Immigrant labor is warmly welcomed by employers. Their humanity? Not so much.
They are our nannies and house cleaners. They care for our seniors and people with disabilities. They make our food, paint our houses, patch our roofs, and even clean up after climate catastrophes. They harvest the egg, raise and slaughter the chicken. They are some of the valiant workers — the essential workers — who, at great risk and cost to themselves, kept us going through the pandemic. Even the commercial labs that process our COVID-19 tests rely on this workforce.
America runs on immigrant labor. And yes, many of these workers are undocumented. Here is where the hypocrisy comes in: Even though our families depend on these workers to be able to afford middle-class lifestyles, and businesses depend on their labor to deliver goods and services reliably and cheaply, we also rely on their precariousness.
In New Jersey, while undocumented immigrants make up approximately 6% of the population, they account for 15.7% of the workforce in service sector industries including restaurants, retail, hotels and lodging, personal care services, and child care. In Pennsylvania, 9% of frontline workers are foreign-born, 9% work in the trucking and warehouse industry, and 19% in building cleaning.
Many workers have been here for years. In Pennsylvania, the Migration Policy Institute estimates that 48% of undocumented immigrants have been living here for more than a decade, often taking on some of the lowest...
IBM reached a settlement with the federal government on Friday, agreeing to pay roughly $17 million to resolve allegations of illegal diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Acting Attorney Gen...