CITIZENSHIP FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

WHEREAS, the United States has traditionally granted refuge to those desiring to work and improve their con­ditions; and

WHEREAS, those who today labor in the U.S. as "illegal aliens" do so at the risk to their human rights; and

WHEREAS, it is by their status as "illegal aliens" that they are forced to submit, without protest, to dehumanizing conditions imposed upon them by employers; and

WHEREAS, there is a need to dispose of the cloud that hangs over the status of those individuals who have established themselves in the United States and have begun to raise their families; and

WHEREAS, the security of these individuals is at risk because employers exploit their fear of deportation:

RESOLVED, that the AFT urges the Congress and the President to formulate legislation that will provide an amnesty for people whose only violation of law was that they entered the country illegally; and

RESOLVED, that this legislation contain sanctions against employers who knowingly hire and exploit illegal aliens for their own profit.