Rather Than the Limp Immigration “Plan” Pushed by Trump and Kushner, Let’s Legalize Undocumented Workers, Level the Playing Field for all Workers and Decent Employers, and Hold Unscrupulous Employers like Trump Accountable
On Friday night, CNN’s Randi Kaye of Anderson Cooper 360 aired a town hall with 19 of the many undocumented workers exploited by the Trump organization, highlighting President Trump’s gross hypocrisy. He demonizes and dehumanizes undocumented immigrants as President as he uses and abuses them as a businessman.
As the interview details, many of the workers informed their supervisors that they were undocumented, and, in some cases, the supervisors procured false papers for these workers — all while Trump fear-mongered and issued racist rallying cries. Margarita Cruz, a former Westchester Golf Club employee, put it best: “Trump is a hypocrite. He says [immigrants] are bad people, rapists, and traffickers, but they’re honest hardworking people who worked hard for him.”
Perhaps not a coincidence – given the ravenous cable TV watching habits of our Divider-in-Chief – Trump this weekend expressed concern on Fox TV about implementing, on a nationwide basis, the comprehensive worker verification program called E-Verify – a policy that, if implemented in the context of immigration reform that legalizes undocumented workers – would crackdown on unscrupulous employers just like Trump.
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice
We need a 21st century immigration system that creates a fair and orderly admissions process, and a regulatory regime that protects all workers and decent employers. The key components include legalizing the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America, creating new legal channels for legal immigration so workers and families have a way to go through the system rather than around it, and enforcing labor and immigration laws such that unscrupulous employers who hire and exploit undocumented workers no longer gain an unfair advantage.
E-Verify on its own – and without legalization of the 11 million undocumented immigrants rooted in America – won’t work. It would drive unauthorized workers deeper into the arms of unscrupulous employers, drive down wages for both immigrant and native-born workers and benefit bad-actor, lawbreaking employers. However, as part of modernizing reform, a combination of legalization, E-Verify (with appropriate protections), aggressive labor enforcement, and legal immigration changes will create a level playing field of law-abiding employers and legally admitted workers.
Now Trump’s priority is clear: he opposes legalization, aggressive labor enforcement, increased legal immigration and, now, E-Verify. He comes down on the side of lawless and abusive employers – of which he is one.
