Today, Congressmen Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the first piece of legislation in the 110th Congress that deals with reform of the immigration law. We welcome that step as a signal that our legislators are ready to begin a serious dialogue on one of the most important issues facing working families.

The approach reflected in the STRIVE Act of 2007 (Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy) stands in stark contrast to the mean-spirited path that the House of Representatives took under Republican control in the last Congress. Former Chairman James Sensenbrenner’s HR 4437 would have criminalized millions of workers and sent them further into desperation and poverty. The new Congress, elected on a platform of economic justice, appears to be taking a different approach, one that recognizes that legalization of the currently undocumented population is essential and that workers’ interests must be protected.

We have yet to see the details of the Flake-Gutierrez proposal. We will be analyzing the legislation through the lens of workers’ rights. Any path to legalization that requires people to “touch back” will not benefit workers because it will simply perpetuate a two-tiered society. A massive new temporary worker program will hurt labor standards in the US, especially if it doesn’t guarantee that employers won’t use the programs to bypass US labor and employment laws, as they often do now. The historic report recently issued by the Southern Poverty Law Center painfully documents what happens to workers who labor in such programs, even when those programs purport to have so-called labor protections.

We look forward to a rich dialogue on these important issues on immigrant workers’ rights as this bill moves through the legislative process.

Contact:  Esmeralda Aguilar 202-637-5018