important for our economic future and the standing we have around the world.
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14 Comments
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Do you fools really believe that a bunch of un-educated and under educated people working at the very bottom of the wage ladder will pay enough in TAXES to make a difference.You know they can not. They can not earn enough that the Federal Government will not give them back every dime they paid.I don’t remember what the cut off point is but you have to make several thousand dollars a year before you owe any tax otherwise it is refunded.If you would put out of work AMERICAN CITIZENS in the jobs that these people have torn apart you would have your tax base back.You know like back to work in the CHICKEN INDUSTRY.The AFL-CIO is becoming the working person’s worst nightmare.This is not what you are being paid to do.Try fighting for the UNION MEMBERS you already have.
The first thing that the U.S. should do is get rid of Hilda Solis, and her blubbering bullshit about illegals having the same benefits and wages as AMERICAN CITIZENS. Send her back to Mexico and let her take all the illgals with her. That one thing would solve economic problems, unemployment problems, and all the crime and drugs on our streets!
The last time the system was “broken”, we provided amnesty during the Reagan era, a Republican. Now here we are again doing the same thing under a Democratic administration.We all know the laws are on the books for a reason and that is to contain the country boundaries and it’s citizens standards of living ie jobs, public safety.Why, for pete’s sake, do we continually violate the laws and continually return to amnesty as the fix? Well big secret..CHEAP LABOR.If you are truly union and for America, close the border and support the American unionized workers and LEGAL immigrants that do it legally. Amnesty says it’s ok to violate our laws, jump in front of those immigrating here the legal way, and undercut the American unionized workers level of pay.Let’s not forget the Drug Cartels and terrorists entering.
Mr. Trumka. My grandparents were LEGAL IMMIGRANTS. My father worked in the steel mills for over 40 years. He is opposed to ILLEGAL IMMIGRANts as I am. Where are you coming from on this? I suppose you want more union members if this goes through.
Your comments today about benefits extension would not be a consideration if we would make the jobs available to those now taken by illegals.
I am willing to talk to you if you have the guts to do so.
THANK YOU ARIZONA!! When will the madness Stop! We need to Protect these illegal immigrants! SO let make ICE do their JOB and DEPORT all these poor illegal immigrants back to whatever country they came FROM. CONFISCATE ALL their WORLDLY POSSESSIONS and Sale their Possessions at Public Auction and use the Money to Help Deport more of these poor illegal immigrants Back to their Homeland Broke. That way it will discourage their Homeland People not to come to United States without PROPER PAPERS.
ENFORCE THE IMMIGRANTION LAWS..
Thank you Dr, tricia, 4theusa and Nick.
Our immigration system is not broken. We stopped enforcing our laws for a group of people. The law works well for everyone else.
Rewarding aliens who break the law will not define us as a nation! People who applied to enter this nation legally will!
What does Labor Secretary Hilda Solis have to do with illegal aliens? Why is she telling employers how to break the law? Her job is enforcing the law!
Mexico is doing quite well. We want access to Mexican jobs and benefits. Our immigration laws should be reciprocal.
Note: I am a legal immigrant and naturalized citizen.
Undocumented workers are not the problem, or the reason the U.S. workingclass is in such sad shape. They didn’t foul our water in the Gulf, trigger the housing/foreclosure crisis, or filibuster unemployment benefits. The enemy is the bosses and Wall Street and Corporate America, from Enron to BP and Shell. The folks who scapegoat immigrants for our economic woes are playing into the oldest game in the book, perfected by the Nazis during World War II. The workingclass should know no borders, and the only war we should be fighting is the class war.
No worker is illegal, get the U.S. out of Afghanistan and Iraq and put the money into jobs, mass transit, schools, and living wages for all. This is what the AFL-CIO needs to be talking about.
Oh, and by the way, who says undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes. They pay plenty of taxes and we should defend their right to organize in unions — it was immigrants who revived May Day in the U.S., and who are leading some of the most exciting labor battles today. Full equality for all immigrants, now!
Mexican undocumented workers, driven here by decades of impoverishment imposed upon them by U.S. foreign policy, which in turn is driven by U.S. corporate profit interests, are being made the scapegoat for increasingly impoverished American workers.
Undocumented Mexican workers did not the cause of loss of millions of jobs for the last 30 years that has moved jobs to Asia. The collapse of manufacturing in Southern California, the loss of tens of thousands good “living wage” jobs in steel, aviation, manufacturing, was the root cause of the emergence of black gangs (The Crips and The Bloods – documentary).
Today U.S. capitalism is unwilling and unable to maintain jobs or invest in the economy to provide the jobs that are needed. The wealthy ruling class, millionaires and billionaires, owners of mass media, owners of both Democratic and Republican politicians, have only one goal: to maximize their profit, wealth and control of all economic activity.
To maximize their wealth, besides moving millions of jobs overseas, have been able to minimize and even eliminate billions in taxes, thus undermining public education. Obama’s corporate sponsored “Health Care Reform” insures maximum profit to the industry “stake-holders”.
Global warming continues and is becoming an irreversible crisis. The BP destruction of the Gulf of Mexico is just one example. “Cap and Trade” legislation is creating another speculative “bubble” that does not shut down profitable polluters.
Global War for profits of U.S. corporations is continuing and expanding under Obama and the Democrats. Central and South America are next (Costa Rica for example), using phony “drug wars” as a cover.
