The Dignity Campaign, FIOB, and AFSC proposals, are not just alternative programs for changing laws and policies, but implicit strategies of alliances based on mutual interest. They advocate the following:
- Give Permanent Residence visas, or Green Cards, to undocumented people already here, and expand the number of Green Cards available for new migrants.
- Eliminate the years-long backlog in processing family reunification visas, strengthening families and communities.
- End the enforcement that has led to thousands of deportations and firings.
- Repeal employer sanctions, and enforce labor rights and worker protection laws, for all workers.
- End all guest worker programs.
- Dismantle the border wall and demilitarize the border, so fewer people die crossing it, and restore civil and human rights in border communities.
- Respond to recession and foreclosures with jobs programs to guarantee income, and remove the fear of job competition.
- Redirect the money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to rebuild communities, refinancing mortgages, and restoring the social services needed by working families.
- Renegotiate existing trade agreements to eliminate causes of displacement and prohibit new trade agreements that displace people or lower living standards.
- Prohibit local law enforcement agencies from enforcing immigration law, end roadblocks, immigration raids and sweeps, and close detention centers.
David Bacon is a photojournalist, and has been a labor and immigrant rights activist for four decades. He’s the author of four books, the latest of which is The Right to Stay Home (Beacon Press, 2013).
Read the rest of NACLA’s Spring 2014 issue: “Mexico: The State Against the Working Class“
