by
Amy Dean
Immigrants' rights are workers' rights.
These days, that idea is a principle held dear by the US labor movement. But
that wasn't always the case.
As recently as the mid-1990s, many
unions took protectionist stances against allowing new immigrants to come to
this country. It was only after these unions saw the abuses that became
prevalent under an employer-driven system for verifying immigration status that
the labor movement embraced a new position. The movement recognized that for
working people to thrive, all employees had to have full rights in the
workplace.
Today, labor is one of the key forces
pushing for comprehensive immigration reform in Washington, DC. To learn more
about the movement's advocacy and more about how unions transformed themselves
into outspoken champions of immigrant rights, I spoke with Maria Elena Durazo.
A daughter of Mexican immigrant farm workers, Durazo rose to become the leader
of the hotel and restaurant workers union in Los Angeles, the dynamic UNITE
HERE Local 11. And, as chair of the national AFL-CIO’s Immigration Committee,
Durazo is now a leading point person in the national immigration debate.
Knowing that many people are confused
when hearing about union activism around immigration, I asked Durazo a
straightforward question: Why is this issue a top priority for labor?
"It's bad for American workers for
there to be 11 million-plus people out there working with no rights,"
Durazo said. "[These immigrants] are subject to exploitation. They are
subject, as a result of that, to accept lower wages. They are subject to
working in dangerous conditions. That is bad for those immigrant workers, and
it is bad for American workers as a whole."
She continued: "We cannot have a
prosperous nation and recreate the middle class as long as there is an
underclass of 11 million people who do not have rights. By fixing this and
getting them all on the road to citizenship, we address a huge issue that is
the cause of enormous exploitation - of wage theft and other massive violations
of labor laws."
