Testimony On Behalf Of The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union(UFCW) Submitted in Writing To

The House Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law

Of The Committee on the Judiciary For The Hearing on April 24, 2007

Regarding Problems In The Current Employment Verification And Worksite Enforcement System

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) is the largest private sector union in North America—and it is one of the largest unions of new immigrant workers in the United States with more than 200,000 new immigrants as members.

We are the primary worker representative in industries that are major employers of immigrant workers—meatpacking, food processing, and poultry—and have a hundred-year history of fighting for safe working conditions and good wages on behalf of packing and processing workers.

The core issue is a failed immigration system that compounds its failure by victimizing workers.  This is a human issue, and the immigration raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made it crystal clear that such actions unleash inexcusable treatment of workers and their families.  During the raids, ICE agents violated the agency’s own policies and procedures. The raids were designed and executed as political theatre—which is all they could be, given that the U.S. has no systematic or effective immigration system. In the process, more than 10,000 workers, both immigrant and non-immigrant, were criminalized simply for showing up to do their job, and subjected to gross violations of their human and civil rights. In short, we believe that the raids were nothing more than a political tactic for generating support for enactment of a new guestworker program. 

On December 12, 2006,13,000 workers clocked in to work as they do every day, not knowing that their lives and their communities would never be the same again.  They didn’t know that government agents would soon storm their worksites dressed in riot gear, brandishing military weapons, and locking the doors to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.  This activity was instigated because of a warrant ICE had obtained to apprehend 170 individuals who were suspected of identity theft.

But ICE’s action clearly reached far beyond the 170 identity theft suspects.  And the tactics that were used would cause most Americans great concern.  Workers were herded into cafeterias and segregated.  In Utah, the ICE agents used skin color to identify the “suspects.” In other locations, naturalized citizens were separated from the native born. 

In effect, people were subjected to a criminal process simply for showing up to work that day.  In some plants, workers with proper authorization had their identification stripped from them. Many were detained and then transported far from home before being given an opportunity to present their case.

Walter Molina was pulled into the group of detained suspects. His girlfriend was not allowed to bring his valid green card to him at the Grand Island, Nebraska, plant. Lacking ID, he was transported six hours away to Camp Dodge, Iowa, where, after confirming his status, ICE released him.  He was left to fend for himself and had to spend $140 of his own money on a bus ticket home.

Walter’s story was repeated over and over again as workers were held captive by ICE agents and denied their basic rights; representation by their union; and due process to clear them before being hauled away to distant cities and other states. 

Perhaps the most inhumane result of recent ICE actions is how they ripped parents away from hundreds of children at schools and with babysitters.   In one small school district in Texas, 25 children were left in the school’s care the evening of the raid.  In Marshalltown, Iowa, a Hispanic ministry was caring for a breastfeeding infant whose single mother was detained and transported to a Georgia detention facility.   The baby who was not bottle trained struggled to eat for days after the raid─wanting only his mother. 

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of children─U.S.-born citizens─left under the care of neighbors, friends, relatives, or local charities.  Neither the caregivers,  nor the children knew where the parents were or how to communicate with them.  In addition, there was no way of knowing when─or if─the parents would be back.  Rarely has a government agency ever intentionally carried out such an anti-family policy without any plan or preparation for the consequences of their action.

Some will argue that family disruption is the price parents pay for breaking the law.  But indiscriminate military-style raids that sweep up legal residents like Walter Molina are aimed more at visiting trauma and fear on entire workforces and communities than apprehending the specific individuals who are accused of breaking the law.  Worksite raids, family disruption, and the criminalization of work do not constitute an effective immigration system.

The real tragedy here is that none of this had to happen.  In a similar case, four workers from the Louisville, Kentucky, Swift meat packing plant were arrested by ICE agents as part of the same investigation that later led to the December raids at Swift.  ICE officials calmly went into the plant and extracted the four individuals who they were looking for.  The Louisville plant was not among those raided on December 12.

ICE could have executed the same strategy as used in the Louisville facility at the other plants where the raids occurred.   They could have—but they choose not to do so.  Until ICE testifies under oath to the contrary, we believe that the broader activity was utilized to garner press, intimidate and terrorize undocumented workers, and provide a rationale for the Bush Administration’s legislative push for 2007-style bracero-guestworker program.  To date, out of the thousands of workers detained and harassed, less than a 100 were charged with identity theft.  

The UFCW does not condone identity theft or any illegal activity.  Our union supports law enforcement, including immigration law enforcement.  Additionally, our union represents many law enforcement officers across the country.  But we also recognize the difference between real law enforcement and making a politically-inspired splash about apprehending individuals suspected of identity theft.

One thing that the nearly all policy observers can agree on is that the current immigration system is disastrously defective, inefficient, and outdated.  The Basic Pilot Program has been problematic since its inception.  In the case of the Swift raids, you have a company that was, by and large, in compliance with Basic Pilot.  That did not stop ICE from storming the plants, refusing to allow workers to meet with their union representatives, denying attorney access to workers, and casting whole communities into turmoil.

ICE Mutual Agreement Between Government and Employers Program or “IMAGE” is a broader program than Basic Pilot because it covers all workers in a company’s workforce.  While only a few dozen companies have voluntarily enrolled, the IMAGE program has actually allowed companies to opt into a procedure that can provide cover for firing workers who speak up for workplace safety and other protections.  That is what is happening at the Smithfield pork slaughter and processing facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where more than 5,000 workers kill and process 35,000 hogs each day.

