SEIU has become involved in two local legal cases in Georgia and Pennsylvania that could have a larger impact in the ongoing fight for justice for all workers.
In Georgia, SEIU is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Georgia's new "show me your papers" law. Copycat legislation to Arizona's infamous SB1070, the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act" would authorize local police officers to investigate and arrest people if they sense immigration violations.
"Georgia's new racial profiling law sounds the alarm for federal solutions to our nation's broken immigration system," said SEIU International Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina.
"We are challenging the law because it legalizes racial profiling, betrays American values of fairness and equality, and violates the U.S. Constitution."
Read Medina's full statement here.
In Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its September 2010 decision that an anti-immigrant city ordinance in the city of Hazleton, again similar to Arizona's SB1070, preempted federal jurisdiction.
"Hazleton officials should not declare victory. The fight against harsh anti-immigrant legislation that undermines our country's values of fairness and justice continues," said Medina.
"Policies like Hazleton's are divisive and ineffective. They do nothing to solve our immigration problems and if other localities followed suit, it would result in hundreds of different immigration policies, instead of the uniform federal law that is required by the U.S. Constitution."
To join our immigration reform action list, text "JUSTICE" to 787753.
