Facts about Undocumented Workers,
And the Options for Organized Labor

Many union members feel very hostile toward undocumented immigrants, condemning them for taking away their jobs, undercutting their wages, cashing in on food stamps and other welfare benefits, and using taxpayers’ funding for their health care and the education of their children.

They don’t feel like protesting when security agents raid factories to take these immigrants off their jobs to deport them back to their native country. They support harsh measures to make the lives of the 12 million “illegals” so intolerable as to discourage Mexican workers from stealing across the border to find a better life here in the United States..

Much of the anger is due to misconceptions about undocumented workers. Here are some essential facts, based on data published by reputable organizations involved in immigration policy:

• Undocumented families contribute more than $300 billion annually to our economy, money that is used to create new jobs and finance social services.

• Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for welfare benefits‹from food stamps, Medicaid and most other public services for the poor.

• They pay the same property taxes, as well as sales and other consumption taxes as everyone else. These taxes fund a majority of our public schools.

• Nearly three-fourths of undocumented workers pay payroll taxes, contributing 6-7 billion to the Social Security funds they are unable to claim.

• Nationally, only 1.5% of elementary students and 3% of middle and high school students are from undocumented families.

We have to face up to the fact that millions of undocumented workers have been integrated into the American economy. They work on construction jobs, and in agriculture, at airports and railroads, in hospitals and nursing homes, in food processing and restaurants, in supermarkets and clothing stores, and in other occupations. Many have found jobs in high-tech industries. And they’re spread across the United States. Their labor enriches our economy to our benefit. Do we owe them nothing?

A crucial question is: how should we treat the 12 million immigrants now residing in the United States? Deport all of them? A crazy idea. But even if it were possible, the cost would come to $230 billion over five years -- equal to the total budget of the Homeland Security Department.

Treat them like common criminals? Send an army of security agents working full-time to hunt them down in surprise visits to their homes and jobs? That’s not going to end the problem, except to make those immigrants feel that their livelihood and future is in constant danger, and they’ll figure out ways to protect themselves. That’s a sure way to create a resentful, rebellious minority within our borders.

Will we make the “pathway to citizenship” so steep and rocky, that most of the undocumented workers won’t have a chance of succeeding? And what will be their punishment if they don’t make it? At best, will we be creating a population of second-class citizens?

AFL-CIO’s Program in Behalf of Undocumented Immigrants

The AFL-CIO has come up with an immigration policy that makes sense. It calls for undocumented workers to be given “permanent legal status through a new legalization program.” It states: “Immigrant workers should have full workplace rights, including the right to organize and protection for whistle-blowers.”

The labor federation rejects President Bush’s proposal for a “guest worker” program that calls for importing 400,000 foreign workers under a three-year contract, Instead, it proposes that “Labor and business together should design mechanisms to meet the legitimate needs for new workers without compromising the rights and opportunities of workers already here.”

If millions of undocumented workers can be persuaded that organized labor is their strong, steadfast and resourceful ally, it will be a lot easier to recruit them into unions. They represent the biggest organizing target on the horizon, as well as an important political force. Can we take advantage of this opportunity?

Our two weekly columns and their archives (LaborTalk and The World of Labor) can be viewed and downloaded at our website: www.laboreducator.org.