Throughout the U.S., undocumented immigrant workers are being cheated out of their wages, forced to pay exorbitant rents for rundown, overcrowded apartments, and threatened with being turned over to ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents – for deportation if they complain.
On Sept. 18, Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong convened a meeting in Hamden, near New Haven, with three state legislators and several representatives of immigrant workers to call for legislation to allow his office to better protect all workers, including immigrants.
Tong is himself the son of an undocumented Chinese immigrant who overstayed his U.S. visa. In his talk at the immigrant workers rights forum, he said that undocumented workers have the same rights as workers who are citizens and called for the enactment of laws that will give his office more tools to prosecute employers and others who abuse workers, specifically the creation of a civil rights division in the attorney general’s office. According to testimony Tong submitted during the 2018 legislative session, almost half the nation’s states (22) currently have such enabling legislation. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus attended the event with Attorney General Tong, and presents the following excerpts of his talk.
For more information, visit Office of Connecticut Attorney General William Tong at portal.ct.gov/AG.
