On LABOR DAY.

 

LULAC ON LABOR DAY: AMERICA IS BUILT BY THE HANDS THAT EARN THEIR WAY Nation's Oldest and Largest Latino Civil Rights Organization Proudly Joins the Nation and Salutes a Workforce Strengthened by Every Generation WASHINGTON — The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) marks Labor Day 2026, on the nation's 250th birthday, by honoring the working men and women whose strength, will, and endurance are the foundation of everything the United States has built. These generations of workers, through their perseverance, bones, sinews, and muscles, raised the nation's cities, fed its families, defended its shores, and carried its children forward. This is their day, and LULAC salutes them. "Labor Day belongs to every U.S. worker who ever earned a wage with their hands, their back, or their mind, and also to the immigrants who came here asking for nothing but the chance to work," said Roman Palomares, LULAC national president and chairman of the board. This country was not built on fear of the newcomer. It was built by the many contributions of the newcomer, generation after generation, and LULAC will not allow that history to be rewritten by those who profit from division. If you are willing to work, follow the law, and give your best to this nation, you belong here, and America is stronger because you came." LULAC joins with the organizations that give working people their voice: the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the United Farm Workers. We share a conviction that this country's strength rests on the people who teach its children, care for its sick, harvest its fields, build its infrastructure, and keep its economy moving. LULAC is working closely with these organizations and the millions of members and families they represent. Together, we see tremendous opportunity ahead, today and in the years to come, to ensure that Latino workers and every working family share fully in that future. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, foreign-born workers made up 19.1% of the nation's civilian labor force in 2025, and Hispanics or Latinos accounted for nearly half (47.3%) of that foreign-born workforce. Foreign-born men participated in the labor force at a rate of 76.9%, well above the 65.8% rate of their native-born counterparts. The bureau also reports that Hispanics, now roughly one in five American workers, accounted for about two-thirds of the net growth of the U.S. labor force over the past two decades. "The numbers do not lie. One in five American workers was born somewhere else, and nearly half of them are Latino. Hispanics have supplied two-thirds of the growth in our labor force for a generation," said Juan Proaño, LULAC chief executive officer. In 2024, the U.S. Latino GDP growth reached $4.4 trillion. In 2026, that number continues to increase, outpacing China's GDP growth by nearly 1%. Strip that contribution out of the economy and the country does not merely slow down; it stops. Labor Day is the right moment to say plainly that a workforce this multifaceted is not a problem to be managed. It is the competitive advantage every other nation wishes it had." Today's workforce is multifaceted in age and origin. The Pew Research Center reports that roughly 19% of Americans 65 and older, about 11 million people, remain employed, nearly double the share of the late 1980s. Women now make up 46% of that older workforce. At the same time, 19% of workers ages 25 to 64 are Hispanic, compared with 9% of those age 65 and older. The lesson is plain: the generation now stepping forward to carry the load looks different from the one it is relieving, and the nation's prosperity depends on both. "Women have always done the work that makes all other work possible," said Elida J. Martinez, LULAC national vice president for women. "The mother on the overnight shift, the daughter who cares for an aging parent and still clocks in, the grandmother who is still on the job at 70 because her family needs her there. Nearly half of the workers over 65 in this country are women, and the number is climbing. On Labor Day, LULAC honors them not as an afterthought but as the backbone of the American workforce." Yet some who make up the Latino workforce are still stereotyped through false narratives, narratives of the past that reflect neither our present need nor our future. A closed-minded society denies itself a greater opportunity. LULAC rejects the premise that one worker's victory is another's defeat. A neighbor's success is not a threat; it creates the conditions for everyone to succeed. The nation's immigration system was built to manage that opportunity through law and process. Through proper management of immigrants' labor contributions, along with those of All Americans, in appreciation and not fear, the U.S. economy can continue to thrive. "Every generation of immigrants and U.S. citizens has produced sons and daughters who put on the uniform of this country, and many immigrants did so before they were even citizens," said Lawrence "Larry" Romo, LULAC national vice president for military and veterans affairs and a retired Air Force officer. The same determination that brought their parents across an ocean or a river is what carried them through basic training and into combat. When they came home, they went straight back to work. Anyone who questions whether newcomers are willing to sacrifice for America should visit a veterans cemetery and read the names. LULAC honors all of our active duty personnel and veterans for their heroic work that makes 'One Nation Under God, With Liberty and Justice for All' a reality." LULAC calls on Congress and the administration to honor the American worker this Labor Day not with speeches alone but with a modern, functioning immigration system that serves the nation's economic needs, protects labor rights for all who work and serve, and reflects the all-inclusiveness in America that has always been the source of the country's strength.