The Delegates Assembly of the Legal Services Staff Association has sent the following letter to UAW International President Dennis Williams regarding DACA and the DREAM Act:
October 4, 2017
Dear UAW President Dennis Williams,
The Legal Services Staff Association, a unit of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW 2320, is a wall-to-wall union of non-profit workers who provide free legal services to low-income New Yorkers. We see first-hand every day how President Trump’s attacks on immigrants are harming and terrorizing our immigrant clients and colleagues.
The membership of the Legal Services Staff Association lauds your September 5th statement denouncing the Trump administration’s “mean-spirited decision” to phase out DACA, and noting that “It is now incumbent on the Republican-led Congress to pass the bipartisan DREAM ACT.”
We ask that you further your statement by committing the UAW’s significant lobbying resources to lobbying our elected officials to passing a Dream Act that protects immigrant youth and does not build walls or detain and deport other immigrants.
As a strong and unapologetically progressive local, we look to our leaders in the national labor movement to refuse to follow any nativist or racist sentiments within the labor membership, and to refuse to give comfort to the Trump administration as it seeks to drive wedges between working people based on nationality or the color of their skin.
We call upon you and other leaders in the labor movement to remain firm in the face of any temptation to work with the Trump administration, especially in terms of an illusory infrastructure plan that will be focused on pumping money into the pockets of the private development interests that Trump surrounds himself with, rather than creating sustainable union jobs.
Again, thank you for taking an unequivocal stance against the blatant xenophobia of the Trump administration – we hope you will continue to represent workers regardless of skin color or immigration status and that the UAW’s lobbying reflect these priorities.
Sincerely,
The Delegates Assembly of the Legal Services Staff Association
Photo credit: Pax Ahimsa Gethen