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The L.A. County Federation of Labor supports comprehensive immigration reform and a path toward citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants throughout the country. America is a land of immigrants, and immigrants today play an indispensable role throughout our society and economy. We oppose the attempts to scapegoat immigrant workers, and we oppose workplace raids. The labor movement and immigrant communities stand together in our demand for a fair and just immigration system.
The Labor Movement’s Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Learn the Real Facts About Immigration

An excerpt President Trumka’s speech:
And yet today I hear from working people who should know better, some in my own family – that those immigrants are taking our jobs, ruining our country. Haven't we been here before?
When I hear that kind of talk, I want to say, did an immigrant move your plant overseas? Did an immigrant take away your pension? Or cut your health care? Did an immigrant destroy American workers' right to organize? Or crash the financial system? Did immigrant workers write the trade laws that have done so much harm to Ohio?
My friends, we are most of us the children of immigrants.
But there was no labor movement in America until workers learned to look at each other and see not immigrants and native born, not white and black, not different last names, but our common fate as workers.
May 20, 2010
WHEREAS:
Arizona’s controversial new
anti-immigration law (SB 1070) is not only an affront to American values
of fairness and respect for our constitution, but also an impractical,
unenforceable and wasteful approach to fixing our nation’s broken
immigration system.
WHEREAS:
Arizona Senate Bill 1070
codifies racial profiling into law by requiring police officers to stop
anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is not authorized to
be in the United States, without providing guidelines that define what
police can use in determining “reasonable suspicion.” In doing so the
law puts Arizona’s entire Latino population—the great majority of whom
are U.S. citizens or legal residents—at risk of arrest.
WHEREAS:
Singling
people out based only on stereotyping isn’t just wrong, it’s also
impractical and wasteful policing. Under this law local police officers
must now perform the job of federal immigration officials under the
ever-present threat of being sued because the law subjects local
governments and their employees to potential lawsuits by any citizen who
believes the new law is not being enforced strongly enough. This will
cost the state of Arizona million of dollars at a time when we just
cannot afford to be wasting precious resources or expanding the mandate
of already overburdened local police forces.
WHEREAS:
As
a labor movement, we are particularly concerned about the effects this
law will have on workers’ rights. Any employer faced with Latino
workers’ complaints—from a picket line to a lawsuit—can now simply call
the police and have the workers arrested under the guise of “reasonable
suspicion.” The law’s effects on new organizing and labor standards
will be devastating.
WHEREAS:
The people of Arizona and
across the country are rightfully frustrated by the lack of federal
action on the issue of immigration reform. For years, politicians in
Washington have used immigration to play politics rather than to fix
what they know is a broken system, and Arizona SB 1070 is merely a local
continuation of this trend.
WHEREAS:
The solution for
Arizona and the entire country is to solve the immigration problem
through a comprehensive solution on the federal level that reflects our
nation’s values and works for everyone, not through a state-by-state
piecemeal approach.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:
That the
[Central Labor Council, State Federation], AFL-CIO condemns SB 1070 as a
racist, impractical, unenforceable, and wasteful law which will not fix
Arizona’s immigration problem.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That
the [Central Labor Council, State Federation], AFL-CIO calls on the
Secretary of Homeland Security and the US Attorney General to take all
necessary steps to prevent racial profiling, including blocking the
implementation of SB1070.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That
the [Central Labor Council, State Federation], AFL-CIO calls on
President Obama and Congress to work together to pass a fair,
comprehensive immigration reform bill that will fix our immigration
system once and for all in a way consistent with our nation’s most
precious values.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That the
[Central Labor Council, State Federation], AFL-CIO will continue to work
with allies to promote comprehensive immigration reform based on the
principles outlined in the labor movement’s unity framework, which
contains five major interconnected pieces:
An independent commission to assess and manage future flows, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need;
A secure and effective worker authorization mechanism;
Rational operation control of the border and appropriate visa enforcement;
Fair adjustment of status for the current undocumented population; and
Improvement, not expansion, of temporary worker programs like the H1-B and H2-B programs, limited to temporary or seasonal, not permanent, jobs.
Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law (SB 1070) is an affront to American values of fairness and respect for our constitution. The AFL-CIO joins people of conscience around the country in condemning the law, which will make racial profiling the norm-if not a requirement-in Arizona and will be impractical, unenforceable and a waste of scarce public resources.

Los Angeles most prominent immigration advocacy, human rights, labor, and religious organizations gathered at the Los Angeles Federation of Labor building Wednesday morning to announce they are combining their efforts to organize one united and massive march and rally for comprehensive immigration reform called United for Immigration Reform in 2010. They are calling on all Angelenos to demand comprehensive immigration reform for workers, families and youth by marching in Downtown Los Angeles on May 1.

