Campaign News

05.23.2019

Immigrant Rights Leaders, DREAMers Celebrate Path Forward for Dream and Promise Act

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, the Dream and Promise Act passed through the House Judiciary Committee, setting the legislation on a path forward for a vote on the House floor. Though Republicans offered 11 amendments to water down the legislation, Democrats held strong and passed a version that would provide the protections that DREAMers and TPS holders need.

In response to the historic passage, members of the Center for Popular Democracy network released the following statements.

Jessica Sanchez, Action North Carolina member

"I am so happy that the House voted in favor of the DREAM and Promise Act. I have lived in the U.S. almost all my life and this is all I’ve known. I dream of going to college, like all of my friends. I dream of becoming an attorney and giving back to my community. So, I hope that the Senate votes in favor of the DREAM Act too. It is the right thing to do."

Jose Dominguez, CASA member and DREAMer

“After so many years of uncertainty, it felt so good to hear the Judiciary committee vote in favor of HR6. I will graduate in a year from Morgan State University with an Engineering degree and will be ready to work on innovative solutions to big challenges. I’m calling on Congress to pass a clean Dream and Promise Act this year so I can put my education to work, for all of us.”

Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Director and Network President, Center For Popular Democracy

“The House Judiciary Committee has shown that DREAMers and TPS holders can no longer be the bargaining chips of Trump’s political games. Immigrant lives and contributions to our society are valuable. I hope that Congress will recognize this opportunity to take the lives of DREAMers and TPS holders out of limbo and pass the Dream and Promise Act.”

Mirna Portillo, Make the Road New York member and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipient

"Over the last two years the Trump administration has thrown the lives of families like mine into chaos. This legislation will not erase the trauma and pain this administration has caused our communities, but it is the first real step towards permanent protection for millions of people. This bill represents protecting immigrant youth and families who call this country home, and will allow immigrants a right to counsel, a crucial measure to ensure everyone is given due process. We urge the House to pass this critical legislation without delay and reject any additions that will further criminalize our people or fund harmful enforcement agencies. It’s time we show a united front and take a meaningful step to send a clear message: we are here to stay.”

Maria del Cielo Mendez, Make the Road New Jersey youth leader and potential beneficiary of the Dream and Promise Act

“As an undocumented youth, student, and worker, I am motivated to see our members of Congress fight for immigration reform that does not include provisions that would deport my parents or separate any family in my community. As we move throughout our day - everyday - we remember that our futures are on the line, but we only let that inspire us to work harder and organize for a solution. The Dream and Promise Act is this solution. We urge immediate passage in the House of Representatives and call on our members of Congress from New Jersey to vote yes."

Rainy Leonor-Lake, Reading member of Make the Road Action in Pennsylvania

"With everything happening, it's good to finally have some good news! Our immigrant community has waited long enough for comprehensive immigration reform that gives us a path to citizenship. We know that this legislation that just passed the House Judiciary Committee is the best version that we can hope for right now, but we need our democratic leaders to stand strong and give us the rights we deserve. With Make the Road Action in PA, we will hold our legislators accountable as it comes to a vote in the House."

Lupe Magdalena, Executive Director, Sunflower Community Action

“Today the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held strong and helped pass a Dream and Promise Act that we feel proud to support. Now it’s time for the House to vote in favor of this historic bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship to 2 million people, including many community members here in Kansas.”

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Lia Weintraub, lweintraub@populardemocracy.org, 202-618-2482

05.21.2019

NEW YORK -- One year ago, in Epic Systems v. Lewis, the Supreme Court ruled that employers can strip workers of their right to join together in court to fight wage theft, discrimination or harassment.  Today, on the one year anniversary of the Epic Systems decision, the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found in a new report that by 2024, more than 80% of private sector, non-union workers will be covered by forced arbitration clauses.

