Labor and

Immigration

reform

The Labor Center

University of Iowa

This is an Historic Opportunity

for Reform

Debate over largest-

scale overhaul of

immigration system

in almost 50 years.

Chance for millions

of aspiring citizens

to gain fair treatment

and workers’ rights.

PART I:

PUTTING THIS MOMENT IN THE

CONTEXT OF LABOR’S HISTORY

A Nation Built by Immigrants….

What do you know about your ancestors? Nation of origin?

2 Large Waves of Immigration

Source: Migration Policy Institute. Source: The 2011 and 2010 data are from the US Census Bureau's American

Community Surveys, the 2000 data are from Census 2000 (see www.census.gov). All other data are from

Gibson, Campbell and Emily Lennon, US Census Bureau, Working Paper No. 29

1860-1920 1970-2010

Why do People Move?

“Push Factors”

• War

• Famine

• Poverty

• Persecution

“Pull Factors”

• Jobs

• Land

• Family ties

• Security

Or forced migration – slavery, trafficking

In 1800s, Immigrants Recruited

Coming “legally”: 1st Wave

What was the official

process for immigrating to

the U.S. from 1790 – 1920?

Varied, but in general:

• Few Restrictions*

• No Waiting for Entry

• All Authorized to Work

Immigration “legal” – union activities often “illegal”

*Race-based restrictions by late 1800s*

Bring me your tired, your poor…

Watch clip and consider:

• Stereotypes vs reality of

immigrant workers

• Role of railroads in regard

to displaced workers

• Friction between workers

– what were the options?

• How does this turn out?

Fear and Racism Leads to Exclusion

What about unions of the time?

•Respect for senior workers:

pass on skills of the trade

•Control over pace of work:

craft knowledge limited spvr role

•Union leverage: limiting access

to knowledge of trade skills

•Pride in craftsmanship

After years of struggle, degree of truce with employers

By 1900s, AFL craft unions had gained a foothold; mostly white

men, power derived from control over skills

What did the rise of mass production mean for them?

Mass production undermined the

foundation of early union power

•Women, children, new

immigrants, hired as

operators

•Machines, supervisors

control pace of work

•Union leverage based on

skills is diminished

•Work treated with less

respect and lower pay

Employers emboldened, adopt aggressive stance

What Could Unions Do? Two Major Choices Were:

Fight to Protect the Shrinking Craft System•Protect craft workers against industrial trends

•Try to exclude women and minorities from jobs

•Try to restrict immigration

Organize “unskilled” industrial workers•Include women, recent immigrants, African-Americans

and challenge social and racial barriers

•Re-define craft jurisdictions

•Link up with community allies to survive attacks

Which approach do you think they embraced? Why?

Both, to some extent, but mostly the first until 1930s

Struggles by immigrant workers began

to change what was politically possible

PART II:

U.S. IMMIGRATION TODAY

Today: 214m global migrants

What forces are dislocating millions of workers today?

Example: NAFTA (1994)

• decreased by 18% in the three years

before NAFTA's implementation.

• Increased more than 61% in the first

eight years of NAFTA

According to Pew Hispanic Center, the annual #

of Mexican immigrants to the U.S. . .

Why would immigration from Mexico increase as

jobs fled from the U.S. to Mexico?

Mexico – Millions Displaced

– Estimated 1.5 to 2.5

million Mexicans forced

off their farms

– Extreme rural poverty

rose from 35% to 55%

NAFTA allowed subsidized U.S.

agribusiness to flood Mexican market

Wages fell in cities, financial

deregulation damaged economyMeanwhile, in the cities…

• Falling wages as farmers

flooded urban labor markets

• Devalued peso from financial

deregulation and speculation

• Jobs shift to China in 2001, when it joins WTO

• Unions and labor rights under attack by

multinational corporations and government allies

At Border, U.S. Employers “Pulled”“Are you looking for work and not

finding it? IBP… plant in Perry,

Iowa…

Immediate, permanent work with

potential for advancement…

$8.00 to start, you can earn up to $10.80

in little time…

IBP pays for bus trip, first month of rent

and security deposit…

We are interviewing at the Texas

Workforce Commission.”1999 ad in El Paso Times

Immigrants arrived to a U.S. with

diminished unions & protections

Coming “legally”: 2nd Wave

FYI – An estimated 45% of undocumented immigrants

did not enter the US illegally. (Pew Hipanic Center, May 22, 2006)

What “line”?

