Hoffa backs control of nation’s borders

James P. Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, called for tighter U.S. border control yesterday, saying the country must stop illegal immigration so it can focus on the undocumented aliens already here.

“We have to control our borders,” Mr. Hoffa said in an interview in Detroit. “Let’s stop for a while, so that we can basically take a breath and find out what we do with the people that are here.”

Mr. Hoffa, 65, has urged Congress to enact immigration legislation that includes both tighter border controls and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens already in the U.S. The Teamsters, a union of 1.4 million that includes truck drivers and loading-dock workers, opposes a guest-worker program supported by President Bush, saying it would undermine wages.

We “have to stop illegal immigration into this country,” Mr. Hoffa said. “We have to have time to digest the people that are here, assimilate them into the culture.”

Mr. Hoffa is running for re-election this fall against Tom Leedham, head of a Teamsters local in Portland, Ore. Mr. Hoffa is the son of Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters boss who disappeared in 1975 near Detroit.

Mr. Bush has said he wants immigration laws that would better secure the border, create a guest-worker program and give some of the estimated 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens already in the country the opportunity to gain legal status.

Congress is at an impasse on final legislation because House Republicans insist that border security come first. The Senate favors a broader proposal that is aligned with what the president seeks.

The Teamsters union opposes the proposed immigration legislation from both the House and Senate.

Labor unions are split over whether the proposal to allow thousands of immigrants to enter the U.S. as temporary workers would result in a surge of potential new members or a flood of exploitable laborers who would drive down wages.

While the Teamsters and other unions representing higher-wage employees oppose the guest-worker plan, the Service Employees International Union, which represents many lower-wage workers such as janitors, and Unite Here, which serves hotel and restaurant employees, support the proposal.

“Month after month, polls continue to show that more than 60 percent of the American public supports sensible, comprehensive immigration reform that both secures our borders and creates an earned path to citizenship for millions of immigrants currently living within our borders,” Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the 1.8-million-member SEIU, said in June.

The Teamsters, SEIU and several other groups split off from the AFL-CIO last year. They said the labor federation was focusing too much on politics and not enough on organizing union workers.

Union membership and influence have been waning for years because of globalization, technology and the decline of American manufacturing, a traditional union stronghold.

Last month, the AFL-CIO labor federation said it would work with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to improve wages and working conditions for day laborers.

The two groups will work on issues such as minimum wage, safety at construction sites and legislation to prosecute employers who don’t pay day laborers.

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