Immigration policy and social effects

¶ … wave of illegal immigrants in the United States from Mexico will produce an overwhelming new wave of unionization if the immigrants are allowed to remain in this country and become legal workers.

Hungry union organizers agree. Led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, they have championed immigration reform because they think it will make it easier for them to organize Hispanics (Imberman, 2004)."

President Bush has proposed reforms several times in the past few years that would allow illegal Mexican immigrants and others to become legalized residents without having to return to their home country and go through the normal process.

Experts aware of employment realities and U.S. labor laws know undocumented workers are some of the most exploited employees in the nation. Fearful of being deported back to the poverty they escaped, they rarely complain about supervisory abuse and must cope with conditions few Anglos would tolerate (Imberman, 2004)."

For now, those undocumented workers stand in the shadows of the American voice trying not to draw attention to their existence, however if reforms work, there will be more than 12 million instant voices heard with most of them working manual labor and other union specific jobs throughout the country.

The union organizers are trying to get the Hispanic immigrants to band together before the reforms are passed in the effort to have a stronger voice in the treatment they receive on the job.

In the past unionized Hispanic workers have declined in numbers, partly due to the fact that many of those workers were in the states illegally. Today, those workers and millions more are being supported by many politicians in the quest to gain legal status and if that legal status is gained the unionization of those workers will be extremely powerful.

Why has the growth of Hispanics' union membership failed even to keep pace with their employment growth (and thereby depressed their union density)? Recent research on Hispanic employment issues suggests that factors like immigration status, duration of U.S. residence, English-language skills, and nationality may be important parts of any explanation (Defreitas, 2003)."