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Written by Simon
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Monday, 20 April 2009 |
The politics of immigration is a complicated labyrinth. The players try to balance the needs of their constituencies with the possible. In an article titled “Unions agree on path for immigration reform” the LA Times reported that the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win Federation support legislation that legalizes the 12 million undocumented people currently in the country and kick the issue of the level of future immigration down the road by proposing appointing a commission. This may serve their constituencies and be politically possible but it is unethical. People should have the right to live where they choose not just those who got here before a certain date.
At Radical Immigration we think that more migration is a good thing.
We also believe that mitigating the harm caused by artificially
restricting immigration is important. This proposal by the Union
coalition points out the political conflict between these two goals.
The Unions are saying that they are willing to sacrifice the future
right of workers to choose where they live and work in order to solve
the current problem of undocumented workers. People will of course
continue to move where they have the best opportunity and so with this
proposal we would solve one problem and plant the seed of the next one.
To be effective, fair and realistic Comprehensive Immigration Reform
must allow more migration by more people. This plan does not do that.
On the Change to Win web site they have the press release that the LA
Times article is based on and the actual Framework for Comprehensive
immigration reform released jointly by the organizations.
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