Immigration Reform 2014: Labor Unions Split On Support For Republican Plan

Since the bipartisan effort for comprehensive immigration reform began in 2001 under then-President George W. Bush, the AFL-CIO -- the nation’s largest federation of unions -- has been a wary ally. It rejected a 2007 McCain-Kyl attempt at an overhaul, which died in the Senate, but joined forces with the rival Change To Win (CTW) federation this past summer in getting on board with a bipartisan Senate bill. That was hailed as a major victory for proponents of the overhaul, but their hopes were disappointed when the bill passed by a wide margin in the Senate and promptly died in the House. Now, with House Republican leaders saying they’ll push for reform that would give legal status but not a special path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants, labor groups appear to be split on whether or not to support it.

The Washington Post reported last week that shortly after House GOP leaders released their “statement of principles” on immigration reform, Richard L. Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, dismissed the legal status idea as “fool’s gold.” “It means [undocumented immigrants] would never get citizenship, never get a green card,” he told the paper. “It’s a joke. It’s a hoax, is what it is.” Trumka went on to emphasize that unless the undocumented were to be provided a “direct” path to citizenship -- which House GOP leaders have explicitly rejected -- the AFL-CIO would not lend its support for the Republican plan.

The SEIU, one of the three unions which make up the CTW, responded to the release of the statement of principles with faint praise. "Though seriously flawed, the immigration reform 'principles' we saw today represent an important step forward, signaling that House Republicans may finally be serious about moving forward on commonsense immigration reform,” SEIU vice president Rocio Saenz said in a press release. "The legislation suggested by the House Republican principles would unfortunately create a permanent class of second class citizens and does not go far enough in fixing our broken immigration system and in some ways would make them worse.”

He added, “Once we start to say that this group or another may not become citizens, we create a dangerous precedent leading to divided and less democratic American future. We have come too far as a country to relegate anyone to second-class citizenship … While the release of these 'principles' represents progress and signals good intentions, talk and principles are no substitute for actual legislation. The proof of Republican intentions will be in whether and when they put pen to paper and schedule some votes.”