Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride position

The Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride is calling attention to the failure of U.S. immigration policy.

The Immigration Worker Freedom Ride is calling attention to the failure
of U.S. immigration policy.

They support:

• The legalization of all immigrants who work, live, pay taxes and contribute
  to Social Security in this country.
• The reunification of immigrant workers with their families. Right now,
  children and spouses risk their lives to be smuggled into this country to
  be reunited with a loved one working here. While American immigration
  policy has always recognized the natural desire of immigrants to reunite
  with their families in their new home, there is too much red tape -- long
  delays, unnecessary restrictions and needlessly complicated procedures --
  that keeps families apart.
• The same rights for all workers, regardless of where they're from,
  or where they work.
• A clear path to citizenship -- policies that allow immigrants to become
  citizens in a reasonable period of time, When an immigrant lives and
  works here, pays income tax, sales tax, Social Security taxes and
  sometimes even serves in the military -- they are American in every
  respect and should have the right to vote, along with all other rights
  of citizenship.

Local focus

Here in Rochester, organizers of the Freedom
Ride are focusing attention on farmworkers, because href="/news/2003/09/1069.php#largest">agriculture is the biggest employer
of immigrants in our area.

Undocumented immigrant workers in New York State are even more vulnerable
to exploitation than other immigrant workers, because even if they were
declared legal tomorrow, they would not have basic rights such as
overtime pay, a day of rest, and the right to bargain collectively.
That's because farm owners have successfully lobbied, for more than 70
years, to keep their exemption from the labor laws that other employers
must comply with.

The exemption from labor laws that farm owners enjoy today is outdated.
It's based on the kind of farm ownership that existed 70 years ago.
Today's farms are no longer Mom and Pop operations on a couple of acres
of land; they're corporations.