Washington Post
By David Nakamura
April 23, 2014
AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka delivered a pep talk Tuesday to immigration
advocates who arrived in Washington, D.C. this week to stage a hunger
strike, pledging that
the nation's largest collection of labor unions will fight to stem
deportations so immigrants can stop "feeling like your community is
under attack, under siege, all the time."
Trumka
addressed about three dozen immigrants from New Orleans and
Springfield, Mass., at the AFL-CIO headquarters. The immigrants had
earlier demonstrated outside the
White House to protest the Obama administration's deportation record.
The labor union boss has been an outspoken supporter of the immigrant
groups and has joined the call for President Obama to use his executive
powers to reduce the number of undocumented
immigrants being removed from the country.
"What's
happening right now is unacceptable," Trumka told the immigrants.
"Thank you to those participating in the hunger strike for calling
attention to this untenable,
unacceptable situation."
The
hunger strikers, organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing
Network, are part of a larger movement of immigrant-rights groups that
are ramping up demonstrations
to pressure Congress and the White House to act on reform as the window
shrinks for prospects of a comprehensive immigration bill.
Organizers
for the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) said Wednesday the
group will launch a civil disobedience event in Washington next week,
and they set a June
28 deadline for the House of Representatives to act on legislation. If
lawmakers fail to act by that date, which marks the one-year anniversary
of the Senate passing a comprehensive immigration bill, FIRM organizers
said they will move to a second round of
activism aimed at punishing lawmakers in the midterm elections in the
fall.
"We
are not going to let up," said Steven Choi, a New York immigration
lawyer and FIRM member. "The arc of escalation will be bold and go
through the entire country."
The
AFL-CIO has actively supported immigration reform that includes a path
to citizenship for the nation's 11 million to 12 million undocumented
immigrants because labor
leaders believe employers are exploiting illegal immigrants in ways
that bring down wages and benefits for many workers.
Trumka
cited his own story as the grandson of Polish immigrants and whose
family faced prejudice when they arrived in the Pittsburgh areas, where
his grandfather and father
worked in coal mines.
"Employers
tried to cheat them out of wages, denied them the rights they were
entitled to, called them names, looked down on them that somehow we were
lesser people, or
inferior people," Trumka said. "That's just one generation ago. I know
exactly what you are going through."
He
added: "Just remember, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how many
people oppose us, just remember that we will last one day longer, and we
will win because we are
right."
Magallela
Morales, 33, of Springfield, Mass., a mother of two whose husband was
deported to Guatemala six years ago, was among a group that later met
privately with Trumka.
Trumka,
she said, told them that "if he gets the chance to speak with the
president, he will present the names of our loved ones who are in
detention and ask that he stop
their deportations."
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
No comments:
Post a Comment