Public Employee Press

Obama stands up for new Americans

By ALFREDO ALVARADO

"The critical protections afforded by legal worker status are long overdue and necessary to ensuring that all workers receive fair wages, benefits and working conditions."
— Vincent Alvarez, President of the New York City, Central Labor Council

Union leaders around the country expressed their enthusiastic support for President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration.

The executive order, which he announced in November in a televised address to the nation, will prevent as many as 4 million undocumented residents from being separated from their families and deported.

"President Obama took executive action because extremists in Congress failed to do their jobs," said Lee A. Saunders, president of the 1.6 million member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, DC 37's parent union. "Congress has spent the past 18 months leading a race to the bottom with their politics of fear."

"As an immigrant myself, I am thrilled about the president's action," said DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido. "We strongly support comprehensive immigration reform, which is long overdue."

The executive order will protect those residents who have lived in the United States for at least five years, have no criminal records, have paid their taxes and have children who were born in the U.S. and are legal residents. These undocumented workers will not be subjected to deportation and will be eligible to apply for a three-year work permit.

The executive order will help eliminate the many workplace abuses that often come along with undocumented status, said Vincent Alvarez, president of the New York City Central Labor Council. "The critical protections afforded by legal worker status are long overdue and necessary to ensuring that all workers receive fair wages, benefits and working conditions," Alvarez said.

Obstructionist Republicans

The executive order will also increase the number of visas for skilled workers and for the spouses of green card holders. In addition it will expand the eligibility for the Deferred Action for Children Arrival program that benefits young adults brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Republicans are up in arms again and have denounced the president's executive order claiming it's unconstitutional and taking their usual obstructionist stance.

"There is nothing unprecedented about what President Obama has done. Former presidents, including four Republicans, used their executive powers to shape immigration policy," Saunders said. Every president, Democrat or Republican, since Dwight Eisenhower has signed executive orders on immigration.

Texas and 16 other states have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the executive order, arguing that Obama violated his constitutional duty and has placed new financial burdens on state budgets. States joining the lawsuit were Louisiana, Maine, Utah, Montana, Idaho, Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Indiana, Alabama, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Mississippi.

Since Obama's announcement groups like the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles are organizing undocumented residents and holding orientation sessions to encourage as many people as possible to apply and support the president's executive order before Republicans try to derail the program. Republicans in Washington now control the Senate and the House of Representatives.

"We're telling all our families to get ready to apply if they qualify, because the more families apply, the harder it is for Republicans to take it away," said Angelica Salas, the coalition's executive director.

"After years of failing to live up to our history of being a nation that embraces immigrants, we are finally doing what's right," said Local 384 President Cuthbert Dickenson, who chairs the DC 37 Immigration Committee.