What is the current process,

why so many undocumented?

Exercise:

• In groups, select immigration

attorney and assign others

prospective immigrant roles.

• Take turns presenting your

situation to the attorney to

find out your options.

Best chance: family of U.S. citizens and

permanent residents (as of Sept. 2013)

1st Preference: Unmarried adult children of a U.S. Citizen

2A Preference: Spouses and minor children of LPR

2B Preference: Unmarried adult children of LPR

3rd Preference: Married adult children of a U.S. Citizen

4th Preference: Brothers and sisters of a U.S. Citizen over 21

Family-

Sponsored

All Charge-

ability Areas

Except Those

Listed

CHINA-

mainland bornINDIA MEXICO PHILIPPINES

F1 15SEP06 15SEP06 15SEP06 08SEP93 08MAY01

F2A C C C C C

F2B 15FEB06 15FEB06 15FEB06 22FEB94 22JAN03

F3 22JAN03 22JAN03 22JAN03 15MAY93 22DEC92

F4 22JUL01 22JUL01 22JUL01 08OCT96 15FEB90

• Employment-based immigration

• Refugee and asylum status

• Certain defenses to removal

• Living in U.S. >10 yrs + extreme hardship

• U Visa: VAWA or victim of crime

• Long residence

• Living in U.S. since before Jan 1, 1972

• Diversity visa lottery

• Limited number every year

Other options are much more rare…

Lawful status justice. . .

abuses of “guest workers”

Bottom line: globalization means

• Corporations travel

without restriction

• Rich investors and CEOs

travel without restriction

• Workers are stripped of

rights in every country, and

pitted against each other

when they are displaced

Common myths vs truth

In groups, decide which is

the one false statement in

the quiz.

How do these facts compare

to common anti-immigrant

myths?

Why are we being told these

things?

FROM “ENFORCEMENT ONLY”

TO DIGNITY AND JUSTICE

Militarization of the Border

Number of border

patrol agents doubled

in past decade, up

nearly 10x since 1980:

1980: 2,268 agents

2011: 21,444 agents

Imprisonment and Deportation

In 2011:

429,247 people held

in ICE detention

391,953 people

deported from U.S.

Source: Congressional Research Service, US

Immigration Policy: Chart Book of Key Trends

2013; ICE, “ERO Facts and Statistics”

More $ on immigration than all

federal law enforcement combined

What does this mean for workers?

Result: Employers Game the System

Case Study:

Josue Diaz and his co-workers

protested illegal and unsafe working

conditions at a construction site in

Texas.

Employer called police and Immigration

and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Law enforcement officials didn’t enforce

workers’ rights or penalize the

employer. They arrested the workers.

Result: Fear and Family Separation

Result: Fueling Racist Policies

Prisoners in Arpaio’s “tent city” wear pink T-shirts that

read “Clean(ing) and Sober” while working on a chain gang

2012: Arizona officials confiscate Chicano history

books from Tucson school

Who Gains from AZ’s New Laws?

• Corrections Corporation of

America executives believe

immigration detention is their

next big market.

• In 2010, at an ALEC meeting

with CCA executives, Pearce

drafted what became SB 1070.

