Thursday at the Christian Science Monitor Breakfast, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said President Barack Obama will use an executive oder to grant amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the United States and he hopes the president goes “bold” to “energize” the political left for the upcoming midterm elections.
Trumka said, “When I was president of the mineworkers I went to a convention, if I asked for 50-cent dues increase or a $5 dues increase, I got the same amount of grief. I got the same hate letters, the same mean-spirited things. Why would I ask for 50-cents? I can get the same grief for $5. I always ask for $5. No matter what he does, the right-wing is going to go bonkers and say he does not care about anything. If he goes mild, he will energize the right but he will not energize the center and the left.”
“Unless he goes bold, then he will energize the right the same amount and will also energize the left,” he continued. “That needs to happen in order for the selection to elect enough people to be able to pass comprehensive immigration reform. The broken system is a major drag on our economy and the major drag on wages right now, the fact that it is broken. Those undocumented workers are used to drive down wages for every american worker. If we fix the system, we can drive wages up for everybody.”
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