AFL-CIO: Immigration Bill Is Anti-Family, Anti-Worker

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/immigration/entries/2007/06/20/aflcio_immigration_bill_is_ant.html

AFL-CIO: Immigration Bill Is Anti-Family, Anti-Worker

By Eunice Moscoso | Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 02:27 PM

The Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO labor union said Wednesday that an immigration bill pending in the Senate is “anti-family” and “anti-worker.”

Richard L. Trumka said the bill “abandons long-standing U.S. policy favoring the reunification of families by eliminating whole categories of family preferences.”

In addition he said it is “muddled by an absurd and mean-spirited ‘touchback’ provision and unreasonable fines.”

The “touchback” rule requires the heads of household of illegal immigrant families to return to their country of origin as part of the process to obtain permanent legal residency.

Trumka also blasted the guest worker program in the bill, saying that it “creates a situation ripe for exploitation.”

“It’s ironic - and sad - that the very bill that seeks to restore the rights and legal protections of undocumented workers already here fails to provide these most basic standards to future foreign workers, treating them instead as nothing more than fungible units of production,” he said.