Even though the U.S is a country that only exists because of immigration, the attitudes of its citizens to the issues of immigration do not come as much of a surprise
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B.K
http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=374_0_1_0_MImmigrant workers, especially those without proper papers, are more easily intimidated and abused, and as a result of their powerlessness, employers frequently exploit them. That exploitation, in turn, drives down wages for other workers
Slightly more than a third of new immigrants are naturalized citizens who can vote, but their numbers will grow sharply in the future as more immigrants become naturalized. Unions like HERE, UNITE and SEIU are mobilizing immigrant workers for political work even when they can't personally vote. But the political impact of this new movement will depend partly on whether immigrant rights becomes an issue with which workers who are citizens can identify.
Fifteen years ago, 43-year old Jose Gomez, fearing for his life, fled civil warfare in his native El Salvador and found asylum in the United States. Gomez works as a steward at the Congress Hotel in Chicago, where he and fellow workers have been on strike since June, fighting wage and benefit cuts. But because he doesn't have permanent residence status, he hasn't been able to visit his family in El Salvador or arrange to bring them here. He lives and works in limbo.
Gomez's problems are common among the 18 million foreign-born workers in the United States, about one-eighth of the workforce. As immigration has escalated in recent decades, especially from Latin America and Asia, American policies have failed to adapt to the growing importance of immigrants in American society including the 9 million out of 34 million foreign-born residents of the United States who lack proper documents and are here illegally, according to an Urban Institute estimate.
In late September, Gomez will join nearly 1,000 other immigrants and their supporters from around the country for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a union-led campaign to build public support for immigrant rights.
The Freedom Ride buses will be making stops in more than 80 cities in 30 states before converging in Washington and then New York City for an October 4 rally that could number a couple hundred thousand.
Freedom Ride organizers are advocating for an amnesty of immigrants who are already here.
The US attitude to immigrants!
Robert Godwin from OKC,OK wrote: illegal immigrants nor so called legal residence are not entitiled to the rights of American citizens. All should be rounded up and deported back to their country of origin by any means necessary as stated in the proper and necessary clauses of the federal constitution. We as a people have every natural and constitutional right to expel every illegal or face the consequnces for for not leaving the country. Everone who is a native citizen, knows that our country is being destroyed by an alien army of Third World People and the federal government and state governments are doing nothing tp protect our borders. One of the grievances of our European/Israelite (Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian and kindred peoples}colonists was that Parliment and King George failed to protect the colonists from the merciless savages. Session anyone?
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