Immigrant labor is a major contributor to the Kansas economy, one that has been unfairly targeted by the national discourse. Political leaders have made scapegoats of immigrants and kept them in a permanent underclass of workers, doing the most dangerous and back-breaking labor for low wages.

We need a new perspective on immigration.  We need to recognize they are a part of the working class. Immigrants come to the U.S. for many reasons, sometimes fleeing dangerous situations and sometimes looking for economic opportunities that would allow them to provide for their families back home.

Natural-born citizens often find themselves in a race to the bottom to compete with low-wage immigrant workers. This makes it easier for figures, like Trump and Kobach, to use fear to divide worker against worker based on nationality. The Department of Homeland Security’s brutal crackdowns on immigrants and Latin American communities are a direct result of this discourse.  

We need to do better. I’m calling for legislation to:

• Extend all labor protections to immigrant workers to improve their working conditions and remove the competition with other workers.

• Enforce the labor rights of immigrants without fear of drawing the attention of federal immigration authorities.

• End the cooperation of police agencies and prison institutions in the state with federal immigration authorities.