Great topic.  While I believe that the Government of Mexico should really be taking on this issue, we have to realize that struggling people will go to the place that will support hard work with hard cash.  Isn't this how America was built?

Our only problem today with everyone supporting this issue is the fact that the Immigration issue will be supporting brown people, corporate America loves slave labor, middle-class is under assault via outsourcing jobs, and Americans in general do not know the history of their own country.  So if we quickly solve racism, greed, and get everyone up to speed on their history lessons, this issue might have a chance.  Otherwise, let's ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE and ORGANIZE these folks into Unions for everyone's protection!  Kendra

SEIU Members Push Their Union to Change Its Position on Immigration
Members of the Service Employees (SEIU) in Northern California are demanding just immigration reform.  That's not too surprising.  For the past two decades, SEIU has been one of organized labor's strongest advocates for immigrant rights.



This campaign, however, pits SEIU members not against anti-immigrant employers or politicians, but against their union's top officials.  Dubbing their campaign "No Worker is Illegal," members of SEIU throughout California are demanding that their union's leaders retract their support of immigration reform legislation like the recent Hegel-Martinez and McCain-Kennedy bills.



McCain-Kennedy, which will likely be the model for any immigration reform bill proposed by the incoming, Democratically-controlled Congress, would have established a federal "guest worker" program, under which employers could hire immigrant workers on a temporary basis without providing them a guaranteed path to citizenship.



McCain-Kennedy would have also further militarized the U.S.-Mexico border and leveled sanctions against employers who hire undocumented immigrants.

for the full article: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=19&ItemID=11792

It is an old slogan, but it got to be that way by being a very true one. If Organized Labor,--or anyone else--is seriously concerned about the number of people coming into this country for the purposes of a better job, then it is their (our) responsibility to make sure that workers are protected everywhere.  Many unions have the word "International" in their title. This cannot, must not simply be a formality to protect Canadian electricians! It means, as Eugene Debs said, that if there is a working class, I am in it.

Kendra alluded to a very important point: immigration reform has the capacity to pit working people against each other, and that is just what large corporate entities want in their efforts to save labor costs and continue to make on average 450% of worker salary, and to expand that figure. Both the Hegel bill and the Kennedy bill will try to convince everybody on all sides of the issue--meaning those who support workers, as well as those who support discrimination--that their bill does something for everyone. In that effort, they both look to me like they will accomplish nothing. The only meaningful immigration reform that can be made is to eliminate the imaginary lines that we call "borders" and fight for better wages, hours and conditions for ALL working people on ALL sides of ALL those imaginary lines.

Finally, it is the utmost in hypocrisy for any white person of European descent to hold the position that brown skinned people who have roots in North America for probably the last 12,000 years (minimum) should "go back home." They are the wrong people to pick on when you want to find someone to blame for threatening our jobs. Put blame where it belongs: on the greed of cutting labor costs, and the bosses who would carry it out.

Much Peace,
John J. Miller