By Tyler Moran
Employment Policy Director

      In a Capitol Hill briefing organized by NILC for staff from the U.S. House of Representatives, presenters described how immigration law, in its current state, undermines the rights and the economic stability of all workers in the United States by making some workers particularly easy to exploit.  The presenters showed how the conditions of all workers deteriorate as a result of “race to the bottom” competition and the undermining of opportunities for workers to act collectively to improve their working conditions.  

     When immigrants are either stripped of workplace rights or excluded from being covered by laws that protect other workers, these other workers — including African Americans, workers who belong to unions, and the middle class generally — are directly impacted in a negative way, presenters argued.  Panelists also stressed that while legalizing the immigration status of undocumented people by itself would eliminate a key barrier that currently prevents immigrants and their coworkers from improving their working conditions, unless legalization is accompanied by provisions strengthening labor and civil rights protections, employers will continue to have an incentive to recruit and exploit immigrant workers to avoid those responsibilities. 

     The panel also presented NILC’s legislative priorities for immigrant workers, which, if enacted, would significantly decrease incentives for employers to circumvent immigration laws to employ immigrant workers at lower wages and in substandard conditions, and at the same time improve the working conditions of all workers.  The priorities include the following:

• Ensuring that immigration enforcement complements rather than undermines the enforcement of labor and employment laws.

• Ensuring that any new employment eligibility verification system is implemented in a manner that minimizes the disruption to workers and reduces the likely increase in discrimination and privacy violations.

• Bringing antidiscrimination protections in the Immigration and Nationality Act into line with those in other civil rights laws.

• Strengthening labor and employment laws to hold bad-apple employers accountable when their actions undermine conditions for all workers.

        Presenters for the April 11, 2007, briefing, which was titled “Strengthening the Rights of All Workers through Comprehensive Immigration Reform,” included representatives from the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, United Food and Commercial Workers, the U.C. Berkeley Labor Center, and the AFL-CIO.  NILC moderated the panel.  The briefing was sponsored by the AFL-CIO, the Drum Major Institute, National Council of La Raza, NILC, and the Service Employees International Union.  NILC’s “Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Legislative Priorities for Immigrant Workers” is available on our website.