Today is May Day — International Workers’ Day — a holiday started by immigrant and U.S.-born workers standing in solidarity for the universal principle that every worker has a right to dignity, safety, and the assurance they will make it home to their families at the end of the day.
The history of the U.S. labor movement is filled with immigrant leaders and union members standing up for the working class. The strongest unions have always known that pitting workers against each other based on where they were born is a tactic the bosses use to divide and weaken our movement for justice.
As union leaders, we will always see the fight for workers’ rights and the fight for immigrant rights as inextricably linked.
Today the struggle for workers’ rights continues and for immigrant workers, the stakes are even higher as the Trump administration dehumanizes and diminishes them.
ICE targets Black and Brown people regardless of immigration status, making all workers of color, and all of our communities, less safe.
The members of both the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and the New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance (NYTWA) are majority people of color; many are immigrants.
About 31% of all registered nurses in New York state are immigrants and approximately half of New York City registered nurses are immigrants.
NYSNA has called out the administration over their violent plans to target hospitals and other sensitive locations.
The same nurses hailed as essential workers during the pandemic are now dealing with the impact of ICE raids and ICE presence in hospitals, endangering nurses and their patients. Patients are coming in sicker than ever because they’re waiting until they’re at death’s door to get essential care.
NYTWA’s membership is 94% immigrant, mostly people of color. As the only majority-Muslim U.S. union, NYTWA stood up to the Trump administration after the 2017 Muslim ban and continues to be on the frontlines fighting to protect immigrant rights and end racial profiling.
Taxi and app-based drivers face the risk of being racially profiled by law enforcement during traffic stops every day. The NYPD has a history of harassing, racially profiling, and engaging in racially motivated anti-immigrant policing practices. When drivers cross New York City’s borders they face even greater risk as there is no law that prohibits law enforcement from colluding with ICE.
As the Trump administration and Republicans turn up their violent anti-immigrant agenda, we call on Albany to pass the New York for All Act now!
The bill would ensure hospitals and health centers are places where all New Yorkers can receive care without fear of risking detention and deportation. It would also protect hospital workers by explicitly prohibiting ICE and Customs and Border Patrol from entering non-public, state or local property — including hospitals, schools, and courts — without a judicial warrant.
It would also prohibit police from colluding with ICE and handing drivers over to immigration enforcement on a whim to be disappeared from their communities.
New York for All is good for our members and good for all New Yorkers.
For generations, workers have known our solidarity is our greatest strength.
We urge Gov. Hochul and legislators to stand in solidarity with New Yorkers who are fighting for the collective rights and freedoms for all workers and all people — no matter where they are born — to be safe and together with their families. Anything less would be an abandonment of the guiding principles of May Day and our movement.
Lawrence is a Lincoln Hospital nurse and president of New York State Nurses Association’s NYC Health+Hospitals/Mayorals Executive Council. Desai is the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.