IMMIGRANTS
When Undocumented Americans Had Few Allies
How people-powered organizations changed that and built political power
Earlier this month, longtime labor and immigrant rights leader, Kathy Andrade, died at the age 88. The New York Times ran an obituary on her incredible life last week, quoting a family member who said “She was like the Godfather…There would be a line of people outside her office, just waiting to get help.”
Andrade spent much of her career as the education director for New York City’s Local 23–25 of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). In this role, she was one of the first in the country to defend undocumented workers, believing their rights needed to be protected along side the rights of other workers. As national union leaders persisted in the belief that immigrants were a threat, Andrade convinced ILGWU to take up the cause of the undocumented, the first union in the country to do so.
It is easy to forget this history of undocumented workers and Dreamers. To this day they are…
