AFL-CIO Launches Effort to Protect Undocumented Workers

"The AFL-CIO began a nationwide campaign Tuesday to help thousands of undocumented immigrants sign up for President Obama's programs to protect them from deportation and allow them to work legally in the USA.  The massive effort is moving forward despite the fact that two of Obama's three executive actions on immigration have been put on hold because of court challenges.  More than 200 union members from 25 states gathered in a Holiday Inn in Washington for three days of training designed to allow them to return home and begin helping undocumented workers seek legal status.  "If anyone asks you why we're holding this training now, while we wait for a judge to either clear the way or put up another hurdle, tell them this progress can be stalled but it cannot be stopped," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told members of two dozen unions.  "We've come this far. We're going forward. We will not be turned back."  Union members will learn how to help people apply for Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that protects immigrants from deportation and allows them to obtain work permits if they came to the U.S. before age 16, have lived here at least five years, are in school, have graduated from high school or served honorably in the U.S. military and do not pose a threat to national security or public safety.  That program began in 2012 and is not one of the executive actions that has been stalled by the court challenge." - Erin Kelly, USA Today, Mar. 31, 2015.