Nathan Newman shines a light over Bush’s immigration proposal:
The bottom line is that citizenship for undocumented immigrants is THE ONLY way to protect the rights of all American workers. Some buy into the illusion that keeping undocumented workers marginalized somehow deters their entry into the US, but given economic deprivation south of the border, there’s just no evidence of that.
What the marginalization does do is deny them access to our labor laws and makes them attractive to unscrupulous employers.
The best way for American workers to defend their rights is to defend the rights of all workers, in the US through legalization, and internationally through strong labor standards in trade agreements. Anything else is a recipe for a race to the bottom for labor rights.