Resolution in Support of Amnesty for All Immigrants in the U.S.

February 20, 2020

WHEREAS, recent demonstrations for immigrants’ rights have focused solely upon the issue of separation of immigrant families, especially of children from their parents, and this issue has been used to distract us from the issue of the rights of all immigrants,

WHEREAS, administrations before that of Donald Trump had also separated children from their parents, though in smaller numbers,

WHEREAS, it is of the utmost importance to the labor movement to find a real solution to the immigration crisis,

WHEREAS, the battle for amnesty has been won twice before, during the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush (Reagan pushed a bill through Congress in 1986 giving amnesty to more than two million immigrants, and Bush signed a bill in 1990 granting amnesty to more than one million immigrants),

WHEREAS, the criminalization of undocumented immigrants creates a fatal weakness in the American working class, enabling U.S. bosses to use the threat of deportation of undocumented workers to deter their efforts to join with U.S. workers in organizing unions and carrying out strikes,

WHEREAS, this weakness enables U.S. corporations and businesses to exploit undocumented workers, driving down their wages and working conditions and as a result driving down the wages and working conditions of the whole working class,

WHEREAS, the United States legal system already is adequate to ensure the punishment of crimes and should not be replaced by the deportation of immigrants,

THEREFORE BY IT RESOLVED, that MLK Labor supports granting amnesty to all undocumented immigrants presently living in the United States of America, with the aim of uniting the U.S. labor movement and carrying it to victory.