April, 30 2010, 01:19pm EDT
![Amnesty International - USA](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012686/origin.png)
For Immediate Release
Contact:
AIUSA media office,Email:,media@aiusa.org,Phone: 202-544-0200 x302
Amnesty International USA Voices Serious Concerns about Federal Immigration Proposal Priorities
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International USA voiced serious concerns today regarding priorities for a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill proposed by U.S. Senators Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ). A draft version of the bill summary touts increased border patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and penalties for immigration status-related crimes. However, it pays little attention to long-needed reform of ICE's unnecessary home-invasion style enforcement operations, targeting and often terrorizing undocumented persons.
"The senators' get- tough language fails to recognize that an end to the ongoing human rights violations in immigration enforcement practices and a vigorous defense of human rights is an essential component of true immigration 'reform'", said Lory D. Rosenberg, interim policy and advocacy director for Amnesty International USA's refugee and migrants' rights program.
"Immigration reform is desperately needed in the United States," said Rosenberg. "Reform measures cannot however flout fundamental human rights such as liberty and equality before the law. The increased enforcement provisions portend for a virtual tsunami in mandatory detentions, which lock people up without the right to a bond hearing, in direct violation of fundamental human rights."
The bill summary emphasizes aggressive identification and expulsion of broad categories of immigrants and refugees, including those found in federal, state or local prisons, those who enter or reenter unlawfully, and those believed to have 'gang' connections. Absent from these provisions is any consideration of a person's individual circumstances, including the amount of time living in the U.S., presence of family members, community ties and employment history.
Without necessary safeguards and individual, case-by-case determinations, broad gang provisions that may require only an association may be used to deport immigrants and asylum seekers who often are marginalized from the workforce and forced to live in neighborhoods plagued by gang violence.
Additional measures to combat unlawful immigration include increased punishment and prison sentences for fraud, misrepresentation, and other violations of immigration law, again regardless of circumstances, which could result in the imprisonment of asylum seekers who use fake passports to flee persecution.
The broad sweep of prisons contemplated by the bill summary will indiscriminately pull in both those held for minor traffic violations and serious violent criminals. What is more, despite an extremely unfavorable report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (OIG) imposing more than 30 corrective recommendations on the 287(g) program that have not been made, the bill summary perpetuates the inappropriately designed state-federal enforcement programs, such as 287(g), which has received constant criticism for its disregard of obligatory human rights protections as well as its flagrant civil rights and liberties abuses.
"These escalated enforcement measures would be implemented in the present climate of inefficient and often out-of-control ICE arrest and detention operations, vastly increasing the number of immigrants and asylum seekers subject to mandatory detention and denied meaningful access to family, community or counsel to represent their rights in the courts," said Rosenberg.
Amnesty International USA calls on Congress to craft a fair and humane immigration policy that:
SS Provides a formal process through which undocumented people can obtain legal status. A legalization scheme can make a significant contribution towards protecting immigrants' rights, particularly in reducing labor exploitation and promoting social cohesion.
SS Reforms immigration policies that unnecessarily separate families. Immigration judges should have the authority to review all decisions to detain immigrants and the discretion to stop deportation in the interest of family unity. To ensure fairness, these decisions should be subject to federal court review.
SS Fully guarantees immigrant workers' labor rights, including the right to join unions.
SS Focuses on protecting the rights of immigrants most at risk of human rights violations, including undocumented immigrants, immigrant women and immigrant children.
SS Restores immigration enforcement responsibilities exclusively to federal authorities and terminates unconstitutional state and local law enforcement programs and state laws purporting to enforce immigration standards.
SS Places immigrants and their communities at the center of the debate on immigration by recognizing and ensuring their role in formulating and implementing strategies to protect their rights.
"Neither the U.S. Constitution nor international law permits the arbitrary penalization of entire communities," said Rosenberg. "Appropriate safeguards against unwarranted, arbitrary detention and expedited deportation are critical if the reform legislation is to achieve its goal of bringing undocumented immigrants out of the shadows so they can be properly screened and registered by the authorities and welcomed into U.S. society."
