ImmigrationLabor organizes campaign to push GOP to support path to citizenship
Immigration advocates have launched a campaign to push Republicans to agree to legislation which provides a path to citizenship for more than eleven million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Several GOP leaders have called for granting illegal immigrants legal status in the United States, but not a path to U.S. citizenship. The AFL-CIO, which is helping in organizing and funding this latest campaign, says that allowing millions of undocumented residents to remain in the country without full citizenship would only perpetuate a caste system which will drag down wages and health benefits for all workers.
Immigration advocates have launched a campaign to push Republicans to agree to legislation which provides a path to citizenship for more than eleven million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
The effort, supported by the White House, includes rallies in more than twelve cities and a demonstration on the National Mall. The effort is being led mostly by minorities, including African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian groups and labor unions.
The Washington Post reports that organizers of the effort say they intend to be heard, as some GOP leaders are calling for granting illegal immigrants legal status in the United States, but not a path to U.S. citizenship.
Obama, who received more than 70 percent of the Latino vote in November, said during his campaign that he would not settle for a bill which did not include a direct path to citizenship. At a meeting with immigration advocates last week, Obama said his administration would keep the pressure on Capitol Hill.
AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka says the Republicans now have a decision to make as the pressure mounts.
“The election sent Republicans a strong message to work with President Obama to fix our broken system or else face political suicide,” Trumka told the Post. The AFL-CIO announced plans Thursday for fourteen rallies in big cities, along with phone calls, leaflets, and television ads to promote immigration reform which includes a path to citizenship “Our focus is citizenship, getting people to have the same rights as anybody else.”
The union has rallies planned in Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Anaheim, California, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, New York, and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Many Republicans have said they would support measures to overhaul U.S. immigration laws but many of them argue that illegal immigrants could be allowed to live and work in the country without fear of deportation, but without full citizenship and its benefits.
“If we can find a solution that is short of pathway to citizenship but better than just kicking 12 million people out, why is that not a good solution?” Representative Raúl R. Labrador (R-Idaho) said this week during an immigration hearing in the House Judiciary Committee.
Clarissa Martine de Castro, an official with the National Council of La Raza, said in a conference call last week that the Republican Party’s indecision creates a “false choice” between the extremes of mass deportation and immediate citizenship.
“To try to paint that rigorous path as amnesty or as extreme is simply incorrect and frankly out of step with where the American people are,” de Castro told the Post.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and a number of activist groups have planned several events in support of immigration reform which includes a path to citizenship, according to Ben Monterroso, SEIU’s national field director for immigration reform.
“We’re going to be targeting specifically those people in key positions in Congress,” Monterroso aid, “but we’re not letting anybody off the hook.”
According to the AFL-CIO, allowing millions of undocumented residents to remain in the country without full citizenship would only perpetuate a caste system which will drag down wages and health benefits for all workers.
