To President-Elect Joe Biden,  VP-Elect Kamala Harris, and Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus:

Workers in American have spoken and have made it clear that we will not accept the same old politics, the same old concessions, and a return to the status quo!

Over thе last four yеаrs, Trump has deepened the rift among working people, cultivating hate and nаtivist sentiments, pitting one group against another, while enriching himself and the top 1% while our health, working аnd living conditions continuе to plummet. The U.S. now shamefully leads other countries with the biggest wealth gap in the world, while being the richest country in the world!

President-elect Joe Biden has promised to heal the nation and unite Americans. But reversing Trump’s policies is simply not enough!

The deterioration of the conditions of working people, the widening wealth gap in our country, the racist attacks against communities of color, did not begin four years ago with Trump’s election!  

We still suffer daily under the devastating effects of Reagan-era policies, which have criminalized black and immigrant workers for the past 35 years- policies that have been endorsed by both past Democratic and Republican presidential administrations. The Immigration Reform and Control Act, and particularly the employers sanctions provision of that act, led to the criminalization and incarceration of undocumented workers, forced them to work in slave-like conditions, and pit them against other workers, particularly poor black workers, forcing them into a cycle of unemployment, underemployment, and poverty. Under these policies working people cannot organize for better conditions,while there are sections of workers who have no rights under the law. 

It’s time we change these Reagan-era policies that have given Trump and others the legal justification for racist violence and the economic and social devastation of our communities. If the new administration is truly to heal the nation and unite Americans, then this process must start with a repeal of the very law that criminalizes and relegates sections of working Americans to second-class citizens with no rights under the law. 

We call on you to: 

1) Improve working conditions for ALL workers by: ensuring the equal rights of all workers to collectively organize and unionize; ending the criminalization and racist violence against communities;, and repealing the employers sanctions provision of IRCA. 

2) Immediately address the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic by prioritizing thе hеаlth аnd economic well being of working pеoplе, expanding relief to ALL.