FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
…As Congress holds hearings
on the largest workforce raid in
SEIU Condemns
Criminalization of Immigrant Workers
and Renews the Call for Smart, Pragmatic Reform
"SEIU
applauds Chairman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and the members of the House Immigration
Subcommittee for meeting today to expose the failures of the Bush
Administration's costly raid and workplace enforcement strategy.
"Rounding
up and criminalizing hard-working immigrants—denying them basic due process and
locking them up far away from family and friends—destroys local communities,
but does nothing to fix our broken system.
"We
cannot solve our immigration problems by enforcing broken laws. We cannot stop
big business' high profit, low wage model by letting unscrupulous employers off
the hook while we round up and prosecute the little guy. And we cannot solve
our immigration problems by ignoring the root causes.
"We
all want to end illegal immigration, but workforce raids waste billions of
taxpayer dollars on a piecemeal approach that has failed again and again. The
only way to solve the immigration problem is to get undocumented immigrants out
of the underground economy, into the system and on a path to citizenship. The
alternative—punitive attacks, family destruction, and harassment without
hope—is a losing strategy that's shameful and fundamentally un-American.
"Americans
are fair, Americans believe in order, and Americans are pragmatic. We hope that
today's House Immigration Subcommittee Hearing sets the stage for a renewed
effort to bring these American values to the table as we propose real solutions
to fix our broken immigration system once and for all.
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2 million member Service Employees International Union is the fastest-growing
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