The American labor movement has called for a blanket amnesty for immigrants and for reforms that will protect workplace rights and freedoms and hold employers accountable when they exploit immigrant workers.

The AFL-CIO executive council unanimously passed a resolution calling for replacing the current system of employer verification of workers’ eligibility to work in the United States.

The current system not only has failed to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants into this country, it also has led to discrimination.

Union leaders noted a recent case where undocumented hotel workers in Minneapolis faced deportation after they began to organize a union.

"Employers often knowingly hire workers who are undocumented, and then when workers seek to improve working conditions, employers manipulate the law to fire or intimidate workers," said Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice president.