For a century, the US labor movement advocated immigration restrictions in fear that new immigrants would drive down wages for US workers. In the last few decades, however, the AFL-CIO has made a dramatic turn to become advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. What accounts for that shift?

Policies that aim to restrict immigration flows rarely achieve their intended result. Instead, their main result is to deprive immigrant workers of rights and to undermine the ability of all workers to organize to improve their conditions. For that reason, Lee argues, the labor movement should advocate for the free movement of labor across borders. Such a stance provides the basis for solidarity between working-class people regardless of where they are born.

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