ICE agents union to AFL-CIO president Trumka: ‘You don’t speak for us’

Posted By Caroline May On 12:34 PM 02/01/2013 @ 12:34 PM In DC Exclusives - Original Reporting,Politics,Yahoo! Linkbox,Yahoo! News | No Comments

The ICE Agents union responded forcefully to AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka’s assertion Tuesday that “unions did have at one point some differences” but “the entire labor movement is entirely behind” the president’s immigration reform agenda now.

“No President Trumka, there are still differences within the AFL-CIO, and you don’t speak for us,” the ICE union dispatched in a press release this week.

According to the union, an AFL-CIO affiliate — currently suing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, ICE Director John Morton, and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services Director Mayorkas over the administration’s changes to immigration policy, which they say prevents them from enforcing the law — the ICE Agents union has been barred from AFL-CIO discussions regarding the union’s stance on immigration policy.

Immigration’s Poison Pill: Big Labor

January 31, 2013, 6:57 p.m. ET

By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

Unions have long used Democratic allies to kill any reform that includes a guest-worker program.

President Obama, in his otherwise lofty immigration speech this week, felt compelled to warn Americans that as “reform becomes more real,” it will be attacked by people determined “to pull this thing apart.” He’d know better than most.

The president was of course referring to Republicans, hoping to reinforce the perception that the GOP is the only obstacle to an immigration solution. This perception is highly convenient for Democrats, since it masks the fact that their party is effectively run by a force that despises comprehensive immigration reform and tanked it in the past: Big Labor.

...

“The issue here is instead one of power—via organizing. The labor movement is hemorrhaging members and is now at a crisis stage. Unions see an opportunity to pull in immigrants but have been frustrated in their efforts by undocumented workers fearful of being caught and deported. This would change with a path to citizenship. And it explains why AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka sat in the front row at President Obama’s speech and gave his full support to the “top priority” of immigration reform: “citizenship.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/potomac_watch.html

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