Demand for unions

American labor unions are asking El Salvador to return to Kilmar Abrego García to the United States, calling for their deportation of the Trump administration an “atrocious violation of our brother’s rights.”

Last month, immigration officials erroneously sent Abrego García, an apprentice metal worker who lived in Maryland, his native El Salvador, where he remains in prison. The Supreme Court ordered the White House to help him bring him back.

Administration officials have recognized that he was deported due to an administrative error, but so far he has tried to wash his hands. The president has pointed out an image of Photoshop as evidence that Abrego García was a member of the MS-13 gang, something that Abrego García’s lawyers have repeatedly denied.

In a joint letter to the saving embassy on Thursday, labor leaders urged the government to return Abrego García to his family and guarantee justice for “all other workers who have been arrested or deported without appropriate legal procedures.”

“As a labor movement, we categorically reject vicious attacks against immigrant workers such as Kilmar Abrego García carried out by the Trump administration,” they wrote. “These dangerous anti-workers tactics, anti-union have been armed as a tool to sow fear and division and distract from the corporate acquisition of our democratic and economic systems.”

The letter was signed by Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CiO labor federation; James Williams, Jr., President of the International Union of Painters and Allied businesses, or IUPAT; Gwen Mills, president of the Hospitality Union joins here; and Michael Coleman, president of the International Association of Metal, Air, Railway and Transportation Workers, or Smart, which is the Abrego García union.

“We categorically reject vicious attacks against immigrant workers such as Kilmar Abrego García carried out by the Trump administration.”

– US labor leaders in a letter to the saving embassy

The letter is remarkable for including firms from the building trades. Historically, that wing of the labor movement has not supported the rights of immigrants in the degree to which they have more liberal unions. But some, IUPAT in particular, have opted progressive positions on the subject and have made public supplications of solidarity with immigrant workers.

Intelligent has He stood up publicly With his member Abrego García for weeks and urged the followers to donate to help their family.

Michael M. Santiago through Getty Images

Abrego García arrived illegally to the United States around 2012. He established a life in Maryland and then granted deportation by a judge for the land that could be harmed by the violent gang Barrio 18 if he was sent back to El Salvador. He was arrested by immigration officers on March 12 while driving his son, then deported without an audience three days later.

His wife said he acknowledged Abrego García in a video that the Salvadoran President published that he showed the deportees sent to a Megaprison.

In his letter on Thursday, labor leaders requested a meeting with Salvadoran officials at the end of next week to discuss the situation of Abrego García. They said that democracies are stronger “when workers’ rights are respected.”

“Vilipendio, dehumanization and erosion of rights and due process for immigrants in the The United States is a direct threat to the rights of all workers, and we implore the nations around The world to resist instead of helping this agenda without law, ”they wrote.

Read the full letter: