September 26, 2006  

Dear Senator:

Change to Win, a federation of seven unions with six million members, many of whom are immigrant workers, strongly urges you to oppose any attempts to manipulate the appropriations process by attaching controversial border security and other enforcement measures in conference that were not previously included in the appropriations bills. 

The members of our unions appreciate the need to better control our borders and ports of entry. Many of our members are at the front lines of protecting our homeland: our construction workers build and repair critical infrastructure projects, our truck drivers transport international goods at ports of entry, and our food processing workers produce and protect our nation’s food supply. Using the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill, or similar appropriations legislation, to enact immigration control measures would poison the bipartisan cooperation that is needed in Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform measure.

Comprehensive reform should include measures to ensure workers are treated fairly and are free from exploitation, elimination of the family backlog, fair and workable procedures so that the millions of undocumented individuals living within our borders are able to come out of the shadows and earn a path to citizenship, and improved border security and other enforcement measures.  

The Congress must address all of these issues and not take a piecemeal approach by using the appropriations process to spend money on enforcement without providing a solution to immigration problems inside our borders.

Our unions stand together in urging you to oppose last minute attempts to tack enforcement measures onto Homeland Security and/or Department of Defense conference reports. Instead, we hope to work with you in a bipartisan manner to reach a truly comprehensive solution to our nation’s broken immigration system. 

Sincerely,    

Anna Burger
Chair