Statement of Tom Chamberlain, Oregon AFL-CIO President on Immigration Raid in Portland

It's irresponsible for corporations like Fresh Del Monte to import workers when Oregon has plenty of skilled food processing workers right here at home. Ironically, many of our best food processing workers have seen their jobs outsourced to Mexico in recent years. This anti-worker, anti-family practice is rewarded by our nation's faulty trade and immigration laws.

So-called "free trade" polices help fuel this problem by pitting American workers and workers in other nations against each other. Oregon's food processing workers at Simplot in Hermiston and Agrifrozen in Woodburn have seen their family-wage jobs outsourced in recent years. And workers south of the border have seen their own standard of living fall, and are forced to come here looking for work. When all is said and done, Oregon workers have seen their good jobs replaced by minimum-wage ones like those at Fresh Del Monte.

I question Del Monte on their dubious public relations response to the raid, in which they said they are "interested in bringing these people to justice." In fact it's Fresh Del Monte, which build a business model that denies local Oregon workers fair pay and instead systemically import cheaper labor, that should be brought to justice. They are calling for punishment of the very men and women who make their company profitable. It's wrong that our nation's immigration laws are more punitive toward the men and women who are working to support their families, than on the corporations that exploit them.

The ICE raid on working men and women is a shameful illustration of what's wrong with our nation's trade and immigration laws. The President and Congress need to stop playing games and pass comprehensive immigration reform that values workers and families, both citizen and immigrant.

The Oregon AFL-CIO represents more than 145,000 working men and women in Oregon.