It is not a coincidence that Smithfield has used the IMAGE program as cover to begin firing workers for no-match social security issues at the same time when workers in the plant are gaining momentum in their efforts to secure safer working conditions, better pay, and benefits through union representation.  

Our immigration policy must face reality---the reality that some corporations export jobs in search of cheap wages and weak labor laws. At the same time, other companies that cannot export jobs import workers to create a domestic pool of exploitable labor.

These companies lure undocumented immigrants to the U.S. to create a low-wage, disposable workforce in this country.  They advertise for workers outside U.S. borders. They utilize labor contractors. They use current workers to recruit more workers. They pay immigrants less, offer fewer benefits, and threaten them with deportation if they stand up for better wages, working conditions, or try to organize a union.   The failure of trade policy to include strong, enforceable labor standards has created a vast international labor pool that lives and works without rights.  That is the real world which workers, both immigrant and non-immigrant, reside in today in this country.

Raiding workplaces, breaking up families, and devastating communities offers no genuine or sensible answer to this situation.

And a new guestworker program is not a panacea either.  

Advocates of guestworker programs argue that they represent a realistic and humane way to deal with the issue of immigration—after all, companies require a labor force and immigrant workers seek employment. 

But the true reality of the current temporary worker system is that immigrant workers are preyed upon and used as a wedge to lower wages and working conditions for all workers, especially in the many industries that require hard physical labor.

We have laws that say workers must have a safe workplace, but the laws are useless if workers can take no action under the law including speaking out on safety issues without fear of deportation.   We have laws that say workers can take collective action to improve working conditions, but employers will and do end workers’ guestworker status. UFCW members and activists have witnessed just this kind of action on the part of employers many times.

A new guestworker program would officially relegate guestworkers to second class status and give companies another excuse to turn permanent jobs that pay well into low-wage, no-benefit, and no-future jobs.  Guestworker programs─from the bracero program of the mid-20^th Century to many of the existing programs─ have led to the mistreatment of workers.

American democracy works because it’s inclusive. If you live and work in America, you should be able to participate in the decision-making that governs your life. But a guestworker program would permanently exclude individuals who contribute to our economic wellbeing from participating in our democratic process.

If America is about anything, it is about hope—especially hope to achieve the American dream.  We must have an immigration system that helps turn that hope into reality for all workers, new immigrant and native-born.  We must have comprehensive reform—and that reform should rest on six basic principles:

• A Path to Citizenship: Nearly 12 million immigrants provide their labor and talent to American employers. They make significant contributions to their communities, but are afforded neither labor rights nor due process protections. We must create a real pathway to citizenship for immigrant workers who have established themselves in the community, who are employed, and who have otherwise not broken the law.
  
  
• End Abusive Worksite Immigration Enforcement: Worksite programs like “Basic Pilot” and “IMAGE” are riddled with problems; fail to adequately protect workers from discrimination, exploitation, and harassment; and fail as a substitute for a systematic approach to a fair and orderly immigration process.
  
  
• Meaningful Employer Punishments for Immigration and Labor Law Violations: Too often, when companies cannot export jobs in search of cheap wages and weak labor laws, they import workers to create a domestic pool of exploitable labor. The law must penalize employers who recruit undocumented workers from abroad or otherwise circumvent immigration policies, and provide meaningful, enforceable penalties for companies that violate health, safety, and labor laws.     
  
  
• No New or Expanded Guestworker Programs: Guestworker programs allow employers to turn permanent, full-time, family-supporting jobs into temporary, go-nowhere jobs that exploit immigrants and native-born workers alike.  When guestworkers choose to exert workplace rights, they risk losing their jobs or being deported. Guestworker programs create an underclass of workers and engender racial and other discriminatory attitudes toward individuals who are afforded neither full rights on the job nor participation in our society. In addition, existing guestworker programs should be reformed so that they include real worker protections—including the right to self-petition for legalization and the freedom to change jobs—and penalties for employers who break the law. 
  
  
• Revise the Permanent Employment-Based Visa System: Instead of short-term “guestworker” visas, labor shortages should be filled with workers with full rights, a path to permanent residence, and, if they choose, citizenship. The number of visas available should respond to actual, demonstrated labor shortages. U.S. employers should hire U.S. workers first, and wage rate requirements should be high enough to make jobs attractive to U.S. workers. 
  
  
• Wage and Working Condition Protection for All Workers: All workers, including future immigrant workers, should have the same workplace protections as U.S. citizens, including the right to join a union, fair wages, and a safe workplace. Immigrant workers who report employer violations should be ensured whistleblower protections with special protections that include extending their immigration status and work authorization during the complaint process.

The path to comprehensive immigration reform is complicated, cumbersome, and there is no guarantee of success.  But unless the reality of the workplace is the basis for reform─the reality for Walter Molina and the other Swift workers, for the Smithfield Workers, and for the communities in which they reside─it is guaranteed to fail.  An immigration policy which only serves to provide employers with workers─without legal, labor, and workplace protections─is worse than a failure.  It is an abandonment of our nation’s principles, and an abandonment of the American Dream.