Labor & Employment Law

Holt Baker: Immigration Reform Protects All Workers

By James Parks

Congress must fix our broken immigration system to ensure that all workers’ rights are protected. Otherwise, Arizona’s onerous immigration law could become a model for the country, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said.

Speaking at the International Workers Day rally May 1 in New York City, Holt Baker reminded the 25,000-strong crowd that Latino workers are at the greatest risk of dying on the job. And the risk is even higher for undocumented workers, who “know that if they report dangers on the job, chances are, they will be torn away from their families and their communities and deported,” she said.

We need an America that guarantees safe workplaces and protects workers’ rights?all workers’ rights?regardless of race, regardless of gender or ethnicity or nationality or immigration status.

 And we will not see that day until we fix the broken immigration system that invites these grave injustices to occur. 

The New York City march and rally was one of the dozens held across the country to protest the Arizona law and call for action on immigration reform.

The highest-ranking person of color in the union movement, Holt Baker attacked the recently signed Arizona immigration law as “mean-spirited and unconstitutional.”

The Arizona law sets us back years in our struggle for civil rights?for equality, for social and economic justice.  

That law must be repealed. We cannot allow Arizona to lead the country in dealing with immigration. Arizona could become the model if Congress does not pass comprehensive reform. 

Holt Baker called on the U.S. Department of Justice to take immediate legal action to stop Arizona from implementing its “ill-guided and unconstitutional” law. She urged President Obama to publicly oppose and terminate all programs?including collaborations between state and local law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security?that result in racial profiling. 

She called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act to ensure all workers’ rights are protected and civil liberties and civil rights are guaranteed.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).