Calling Out
Sheepdog Sanders

The complete companion op-ed

Senator Sanders, our rights belong on the table

Darren Raye Fonzseau · September 2026

Universal healthcare, enforceable injured-worker protections, and broad immigration legalization belong in the same movement. I am asking Senator Bernie Sanders and the progressive left to commit to all three—and to show the work behind the commitment.

I am an injured worker from Everett, Washington, and a husband in a mixed-status family. Three generations of men doing manual work in my family have been affected. I eventually secured a workers’ compensation pension after a long fight. I value it. Winning support did not make the next worker’s struggle acceptable to me.

In 2015, Sanders, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Bobby Scott, and colleagues urged stronger federal oversight of state workers’ compensation. Their warning identified inadequate benefits and costs shifted onto workers and public programs. They recognized the problem. My question is what will turn that recognition into enforceable national protection. [1]

The Department of Labor’s 2016 report likewise warned that inadequate compensation puts injured workers at risk of poverty and shifts costs onto households and communities. This is a documented public-policy problem. [10]

Workers’ compensation includes more than medical bills. A worker may need income while unable to work, rehabilitation, permanent-disability protection, or support for surviving family members. A health insurance card cannot deliver all of that by itself. [2]

The introduced House Medicare for All bill requires reimbursement for covered occupational medical services and preserves existing workplace rights. Those provisions matter. They do not establish the stronger national wage-loss and disability standards I am asking Congress to enact. Healthcare reform and compensation reform should advance together. [3]

The same problem appears when medical authority determines access to benefits. A disputed examination report can affect treatment and income. Cascade PBS reported workers’ concerns about Washington’s independent medical examinations and included the agency’s and doctors’ responses. The issue deserves investigation beyond promises of more affordable care. [4]

I want independent review of contested reports, correction of material errors, and meaningful consequences when professional misconduct is established. A disagreement between doctors is not automatically dishonesty. But a worker should not face an inaccessible, years-long struggle to correct an error that threatens the household’s stability. Existing complaint routes must be judged by what they deliver.

Immigration policy presents another unfinished promise. What does sanctuary mean for a family whose future remains insecure under federal law? Washington’s limits on state and local participation in civil immigration enforcement have value. They do not confer lawful immigration status or erase federal inadmissibility rules. [5]

President Clinton signed the 1996 immigration legislation that helped shape that framework. I want Democrats to confront that history and fight for broad legalization, family unity, and changes to rules that keep long-established families at risk. Sanctuary should protect families today and be connected to a campaign for a secure future. [6]

Broad legalization also belongs in the discussion of Social Security Disability Insurance. Legal work authorization can increase reported payrolls and contributions, while allowing workers to earn future benefit eligibility. Social Security’s 2013 analysis of Senate Bill 744 described that mechanism. Detention has taxpayer costs too. Evaluate each proposal’s full costs and benefits instead of treating immigrant workers only as expenses. [8, 9]

Sanders has supported a path to citizenship. Pramila Jayapal has pursued immigration legislation and held shadow hearings on deportation and detention abuses. Those actions deserve acknowledgment. My criticism concerns the protection still missing and the urgency of delivering relief. [7]

I have repeatedly asked Washington political figures and organizations to put these demands beside their healthcare agenda. In my experience, I have too often been redirected toward individual assistance or other priorities. My account deserves examination, and the people I have criticized deserve the opportunity to answer. A referral may help one person while leaving the national policy question unanswered.

Opposing Trump’s enforcement policies does not settle that question. I want Democratic leaders, including the Latino lawmakers I have approached, to explain their own actions. What did they do with the request? Which federal remedies do they support? When will affected families help set the agenda?

If you can organize for Whole Washington and Medicare for All, why can’t you also press Larsen and Murray for these federal remedies? Which organization accepts responsibility for that work?

I use AI, and I love it. It helps me organize my records and get my voice heard. I will disclose the help and check the evidence. Political leaders should answer the substance of the demand, however an injured constituent manages to put it on the page.

I am sharing the accompanying book with publishers free of charge. I am one retired worker trying to get my account heard, with AI—my little Encyclopedia Brown—helping me follow the record.

Here is the commitment I want: federal minimum workers’ compensation protections; a permanent national commission with injured-worker participation; fair review of medical evidence; healthcare reform that preserves employer responsibility; and broad immigration legislation that gives families a secure future.

Sanders, Murray, AOC, Jayapal, Sawant, Whole Washington, the Green Party, and Our Revolution should answer according to their authority. Introduce the bill, seek the hearing, adopt the platform, or organize the campaign. Tell us the next step and when you will report back.

Workers remain part of the working class after an injury ends their employment. Immigrant families remain part of the community while waiting for relief. Our stories should lead to rights we can use.

We call foul. Put the complete demand on the table.

Source notes

1. Murray–Scott–Sanders oversight announcement, 2015.

2. CRS, Workers’ Compensation: Overview and Issues, preserved 2017 edition.

3. H.R. 3069, introduced House Medicare for All bill, sections 801 and 1102(c).

4. Cascade PBS, The controversial medical exams that help decide WA workers’ comp.

5. Washington Attorney General, immigration guidance.

6. Clinton Presidential Library, IIRIRA signing history.

7. Sanders’s 2019 State of the Union response, Jayapal’s 2025 Dream and Promise Act announcement, and Jayapal’s immigration oversight record.

8. Social Security Administration, 2013 analysis of work authorization, payroll taxes, and future benefit eligibility under Senate Bill 744. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/solvency/JSessions_20130709.pdf

9. GAO, Immigration Courts and Alternatives to Detention, 2018 testimony, including historical detention-cost comparisons. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-18-701t

10. U.S. Department of Labor, 2016 workers’ compensation report, executive summary on inadequate benefits and cost shifting. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OASP/files/WorkersCompensationSystemReport.pdf

Author disclosure: AI assisted with research, drafting, and editing. The personal account and political demands are Darren’s.