“An unaccountable private army of the executive is incompatible with democracy and freedom”
For more information contact:
Jonathan Kissam, UE Communications Director
(802) 343 1745 | jkissam@ueunion.org
The UE General Executive Board has issued a statement condemning the murders of Alex Jeffrey Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, demanding that their killers be held legally accountable, calling for a no vote on the Homeland Security Appropriations bill that is up for Senate approval, and demanding that Congress abolish ICE entirely.
The Board, which consists of sixteen elected rank-and-file UE members from around the country and the union’s three national officers, notes that “All working people have a stake in standing up for immigrant workers’ rights” and notes that “the real purpose of immigration enforcement is to maintain a permanent underclass of workers afraid to stand up for their rights — which drags down wages and working conditions for all workers.”
They further note that:
As we know from the history of resistance to authoritarian regimes in other countries, the labor movement, with our ability to stop work, has a special role to play alongside mass protests in the streets. On January 23, the labor movement in Minnesota did precisely that, leading a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” which saw tens of thousands of working people gathering in subzero temperatures to demand ICE leave the state. If our country continues to slide towards authoritarianism, more such actions will be necessary.
The full statement is available at https://www.ueunion.org/political-action/2026/militarized-immigration-enforcement-incompatible-with-democracy.
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