Share
The U.S. Supreme Court’s deadlock on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan also harms all workers’ rights, a top Economic Policy Institute analyst says.
That’s because by leaving some 5 million undocumented immigrant adults – parents of U.S. citizens – in the economic shadows, the justices also condemn them to being unable to stand up and fight for fair wages and other rights, adds Daniel Costa.
And it hurts non-immigrant workers, too, he declares, as exploitative employers use the threat of hiring undocumented adults to force other workers to take lower wages and benefits.
On June 23, the justices tied 4-4 on a case by right-wing-governed Texas and 25 other states against Obama’s plan to let the adults stay in the U.S. That effectively kills his initiative, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. The 1-sentence ruling, with no explanation, leaves the issue in the lap, next year, of the incoming president and Congress.
Unions that support undocumented workers and their rights, vowed to continue the fight. But they also said they would use the decision to energize relatives of the undocumented to become citizens – if they now have green cards – register and vote, and to vote based on politicians’ stands on legalization.
Costa, in EPI’s Working Economics blog, pointed out the financial impact on the undocumented workers, many of them already in low-paying jobs such as in landscaping, bars and restaurants and hotels.
“Since implementation of” Obama’s plan “has been prevented, millions of unauthorized immigrants will not be eligible to apply for and obtain an employment authorization document from the Department of Homeland Security that allows them to work legally,” Costa explained.
“This means millions of workers will continue to lack access to basic labor standards and employment law protections — a terrible outcome for both unauthorized immigrants and American workers.”
Costa explained that two-thirds of the undocumented adults have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years and that more than 20 percent of them have been here for at least 20 years. He calculated that one of every 20 U.S. workers is undocumented. But without papers, those workers’ options are limited and they’re subject to roundups and deportation at any time.
Indeed, the AFL-CIO and other unions have strongly protested the record numbers of deportations of adults that Obama’s DHS has undertaken, and demanded the administration halt such expulsions. Obama has turned a deaf ear.
“Because they lack work authorization,” the undocumented adults “cannot effectively complain when they are paid below the minimum wage or aren’t paid for overtime hours, or when their employer subjects them to unsafe conditions. Unauthorized immigrants know that if they complain, their employers can call immigration authorities and get them deported,” Costa said. “That fear keeps unauthorized workers docile and quiet, which in turn diminishes the bargaining power of Americans who work alongside unauthorized workers.”
“Keeping unauthorized immigrants exploitable and underpaid by preventing them from accessing deferred action and employment authorization will only benefit rogue employers and corporations while keeping the wages of low-wage workers in the United States from rising,” he concluded.