May Day: Immigrants Urgently Call for Reform as Arizona’s Law Looms
Tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters marched in favor of national immigration reform and against Arizona’s new “anti-immigrant” law.
Tens of thousands of immigrants and their supporters marched in favor of national immigration reform and against Arizona’s new “anti-immigrant” law.
Two major labor federations have announced they will support immigration reform –albeit with some conditions– providing a boost to President Obama’s plan to address this thorny issue.
Leaders of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and of rival federation Change to Win told The New York Times they will support an immigration reform plan that includes a path to legalization for millions of undocumented immigrants, but they will oppose any expansion of guest worker programs that bring immigrants temporarily into the country.
“The accord could give President Obama significant support among unions as he revisits the stormy issue in the midst of the recession,” reporters Julia Preston and Steven Greenhouse wrote.
Later on Tuesday, the labor leaders announced a “unity framework” composed of five main points:
Support from the powerful labor organizations —Change to Win includes the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, food and commercial workers and farmworkers— can be important in pushing an immigration reform bill through Congress. President Obama and White House aides have recently said they intend to start introducing a comprehensive reform initiative as soon as next month — and the controversial issue has been getting more attention in the last couple of weeks.