ABSTRACT
For well over a century, organized labor in the United States came down on the side of restriction in the immigration debate. But in 2000, the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO, the oldest and largest federation of labor unions in the United States, adopted a pro-immigrant resolution in favor of a new amnesty program for undocumented immigrants and the repeal of the employer sanctions provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. The shift was reflected in the AFL-CIO’s and Change to Win’s The Labor Movement’s Framework for Comprehensive Labor Reform (2009), which included support for
[a]n independent commission to assess and manage future flows, based on labor market shortages that are determined on the basis of actual need; a secure and effective worker authorization mechanism; rational operational control of the border; adjustment of status for the current undocumented population; and improvement, not expansion, of temporary worker programs, limited to temporary or seasonal, not permanent, jobs.
