Workers’ Rights Law Center Blog

Today’s NY Times editorial page has one of the more thoughtful critiques of the immigration “compromise” that became public late last week.  It examines the good, the bad, and the awful components of the proposed legislation.  It concludes:

It is the nation’s duty to welcome immigrants, to treat them decently and give them the opportunity to assimilate. But if it does so according to the outlines of the deal being debated this week, the change will come at too high a price: The radical repudiation of generations of immigration policy, the weakening of families and the creation of a system of modern peonage within our borders.

I couldn’t agree more.

To read the complete editorial, click the following link:  The Immigration Deal

Dan

There was an excellent story on NPR yesterday highlighting corruption in the H-2 guestworker programs.  As the debate over immigration reform continues in Congress, the story should serve as a warning about the dangers of an expanded guestworker program.  Any immigrant worker bill should, among other things, (1) allow workers to participate in the free market of labor, rather than having their visa tied to a single employer or employer association; (2) provide a path towards citizenship so a permanent underclass of temporary workers is not created; and (3) prohibit recruitment fees and put resources into investigating and prosecuting recruiters who charge these fees, which frequently lead to debt peonage once the worker is in the U.S.

Read or listen to the NPR story:  Corruption Leads to Deep Debt for Guest Workers

All of us at the WRLC are very grateful to all of the people and organizations who helped make our first annual dinner and silent auction a resounding success! 

Thanks to the planning committee:  Jay Mahler, Jen Fuentes, Peter Frank, and Diana Vazquez.  Thanks to our hardworking volunteers:  Ann Citron, Patrick McDonough, Linda Provenzana, Ursula Ingham, Jonathan Raye, Rose Bookbinder, Max, BJ Peterson, and Tom Caplan.  Thanks to our speaker, Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith.  Thanks to those who purchased journal ads.

Thanks to our silent auction donors:  Hudson Valley School of Massage, Partners in Massage, Terrapin Restaurant, Kavitha Rao, Nan Tepper, Common Fire Foundation, Skytop Steakhouse & Brewing Co., Upstate Films, Yoga on Duck Pond, Town Tinker Tube Rentals, Brotherhood Winery, Ameribags, the Depuy Canal House, Frog Hollow Farms, Mike Schlanger, Martha Davis, Jill Dunn, Yogalifestyle.com, Ani DiFranco and Righteous Babe Records, Jan Whitman, Rock & Snow, Jennifer Gordon, Ron Soodalter, Richard Witt, Tracey Leavitt, the Wander Inn, Rudy Stegemoeller, Boiceville Inn, Richard Ratner, Van Emery, Mohonk Preserve, Mohonk Golf Course, Morris Dees/Southern Poverty Law Center, Sandra Oxford, Jennifer Peterson, Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, William Hoynes, Walter Cadette, Carlos Orellana, Mizue Aizeki, and Sean Sullivan. 

And thanks to everyone who attending and contributed.  Join us again next year!

– Tricia

Thanks to everyone who attended or contributed to last night’s Annual Dinner and Silent Auction.  It was a huge success.  We’ll post photos shortly.