Achievements:

Workers Defense Project is one of Austin’s leading immigrant rights organizations and has achieved the following:

• Co-founded the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition which mobilized 30,000 Austinites for just immigration reform in 2006—the largest march in the city’s history.
• Coordinated “A Day without an Immigrant” along with the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition, closing down an estimated 80 percent of restaurants and construction sites in the city to demonstrate the significant role immigrants play in the US economy.
• Reduced Austin immigrant deportations by 60 percent through the formation of a broad-based coalition, compelling the Austin Police Department to issue citations for misdemeanor offences instead of arresting offenders, which could have led to deportation.

Facts:

Over the years, the number of hate crimes has grown alongside an increasing number of anti-immigrant groups.

• According to the FBI, hate crimes targeting Latinos has increased by 40 percent since 2003.
• There are an estimated 12 to 14 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., but there are simply too few visas to meet the vast need. In 2003 there was a staggering backlog of 6 million individuals awaiting approval for a greencard, and for some the wait can last over ten years.1

What’s the difference between “illegal alien” and “undocumented”?

Most immigrant rights organizations consider the term “illegal alien” to be derogatory and legally inaccurate. The word illegal carries a series of negative implications. For example, it is often assumed that “illegal” people have no civil or workplace rights, when in fact, all people have rights regardless of immigration status. Additionally, some people falsely think that entering the country without a visa is a felony crime, when in fact it is a civil violation (such as not paying your taxes accurately). Undocumented is a more accurate and dignified term because it simply means an immigrant’s status is not documented by immigration authorities.


Fair and Humane Immigration Reform:

As a workers’ rights organization, WDP believes that comprehensive immigration reform is a necessary step in protecting all workers’ rights, and ending abusive treatment of undocumented immigrants. It is time for Congress to stop legislation based on hate and pass real policy solutions that will improve the quality of life for 12 million undocumented immigrant men, women, and children. Any immigration reform must:

• Protect the rights of workers by ensuring that workers can legalize their status with a pathway to citizenship. The reform also must strictly enforce workers’ rights regardless of immigration status. Additionally, Congress should pass legislation that values immigrants as full human beings, unlike the broken guest-worker policies which are rife with abuse (for more information click here.)
  
• Reunite families by allowing immigrants to legalize their status and visit family members in their country of origin. Many immigrant families are “mixed status” meaning that one parent could be a citizen, the other parent could be undocumented, and their children could be citizens. Families need to know they can live without fear of having loved ones deported or held in immigration prisons.
• Give students educational opportunities regardless of immigration status. Undocumented children should have the right to a full education, from elementary school to college.
• Respect the human rights of immigrants by ending militarization of the border, which violates the rights of immigrants and poses an environmental threat to wildlife living in the border area.

1. Bustos, Sergio “Backlog keeps immigrants waiting years for green cards” USA Today, 1/27/05