• Of 36 co-sponsors, 30 received

donations from prison industryNPR, Oct 28, 2010. “Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

In response, young immigrants

and allies are organizing

Today: Unions Are Building

Broad Alliances for Justice

Fight to Restore the Pre-Globalization Economy•Use same strategies against larger multinationals

•Try to exclude and deport immigrants

•Leave huge swaths of the economy unorganized

Build New Coalitions to Confront Injustice•Unite with recent immigrants, fight for rights for all

workers, confront civil rights backlash

•Build cross-border alliances

•Link up with community allies to survive attacks

October: Nationwide Protests

Labor’s “Citizenship Now” Demands

Clear path to citizenship for all 11 million

undocumented workers

Future immigration based on family unity

and real labor shortages – improve, don’t

expand, guest worker programs

Strengthen workers’ rights to organize and

stand up to abusive employers

Sensible border control, not militarization

or moving goalposts to prevent citizenship

Naturalization

Process

• After 3 yrs LPR

Recent Gang of 8 Bill (S. 744)

Path to Citizenship:

Registered

Provisional

Immigrant Status:

• In U.S. by 12/31/2011

• No criminal record

• $500/$500 in fees

• Renewed in 6 yrs if

employed, above

poverty level

• Back tax payments

LPR(Green Card):

• After 10 yrs as RPI

• No criminal record

• Employed regularly

• 125% of poverty

• US civics

• English language

• All prior visa

applications filled

• Border “triggers”

• $1000 in fees

Recent Gang of 8 Bill (S. 744)Future Immigration:

• Removes the annual cap on some family visas,

eliminates several other visa categories

• New “W visa” worker program – not tied to one

employer, prevailing wage, self-petition for green card

• New “merit-based” visa programs – considers

education, US employer needs, US citizen relative, age

• Expansion of several existing temporary “guest

worker” programs

Recent Gang of 8 Bill (S. 744)Border control:

• Increase surveillance at southern border and

extend the existing fence

• Apprehend 90% of those who try to enter

• Mandatory Electronic Employment Eligibility

Verification for all U.S. employers

• Electronic system to ID those entering and

exiting U.S. through air and sea ports

Recent Gang of 8 Bill (S. 744)Strengthen Workers’ Rights:

• Organizing protection: partial “Hoffman

Plastics” fix for workers fired for union activity

• Defending against abusive employers:

more protections for workers fired in violation

of labor laws, or for exposing worker abuses

(temporary ability to remain, U visas, potential

for fines/jail in large-scale abuse cases)

What’s next on road to reform?

1. U.S. Senate

100 Total

55 Democrats

45 Republicans

2. U.S. House of

Representatives

435 Total

200 Democrats

233 Republicans

3. President

Obama

So far, only one House bill includes a path to

citizenship – H.R. 15, introduced October 2, 2013.

The opposition to a path to

citizenship? Example:"You're going to have to have a

program that assures those farms

and those processing plants that

there will be workers, because if

you give them legal status, they can work

anywhere in the United States - they're not going

to necessarily work at the hardest, toughest,

dirtiest jobs.“

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-VA

Meanwhile, Community-Based

Initiatives: Car Wash Campaign

Video: 3:50 min

Meanwhile, Community-Based

Initiatives: Restaurant Organizing

Meanwhile, Community-Based

Initiatives: Fast Food Strikes

Workers’ Center Movement

• Safe community spaces

and hub for resources

• Educate about rights

• Organizing and leadership

development

• Join with community allies

to shift balance of power

Over 100 worker centers have been

established across the U.S. in past 20 years:

Rebuilding Worker Strength?

California unions grow, bucking U.S. trend

Latino workers, demanding respect in a precarious job environment,

helped boost the state's unionized workforce by 100,000 in 2012.

January 24, 2013|By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times

The latest snapshot of the U.S. working class shows that unions

are in trouble, their ranks thinning amid a backlash against

organized labor and a still sputtering economy.

But California and a few nearby states in the Southwest are

showing a vastly different picture — labor's ranks are on an

upswing. The Golden State's union organizers signed up more

than 100,000 new members last year, while the nation as a whole

shed 400,000, according to data released Wednesday.

Help Forge a New Future

“Once social change begins, it

cannot be reversed.

You cannot uneducate the

person who has learned to read.

You cannot humiliate the person

who feels pride.

You cannot oppress the people

who are not afraid anymore.

We have seen the future, and

the future is ours”

– Cesar Chavez