The report, titled “Unchecked Corporate Power: Forced Arbitration, the Enforcement Crisis, and How Workers Are Fighting Back,” projects that Epic Systems is spurring corporations to dramatically increase their use of forced arbitration clauses. Soon, only a small minority of American workers will be able to sue their employers. This trend makes it critical that public enforcement agencies, like state departments of labor, have the resources that they need to ensure that employers respect important worker protections like minimum wage, earned sick and family leave, fair workweek standards, and protections against discrimination and harassment. Yet our public agencies are crippled by shrinking budgets and struggle to address persistent workplace violations.

Other key findings include:

The number of covered workers per federal wage-and-hour investigator and health and safety officer has more than doubled since 1994, to over 170,000 workers for each agency staffer. In six states profiled in the report, the number of workers per investigator range from 54,900 to 188,800.

The report calls on Congress to override Epic Systems and restore the fundamental rights of working people to enforce their rights by passing the Restoring Justice for Workers Act and the Forced Arbitration Repeal Act.

“Congress must act to overturn the Supreme Court’s deeply flawed Epic Systems v. Lewis decision, which makes it nearly impossible for millions of workers to get justice when their employers violate fundamental workplace protections.” said Celine McNicholas, Director of Government Affairs at EPI. “These laws were passed to ensure that workers in this country have the basic rights to fair pay and a safe workplace free from discrimination—Congress cannot allow a Supreme Court dominated by corporate interests to take them away. We must demand that our representatives restore our rights and pass the Restoring Justice for Workers Act and the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act.”  

The report identifies the “whistleblower enforcement” model as the most promising state-level solution to the corporate accountability crisis. Bills introduced in six states in 2019—Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington—would empower workers to sue law-breaking employers on behalf of the state and all injured workers, including those covered by arbitration clauses. The bills allow a worker to file a representative action on behalf of all the company’s workers, just as the agency is authorized to do, allowing the collective enforcement of rights in spite of Epic Systems. The suits collects penalties owed by lawbreaking employers to fully fund enforcement agencies.

“By enacting these policies, state leaders can directly address the current crisis in corporate accountability and ensure that minimum wage, fair scheduling, and other workplace protections are enforced,” said Rachel Deutsch, Supervising Attorney for Worker Justice at CPD. “Through the courage of workers demanding change, and the leadership of their elected representatives, we can restore access to courts, empower workers to hold lawbreaking employers accountable, and make hard-won workplace standards meaningful to families across the country.”

The report points to California’s Private Attorney General Act (PAGA) as a successful model. In the most recent fiscal year, California’s labor agency received over $34 million in PAGA revenue. Since PAGA’s inception, the revenue has funded a wide variety of enforcement programs, including cracking down on companies that fraudulent misclassify their employees as independent contractors to avoid minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and other basic obligations to workers.

Brenda Rojas, a first-generation college student in Oregon, is among those calling on policymakers to enact bold reforms. “While working at Buffalo Wild Wings, my coworkers and I experienced wage theft regularly, and worked in an environment of constant sexual harassment,” Rojas said. “Complaining about these working conditions was pointless, because we had signed a forced arbitration clause and the company knew that we couldn’t fight back in court. None of us understood the forced arbitration language when we signed our new hire paperwork, but we were told that if we did not ‘check all the boxes,’ we would not be hired. How can students like me build a brighter economic future when our employers are allowed to rip us off?”  

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An estimated two dozen people attended the rally, mainly from allied activist organizations. Among the protesters, CRC identified representatives from a number of left-wing groups, including CASA de Maryland, Families Belong Together, the Center for Popular Democracy, United We Dream, MomsRising, and Amnesty International.

Read the full article here.

“My daughter, a former union organizer is currently the director of special projects for the Center for Popular Democracy. She works long hours, six days a week. She lives in Chicago. She often has her dinner delivered to her and her 2-year-old daughter, rather than picking the dinner up. She’d have to bundle up my grandchild, find a parking space, and take her child out to pick up her dinner.”

Read the full article here.