4-22-05, 10:48 am
A recurring theme in US history has been periodic anti-foreign frenzy. We are now in the throes of one of these episodes, with Mexican and other Latin American immigrants being portrayed by the ultra right as the most terrifying “alien” threat since H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
This comes at a moment when immigration is at an unprecedentedly high level not only in the United States, but all over the planet. Corporate globalization has penetrated the farthest reaches of the world, disrupting existing economic arrangements, driving farmers off their land and into already overcrowded cities, and creating conditions of ever more desperate poverty in Latin America, Africa, much of Asia and the former socialist states of Eastern Europe. The anti-immigrant campaign is also making use of the issue of terrorism. Uncontrolled illegal immigration is seen as a ticking time bomb of terrorist menace, with Al Qaeda allegedly getting ready to use “coyotes” (immigrant smugglers) to infiltrate terrorists into the United States. In fact, the possibility that terrorists might do this cannot be discounted. However, there are plenty of terrorists in the United States already, most of them born here, and while none of the 9-11 variety came over the Mexican border, it is not impossible, nor easily preventable. Yet if the undocumented immigrants presently here were legalized, and if legal mechanisms of movement of labor were created, there could be much better control over the border situation, with police agencies focusing on terrorists, smugglers and other real criminals instead of using limited resources to chase down workers by the thousands every week.
However, any kind of amnesty or legalization, including President Bush’s bogus guest worker program, is seen as “rewarding criminals” and a threat. Though the Bush guest worker program, which in its essence is no different from the old anti-worker “Bracero” program, is opposed by most of labor and other progressive forces (who favor a full legalization), it is taking more of a beating right now from the ultra-ultra right, which is portraying Bush as being too “liberal” on immigration issues. FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies and Tancredo’s House caucus all have taken aim at the guest worker program as a form of disguised “amnesty,” which it is not.
In the realm of practical policy, extreme measures are being advocated. For example to prevent undocumented immigrants from getting driver’s licenses, anti-immigrant forces are prepared to create situations in which obtaining driver’s licenses is much more difficult and expensive for all US residents, including citizens. In the REAL ID Bill, just passed by the House of Representatives, there is language which forces states to “verify the authenticity” of all identification documents presented by people soliciting drivers licenses. States which refuse will find that their driver’s licenses can not be used for federal identification, e.g. to board an airplane.
In addition to these measures, anti-immigrant ideologues such as Mark Krikorian, also of the Center for Immigration Studies, are prepared to call for stopping or dismantling urban economic developments on the US side of the Mexican border to stop Mexicans from coming over and shopping. The government would buy up all the land around San Diego, El Paso, Laredo, etc. to prevent any kind of economic development that might attract migrants. This would entail billions in losses to US businesses. Another clause of the REAL ID Act would authorize the secretary of Homeland Security to waive any and all laws (environmental, labor, etc.) as needed to expedite the construction of certain border fences and barriers near San Diego, California. Theoretically, the DHS secretary could even employ “illegal aliens” to build fences to keep out the “illegal aliens.”
Encouraged by the victory of Proposition 200 in Arizona, anti-immigrant forces in state after state are trying to pass legislation that would make life for immigrants a living hell. Bills have been presented in Virginia and Maryland that would allow police to stop anyone who looks foreign and hand them over to immigration authorities (the CLEAR Act would authorize this at a national level). It also attempts to prevent undocumented immigrants from getting health care, and to force health and social service workers to act as immigration police. One bill, passed by the Virginia House of Delegates but rejected by the Senate, would have forbidden the payment of workers’ compensation to undocumented immigrants. In various parts of the country as well as at the national level, there are movements to stop the use of foreign ID cards (such as Mexico’s consular ID) as a valid form of identification for opening banking accounts or getting credit cards. The Bush administration has been discussing an agreement with Mexico whereby Mexicans who worked and paid into Social Security in the US would be able to get their Social Security retirement and disability checks sent to them in Mexico. This would be a reciprocal agreement such as exists between many countries. However, this is being seen by the anti-immigrant crazies as another “surrender to Mexico.”
The anti-immigrant crowd think of themselves as being on a roll. Yet all is not bleak. Immigrants’ rights forces, with the crucial support of organized labor, are gearing up to stop many of these initiatives, and will continue fighting for a full legalization program.
What is the Marxist approach? First of all, Marxism teaches us to look at the capitalist system globally. Thus to us, it is perfectly understandable that movement of capital in search of higher profits will end up depressing wages and setting off labor migration, all over the world.
Secondly, Marxists see the world from the point of view of the international working class. Marxists do not automatically assume that American workers, in a globalized economy, have the right to good-paying jobs and decent living standards, but workers in other countries do not. Thus it should not bother us that Mexicans or Cubans living in the United States send money home to their relatives from their US paychecks, another thing that horrifies the anti-immigrant crowd. However, these remittances are not a solution to the vast economic disparities between developed and underdeveloped countries. Only significant defeats of imperialism entailing the rolling back of neo-liberal international trade and aid policies will do that. Countries that are challenging these policies, such as Cuba and Venezuela, should therefore be defended.
Thirdly, Marxist theory begins with the creation of surplus value by workers. Thus, the eight or 10 or 12 million undocumented workers in the United States are creating wealth, even though they get their own hands on very little of it. Who gets to keep all that wealth is the US employer. There is often a sterile argument over whether immigrant workers pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits. However the real ratio to ponder is how much more wealth immigrant workers create than they get back, both in the form of their wages and in the form of government benefits. One can easily see that the immigrant workers, far from being a drain on the economy, contribute mightily to it. Furthermore, most immigrant workers pay into the Social Security fund that everybody is so worried about, and even more of them would if the undocumented ones were legalized.
Yet the fact that millions of workers in our economy are undocumented and that they, as a result, are forced to accept low wages, no benefits and outrageous working conditions, is something that negatively affects all workers here. Just as slavery, until it was abolished, undercut the situation of free workers in the pre-Civil War United States, the semi-slavery of the undocumented workers in our factories, farms and other workplaces is detrimental to other workers.
This is why the AFL-CIO and most other progressive organizations in the United States have placed themselves foursquare behind the demand for legalization of all undocumented workers.
--Emile Schepers is a contributor to Political Affairs.
