Brothers and sisters, how can I thank you enough? Your courage is inspiring. Your dedication measures up to our nation’s highest ideals. You are America, and we are all blessed by your presence.
And I must extend a special thank you to my proud sisters who prepared such a fantastic breakfast. Wow. You prove that every single job is important. Every single job, and every single one of us, has dignity, in the deepest and most profound sense.
Our world literally works only because we make it work. We make the breakfast and serve it, too. We plant and harvest. We build these buildings. We make the roads, bridges and airports. Everything around us comes from the work of our hands.
I must also thank my friend and brother, Pablo [Alvarado]. You’re a visionary, and I am always proud to stand beside you. Thank you, too, for your activism. I know you were arrested just the other day in an act of civil disobedience. God bless you, Pablo.
We are a proud partner of NDLON, which is doing incredible work in Los Angeles and across the nation. You are helping give immigrant workers a voice, in hotels and restaurants, at car washes and construction sites. Your organizing successes have helped immigrant families and communities build better lives. And you are just getting started!
We have so many devoted leaders here. Thank you, Rusty [Hicks], for your kind words of introduction, and thank you, too, for helping raise wages in Los Angeles, and for going after employers who steal wages from workers. In Los Angeles, wage theft language paired with a $15 an hour minimum is a great example of what works. I’m glad to see Pasadena on that same path.
And yet I didn’t come here today simply to congratulate you on your impressive victories.
For months now, I have been calling out the ugly, racist and un-American language of Donald Trump. I want him to hear me loud and clear, and I want all of America to listen, too.
There is nothing more cowardly, more pathetic or more destructive than Trump or anyone else saying one group of people is somehow less than another. It doesn’t matter whether the difference is based on race, religion, skin color, language, birthplace, sexual orientation or anything at all. It violates what America stands for, and it should be condemned as an attack on our most sacred and closely held values.
America stands for freedom and equality. We value justice and decency. We have the courage of our convictions. We stand up for our principles.
Today, I stand before you to say it’s not a crime to cross a border. No one is a criminal for wanting a better life.
The American labor movement stands with you, shoulder-to-shoulder. I want every immigrant in America, and every union member, to hear this message: Keep organizing! Keep standing strong! Your collective action works. It’s powerful. There’s nothing stronger, and we will stand with you. You will always, always, find sanctuary and solidarity in the American labor movement. Always!
The ugliness of Donald Trump’s campaign, however disturbing, is not exactly a surprise. We expect this from our political enemies who stand against almost everything working families need.
But America’s deportation crisis is a bipartisan failure.
And I could not come here today without saying how disappointed I am with the Obama Administration’s recent decision to send women and children back to dangerous Central American nations.
I have an enormous amount of respect and admiration for President Obama, yet the plague of immigration raids in America is nothing less than a travesty. A human travesty.
All over our country, those who fled violence and poverty to come here for a better life are being forced to live in fear. This is wrong and today we say once again: stop the era of deportations!
It’s time for us to ramp up the pressure on our elected leaders. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with America’s labor movement and our allies, we are going to protect all working people.
We demand an end to deportations and safe haven for workers who speak up on the job.
We call on the Supreme Court to give DAPA and DACA the green light. But no matter what the justices decide, we will keep mobilizing and keep organizing.
We shouldn’t be building walls. We should be building bridges—to security and prosperity and a better life.
The future of immigrant workers is not in detention centers. It’s in worker centers like this one.
So brothers and sisters, continue to stand up when your communities are under attack. Your bravery is inspiring. Your courage lifts us all.
And whatever the future holds, we will never stop fighting, we will never stop dreaming and we will never leave your side. Thank you.