Illegal immigration is being used by both Democratic and Republican zealots who are always seeking to blame and further exploit their favorite victims…. working people, legal and illegal, organized and unorganized.
Unless and until all working people are united in struggle to end this run-amok, gangster capitalist system, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Divide-and-conquer tactics are all used effectively: such as racism, nationalism, language, class war, legalisms, age, etc.
All human beings, under the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence, under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, living today must demand for all peoples a basic minimum: food, water, shelter, health care, education, safe and sustainable environment.
These minimal essentials for human survival are not possible under run-amok gangster capitalism. A transition to a socialist economy, that meets the economic needs of the vast majority of humanity, is essential for human survival.
Thus the organized labor movement, with the power of millions of organized workers, must call for the formation of a new anti-capitalist socialist political party.
Please Jerry Wells get off the socialist Bull Shit we are all tried of hearing it.It has never worked anywhere in the world and never will.Here are 10 countries you might consider moving to they are all Socialist Governments.
1.Cuba
2.North Korea
3.Vietnam
4.Syria
5.Belarus
6.Zambia
7.Lybia
8.Algeria
9.Nambia
and last
10.CHINA
Maybe you would like it better there than here in the United States where you have the freedom to say what you want.
‘Solis says we must face the fact that millions of undocumented immigrants are working at jobs in the United States and they are part of an underground economy that is not paying taxes and is depriving the nation of badly needed revenue.’
What Solis doesn’t say is that most of the illegal aliens that we would be likely to legalize are unskilled and poorly educated. They are far more likely to qualify for earned income tax credits than they are to pay any substantial amount in taxes. They will take out more in services than they pay in.
The Center for Immigration Studies notes that if legalized, about 3.1 million current illegal aliens would qualify for Medicaid under the new health care law, costing the government at least $48.6 billion during the budget period 2014-2019 in which Medicaid expansion takes effect. This doesn’t include either their families which they will bring to the US via ‘family reunification’ or the costs of the new taxpayer-provided affordability credits for those with incomes between 133 percent and 400 percent of the official poverty level.
Do we really want to do this when we are having trouble paying for Medicaid for our own people?
Apparently, there is enough money in the budget to maintain troops in 200 countries. sometimes for decades, and pursue endless failed wars in two, and there is plenty of money for rich bankers, investors, and hustlers, but not enough to give medical care to poor children if they have brown skin, or their parents speak Spanish. There is no crisis in funding Medicare or Social Security in the US, as long as, horror of horrors, we are able to somehow make the superrich pay a little bit of taxes.
What we lack is not resources, it is vision, empathy, wisdom, a knowledge of our own history of struggle, an understanding of what unionism and solidarity mean, and courage – the courage to tell the truth. Oh yes – and a Labor Party.
Now we know Trumka and Solis are children of immigrants and so that makes it all right to shelter illegal aliens and their anchor babies. No, those children do not have to be “orphaned” or “torn” from their families. They can go to the country of their parents’ nativity.
Our immigration laws are not broken. What is broken is the way our government refuses to enforce the laws of the land.
We welcome legal immigrants who stand for the principles of our country. My father was a legal immigrant from England. (One hardly ever hears that anymore! England, where’s that? Oh, that’s a favored nation because those immigrants don’t have to learn a new language. Well, folks, we’ve had a form of bilingual education in this country for as long as I can remember and I do not understand why we must continue year after year financing more binlingual education for people who do not want to learn the language of our schools, our government, our nation.)
We must recognize our laws and demand of our current administration that only those people who come to our land legally are entitled to be here. A basic requirement of this is that these people want to become citizens of our country; not, just make a buck or two to remit to their native land and return someday as the rico and patron of their village.
Examiner Bio; A Hispanic American talks about illegal immigration in Utah I know hundreds and I mean hundreds of illegal aliens who are still friends with me and talk to me about how stupid our state is in regard to immigration. They say e-verify is a joke because there’s no penalty, they won’t work for a company that has over 14 employees. [Editor's note: Under Utah law only companies with 15 or more employees are required to use E-Verify).
They say they would go back and gain legal acceptance if they had to but this state has no backbone to enforce it so why!
When I left my long-time employer I had to work for a non-union contractor who had 20 employees who are all illegal. I tried to get the company to help them get workable visas but was told if they did that they no longer would have leverage on them.
We were never under bid on any job because we had low cost with illegal aliens. Hence all contractors in the same field throughout the western U.S. have had to resort to only hiring illegal immigrants to compete. Don't believe me check for yourself.
I know many contractors from painters to home builders to landscapers who are now having to do the same to compete or else run the risk of not being able to feed their families as long as you don't have more than 14 [employees].
I no longer work for this company because I no longer could be a part of this injustice yet now have not been able to retain work in my field because I’m told in order to gain employment with them I must accept the same as an illegal. Don’t tell me they’re not taking our jobs I’M PROOF!
DEPORT ALL illegal immigrants!! I AM FOR UNITED STATES CITIZENS. The “illegal immigrants” ARE “PARASITES” TO THE “UNITED STATES TAXPAYERS”
Apparently, white immigrants who speak English are good, and non-white or non-English speaking immigrants are bad. Did your immigrant father teach you this, or did you come to this on your own? By the way, the pilgrims were illegal aliens, too, but eventually that problem was solved by killing all of the native Americans.