Public Employee Press

Point of view
No to racist Arizona law, yes to humane immigration reform

By RALPH PALLADINO
2nd Vice President Local 1549

I was proud to march with my fellow Local 1549 members at both May 1 rallies supporting immigrants’ rights. My godson Joey, 5, is part of an Irish-Mexican family where the father is an undocumented immigrant. He came to this country with other family members for one reason — to work.

It would be criminal if this family was torn apart and the father deported to another country — which could easily happen if Arizona’s new anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, becomes the law of the land.

In 1973 I lived in Los Angeles and wrote an article for the old LA Free Press about the immigration authorities raiding homes in East Los Angeles. Everyone with darker-than-white skin was rounded up and deported to a detention center in Mexico — including U.S. citizens. This did not deter illegal immigration across our borders one bit.

I believe illegal immigrants are a plus for the United States and for organized labor. These hard-working people contribute $8 billion to the Social Security system for benefits they will never receive. In California, the United Farm Workers union stopped seeing immigrants as “scabs” stealing their jobs, began organizing them and grew much stronger.

The Fiscal Policy Institute recently showed that growth in the immigrant population goes hand-in-hand with local economic growth and that they contribute to the economy by more than their share of the population. The study showed that in the states with the strongest unions, higher percentages of immigrants are members. This is true in New York City, where one in three union members is an immigrant.

We need immigration reform that is humane and does not criminalize immigrants. Unions should lead this movement, and we will be stronger for it.

I am very proud that District Council 37 is one of the first unions to condemn the Arizona law for what it is — racist [see page 17]. By letting the police stop anyone they suspect is not a citizen and arrest anyone not carrying immigration documents, this law would make Arizona just like the old South African apartheid regime, where Blacks had to carry their papers or risk arrest.

And I urge members to support the growing movement to boycott Arizona, just as we did to pressure South Africa to end apartheid.