AFL-CIO: We Will 'Steamroller' Any Lawmaker Who Opposes Amnesty

A principal official at the AFL-CIO, one of America’s biggest labor unions, said Wednesday the organization would politically demolish any politician who opposes mass amnesty for the country’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants.

“Politicians know that if they stand in the way of citizenship we will steamroller them,” AFL-CIO director of immigration Ana Avendaño said, according to the Financial Times. “That’s a fun evolution.”

Avendaño (pictured) has been involved in the immigration reform negotiations between the labor community, the business community, and the bipartisan Gang of Eight U.S. Senators.

The legislative text of the plan the eight senators–Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Jeff Flake (R-AZ)–are working on has not yet been publicly released. The bill is expected to be around 1,500 pages long, and Senate Budget Committee Republican staff estimates the package will cost taxpayers several trillion dollars to cover entitlements for the illegal immigrants who are expected to be legalized as a result.

While the original framework of the plan stated that border security and law enforcement reform were to come first, then “trigger” legalization for the 11 million illegal immigrants, Schumer recently said in an appearance on Meet The Press that the Gang of Eight was going to go a different direction. “So look, we’ve come to a basic agreement, which is that first, people will be legalized,” Schumer said. “In other words, not citizens, but they’ll be allowed to work, come out of the shadows, travel. Then, we will make sure the border is secure.”

In response to this threat from the AFL-CIO, a Senate aide told Breitbart News that Senate Republicans in the Gang of Eight enabled this vulnerability by getting involved in such matters with Democrats and unions.

“If you lay down with dogs, you’re going to get fleas,” the aide said of the Gang of Eight Republicans getting involved with Schumer and Durbin.

Image Credit: Cornell Institute for Public Affairs