Currently, the U.S. has immigration law on paper, but does not have a national immigration policy. In reality, immigration policy has been privatized. Private employers import, exploit and, in effect, deport immigrant workers at will with little or no regard for federal law or federal enforcement agencies.
Too often, it appears to workers that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a partner, intentionally or not, with employers in the exploitation of immigrant labor and the suppression of worker rights. USCIS seems to show up more often during an organizing campaign or a strike situation.
The fact is that immigration issues in the U.S. are part of a larger, global trend--the systematic and ruthless exploitation of labor. Corporations export jobs in search of the most exploitable labor pool--and, they import workers to create a domestic pool of exploitable labor.
On trade issues, labor standards must protect workers--regardless of what country they live in and work in--against exploitation at the hands of their employers. The failure of trade policy to include strong, enforceable labor standards has created a vast international labor pool that lives and works without rights or hope for the future. It is a pool of workers that can be recruited, imported, exploited and disposed of.
On immigration issues, we must demand standards that protect workers regardless of what country they came from or how they got here. Because the issue is the same: the exploitation of labor.
Thousands rallied in front of Congress in Washington, D.C., in March, 2006, to support immigration reform.
The SOLVE Act 2004
The “Safe, Orderly, Legal Visas and Enforcement Act of 2004” (the SOLVE Act) was introduced by several members of Congress to reform immigration legislation, but no new law or legalization program has been passed yet.
Current immigration policies have failed: People are dying at our borders, families endure long separations, many are forced to live underground existences, American businesses cannot find needed workers or determine if their workers are undocumented, and U.S. government resources are spent targeting people who fill our labor market needs rather than those who wish to do us harm.
Not only does the current enforcement fail to prevent illegal immigration, it also tolerates and even encourages undocumented immigration. In fact, failed border enforcement policies force migrants to risk their lives crossing the border to arrive at jobs in industries that openly acknowledge their reliance on this workforce. The current immigration system hurts U.S. businesses, U.S. families, and U.S. security while it benefits unscrupulous employers, traffickers, and smugglers, who take advantage and profit from this broken system.
The SOLVE Act includes provisions that:
Strengthens worker protections by safeguarding employees’ rights
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Legalizes hard working people*
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Regularizes the flow of legal immigration by reforming the temporary worker system*
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Reunites close family members on a humane and timely basis*
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Enhances national security*
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