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The Phonies on Undocumented Immigration |
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"...reducing inequality is the only sure way to reduce the threat."
Submitted to portside by John Case, Baseball Communist This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it The truth is that the US, Mexican and undocumented workers all have more problems in common with each other than they do with their bosses, or their own national leaderships. Health care, income, retirement, education, safety. But you would never know it from the vomitations of the illegal-alien-bashing media and the 'think-tank' industry that has arisen around them. Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanon, a host of racist right-wing talk show morons, and most of the Republican members of the House of Representatives, are all piling on. Both the House and the Senate are going to devote a big chunk of the pre-election season to hearings on the immigration debate. Meanwhile so-called research institutes like the 'Center for Immigration', http://www.cis.org/, and the Heritage Foundation, publish reams of pseudo-analysis purporting to be 'scientific' conclusions, which then serve to fuel hot air for the loudmouth Limbaugh ditto- heads. Not surprisingly, given their blatant bias, and scant references to real data, these 'research' conclusions quickly vortex around four defecations: 1. undocumented workers are taking some jobs that citizens would otherwise perform at higher wages. 2. undocumented workers are using more public services than they contribute 3. undocumented workers are a terror threat. 4. border enforcement in the form of criminalizing undocumented workers is the principle solution. But a review of sources from the Congressional Budget office, the Federal Reserve, and the US Census shows the following: The first assertion is half-true--its the hook intended to seduce the public. Overall, immigration is generally complementary to the US economy. However, the overall stats conceal some strong trends in manufacturing, mining, and construction where undocumented workers have partially replaced previously higher paid workforces. In meatpacking and construction,a for example, specifically union workforces have been replaced by non-union contractors using undocumented labor. The second 'fact' is false. A Census study notes that undocumented workers typically obtain fake documents and thus pay taxes toward benefits such as social security and health care that they can never receive. The only exceptions to this would include household or marginal small business employment. Most undocumented workers are young, and typically do not overuse health care. There are also local hospital, education and public health costs but no study shows overuse by the undocumented population. Instead, the growing sections of the entire working class that lack adequate health coverage is a far more powerful cost factor. 3. The third 'fact' is both false and pernicious. Despite outright provocations to violence by right-wing media there have been no reported undocumented-worker 'terror' cells. 4. The fourth 'fact' is a dangerous fraud. The proposal--to establish border control by criminalizing undocumented workers, deploying US troops to round them up, deputizing so-called militias out of hate-groups like the 'minutemen', intimidating Mexico by stationing tens of thousands of troops on the Southern border -- are tactics typical of a bullying imperial power. It will WORSEN, not improve, competition with forced- labor. It would be a catastrophe for North American relations. Given the record of all the enforcement programs advocated and enacted over the years, it is highly doubtful these proposals are even sincere. Border control expenses have increased tenfold --a significant component in the budgtets of border states--but have obviously done nothing against the overpowering economic incentives that cause workers to move North by any means necessary. What we have here instead is a not-so-subtle attempt to neutralize any legislation which moves even an inch toward citizenship, or toward any status where abuse and exploitation can be challenged. In other words to leave things just as they are -- only with more terror. For workers the wrong choice at least is clear. Branding a portion of the workforce criminal and stateless is a blatant invitation to abuse, a form of forced-labor akin to slavery, and will reduce the rights of all workers. To support the phonies in their fake enforcement campaign deepens this threat. There is no practical means of forcibly relocating 6 million workers to Mexico. But the question remains -- what steps can best protect the jobs and incomes of US workers? And what does it have to do with immigration policy? The overwhelming economic incentive for immigration is the gaping inequality between worker incomes among US trading partners, especially those in travelling distance of the Southern border, and the appetite of US employers to exploit that inequality. In a word: unregulated globalization--the single most important incident being the NAFTA terms of trade in agriculture, especially corn, that ruined thousands of primitive Mexican farmers. That alone propelled the largest undocumented immigration surge in recent decades. Thus reducing inequality is the only sure way to reduce the threat. No immigration policy can alone negate these incentives, as laws reflect, and are re-made by economic forces far more than than economic forces are determined by laws. Still, all workers have a common interest in mutual and universal legal status, including the protection of I.L.O and UN compliant labor laws. That will give the biggest boost to their incomes, and thus all incomes. It is the only relief for workers competing against forced-labor conditions. Further, whatever transitional program is adopted for undocumented workers to reach permanent resident or citizen status, it will fail unless it includes full protection under all US labor laws. Without this there is no incentive for undocumented workers to register to participate. And lastly, if and only if the prior conditions are met, vigorous employer sanctions must be enforced for those who hire outside legal status once acceptable status is available. If employers do not hire undocumented workers, then they will not come. Many other countries, including our Northern neighbor Canada, have proven that this measure does more than any number of border officials in regulating the economic impact of immigration. Enforcing the latter will likely require a significant public investment in a national ID system, demonstrating the intimate link between immigration rights and basic questions of national security and civil rights. The truth is that the US, Mexican and undocumented workers all have more problems in common with each other than they do with their bosses, or their own national leaderships. If you don't believe me, organize a meeting with a Mexican and Canadian and US worker in your occupation -- see if you do not all come to agreement on the above!! ____________________________________________ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. 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