Immigrant Rights Movement at Historic Juncture - 09/25/13

Dr. Jack Rasmus invites long-time immigrant rights and union activist, Alan Benjamin, to discuss current and possible realignments in immigrant rights groups' strategies in the wake of the collapsed Obama legislative proposals in Congress. Benjamin explains in detail the onerous provisions of the recent immigrant rights bill that is now dead on arrival, the new emerging demands of immigrant rights groups' as 400,000 a year deportations continue under the current administration. Jack and Alan discuss the just formed 'United Front for Justice & Dignity' this September 7 of 100 founding members from 40 different groups, and the AFL-CIO convention's recent internal debates over resolution #4 vs. resolution #23.  New directions in grass roots organizing and new demands by immigrant rights groups for Obama to enact immigration reform by executive order are considered.

Alan Benjamin is a delegate to the San Francisco AFLCIO central labor council, a long time union member, and a leading activist with several groups advocating rights and citizenship for 11 million undocumented workers in the US. The demands of the recently formed 'United Front for Justice & Dignity' above can be viewed at www.todopoderalpueblo.org.