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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'Tragic Outcome' for Gig Workers as California Supreme Court Hands Win to Uber, DoorDash
"Today's ruling only strengthens our demand for the right to join together in a union so that we can begin improving the gig economy for workers and our customers," the case plaintiff said.
Jul 25, 2024
Labor advocates on Thursday decried a ruling by the California Supreme Court upholding a lower court's affirmation of a state ballot measure allowing app-based ride and delivery companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors, limiting their worker rights.
The court's seven justices ruled unanimously in Castellanos v. State of California that Proposition 22, which was approved by 58% of California voters in 2020, complies with the state constitution. Prop 22—which was overturned in 2021 by an Alameda County Superior Court judge in 2021—was upheld in March 2023 by the state's 1st District Court of Appeals.
The business models of app-based companies including DoorDash, Instacart, Lyft, and Uber rely upon minimizing frontline worker compensation by categorizing drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. Independent contractors are not entitled to unemployment insurance, health insurance, or compensation for business expenses.
There are approximately 1.4 million app-based gig workers in California, according to industry estimates.
While DoorDash hailed Thursday's ruling as "not only a victory for Dashers, but also for democracy itself," gig worker advocates condemned the decision.
"Over the last three years, gig workers across California have experienced firsthand that Prop 22 is nothing more than a bait-and-switch meant to enrich global corporations at the expense of the Black, brown, and immigrant workers who power their earnings," plaintiff Hector Castellanos, who drives for Uber and Lyft, said in a statement.
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Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, said that "we are deeply disappointed that the state Supreme Court has allowed tech corporations to buy their way out of basic labor laws despite Proposition 22's inconsistencies with our state constitution."
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The Gig Workers Rising campaign said on social media that "Uber and other app corporations spent $220 million to buy this law, and they did it by tricking Californians."
Prop 22's passage in November 2020 with nearly 59% of the vote was the culmination of what was by far the most expensive ballot measure in California history. App-based companies and their backers outspent labor and progressive groups by more than 10 to 1, with proponents pouring a staggering $204.5 million into the "yes" campaign's coffers against just $19 million for the "no" side.
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Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine who focuses on labor and inequality, toldCalMatters that Thursday's ruling was "a really tragic outcome," but "it's not the end of the road."
Dubal's sentiment was echoed by some California state legislators, who said the ruling presents an opportunity to act.
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Prop 22 has served as a template for lawmakers in other states seeking to deny or limit basic worker rights, benefits, and protections.
In Massachusetts, app-based companies have been fighting for years to get a measure to classify drivers as contractors on the state ballot. In 2022, Lyft made the largest political donation in state history—$14.4 million—to a coalition funding one such proposal.
Last month, Uber and Lyft reached an agreement with the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, a Democrat, to pay $175 million to settle a lawsuit filed in 2020. As part of the deal, the companies also agreed to increase driver pay and provide paid sick leave, accident insurance, and some health benefits. The agreement does not address how app-based gig workers should be classified.
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March for Our Lives, which was launched after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, honored Harris with the group's first-ever endorsement on Wednesday, calling her "the right person to stand up for us and fight for the country we deserve."
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"Democrats are at a critical crossroads with young people," the coalition wrote to Harris on Thursday. "Polls showed Biden and Trump neck-and-neck among young voters."
ANew York Times/Siena College poll conducted July 22-24 shows Trump leading Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters and 48% to 46% among registered voters—differences that fall within the margin of error.
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Looking beyond November, the groups told Harris—who could be the first Black woman and person of Asian descent elected to the country's highest office—that "you could be a historic president. Not just because of who you are, but what you can accomplish."
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After nearly two years of negotiations with video game giants and no deal that would protect performers from artificial intelligence, unionized voice and motion capture actors who work in video game development announced Thursday that they will go on strike starting at 12:01 am on Friday, July 26.
The performers are represented by Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which last year won a contract for TV and film actors that included "unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI," after the union went on strike for four months.
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