A Good Day for Immigration Reform . . .

The ‘sphere is buzzing today with news that two major unions in the U.S. have agreed on a common position on immigration reform:

A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials said they agreed with Change to Win leaders that, with more than seven million unauthorized immigrants already working across the nation, legalizing their status would be the most effective way to protect labor standards for all workers.

I am glad to see the A.F.L.-C.I.O. follow the service unions' lead and acknowledge that all American workers have a stake in seeing progressive immigration reform succeed.  But wait . . .

. . . while the compromise repaired one fissure in the coalition that has favored broad immigration legislation, it appeared to open another. An official from the United States Chamber of Commerce said Monday that the business community remained committed to a significant guest-worker program.

"If the unions think they're going to push a bill through without the support of the business community, they're crazy," said Randel Johnson, the chamber's vice president of labor, immigration and employee benefits. "There's only going to be one shot at immigration reform. As part of the trade-off for legalization, we need to expand the temporary worker program."

I'm fine with that, as long as there's a reasonable path to citizenship included. 

I've worked with H-1B clients in the past, and I can tell you that not all H-1B workers are well-to-do, they are exploited at times but often it's a good work situation.  The people I knew were happy to be here in legal status and on the citizenship track.  There are undoubtedly a lot of problems with the program, and I don't necessarily trust the unions to make H-1B better.  It will be a hard tightrope to walk between the Chamber of Commerce and the unions.  I hope that the temporary workers themselves aren't forgotten in all of this.  Since they don't have an institutional voice, their interests will only come as an afterthought.

All in all, today's news is a positive development.

More here, here, and here.  And I would love to hear what Duke thinks about all of this.