Immigration

The immigration system in the United States is broken. The pathways for lawful immigration are choked with long backlogs. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people continue to enter our nation illegally each year. Many of these immigrants are exploited by unscrupulous smugglers known as “coyotes” who guide them into the United States, and some perish in the course of this journey.

Millions of undocumented individuals are continuing to work in the United States. These immigrant workers are often exploited by their employers, and are forced to work long hours for low pay and no benefits in miserable working conditions. Employers hide behind immigration laws to circumvent worker protections and the right of immigrant workers to organize a union. The end result is a race to the bottom where the wages, benefits and working conditions of all workers are depressed.

Regrettably, in the Hoffman Plastics v. NLRB decision, the Supreme Court held that immigrant workers are not entitled to the same workplace rights as employees who are citizens. Immigrant workers are also denied basic government benefits and services that are available to others, such as unemployment insurance and other safety net programs. In addition to hurting families, including millions of children, this is also particularly unjust since these workers pay taxes that support these programs and it perpetuates a two-tier system in U.S. workplaces.

International student workers face special problems. Although they contribute enormously to the intellectual and cultural environment of educational institutions around the country, international student workers are routinely exploited in the workplace, receiving low pay and little or no benefits. The recent wave of organizing in higher education, led in part by international student workers, has led to great improvements. But more needs to be done. Furthermore, in the post-Sept. 11 climate, international student workers have been the target of misguided, discriminatory policies and proposals that impose severe burdens on them.

The UAW believes we urgently need to reform our immigration system to put an end to all these abuses. In our judgment, any immigration reform must:

• Speed up the process for individuals to enter our country lawfully, so they are not faced with lengthy backlogs.

• Crack down on the dangerous trafficking in illegal immigrants by “coyotes.”

• Ensure full, equal and enforceable workplace rights for all employees, including immigrant workers, both documented and undocumented. This is fair and equitable, and is the only way to ensure that unscrupulous employers do not exploit immigrant workers, and use them to undermine workplace rights, pay and benefits for all employees.

• Establish a well-defined path to allow immigrant and guest workers to adjust their status and eventually become permanent residents and citizens. As a matter of decency and fair play, immigrant and guest workers who have been contributing their labor and have paid taxes for many years in this country should be allowed to become stakeholders in our society. This is essential to prevent the creation of a permanent underclass of indentured workers who will inevitably be exploited and used to undermine the standard of living of all workers.

• Continue to permit international student workers to work for universities, and to become permanent residents and citizens. This will enhance the intellectual and cultural environment at our universities, while also helping to ensure that international student workers are compensated equitably and have equal workplace rights.

• Reject proposals to expand abusive guest worker programs; instead, reform guest worker programs so these workers have full, equal and enforceable workplace rights, and so employers cannot use these programs to undermine workplace rights, pay and benefits for all workers.

During 2007 the Senate considered controversial immigration legislation that attempted to deal with many of the problems in our current immigration system. This bipartisan legislation reflected many compromises between a group of Democratic and Republican senators, along with the Bush administration. It contained a very long, complex pathway for immigrant workers to adjust their status and eventually become permanent residents and citizens. At the same time, it allowed for vast expansions of abusive guest worker programs that would have kept hundreds of thousands of workers in permanent second-class status, subject to exploitation by employers.

Conservative, anti-immigrant groups triggered a strong grassroots protest against the provisions of this legislation that they considered to be “amnesty” for undocumented workers. Conversely, the AFL-CIO, UAW and other unions joined other progressive groups to support the rights of immigrant workers, while also criticizing the expansions of abusive guest worker programs.

In the end, many GOP senators deserted the Bush administration and refused to support the immigration legislation. As a result, it was blocked by a filibuster and ultimately withdrawn from the Senate floor. Many observers believe this means the immigration legislation is dead for the 110th Congress.

However, the need for fundamental reforms to our immigration system is more pressing than ever. The UAW believes our nation should embrace immigrants for the diversity and values they bring, rather than fear them as threats to values or jobs. We must not fall victim to employers to who attempt to divide workers by race, ethnicity and immigration status, playing one group against the other to undermine solidarity and preclude workers from achieving progress together.

During 2008 the UAW will continue to work for fundamental reforms to our broken immigration system. We need to establish a system that is based on full, equal and enforceable rights for all workers, including immigrant and guest workers, and also includes a well-defined pathway for immigrant and guest workers to eventually adjust their status and become full fledged stakeholders in our nation.

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