Time to Put ICE on Ice

The immigration raids continue. From California to Connecticut, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are picking up undocumented immigrants and sending them home or to holding pens. A long editorial in last Sunday’s New York Times describes the current climate like this:

Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. "We Are America," their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned.

A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place - on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.

The overwhelming impulse has been to get tough, and tough we have gotten.

Indeed the press has been full of stories of families split apart and communities shattered by the raids. And while the raids have generated a chorus of righteous indignation, there is little indication thus far that they have changed the political discourse on immigration reform. None of last year’s crop of immigration reform bills—some with broad bi-partisan backing—would have prevented the kinds of raids now underway. In fact, they may have promoted them by beefing up the government’s enforcement capacity. So far, this year’s proposed bills promise more of the same even though Democrats now control Congress and many hard line xenophobes were defeated in last fall’s elections.

In March, the Democrats are planning to introduce a new comprehensive immigration reform package in Congress which, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will “focus on border security and a guest worker program.” Democratic leaders regularly cite immigration reform as one area they think they can find common ground with the Bush Administration—even as it continues to conduct these vicious raids. Worse still, some of the new “populist” Democrats have hard-line positions on immigration.  Andrea Batista Schlesinger writes in the Nation:

"Our first priority must be to secure ports and borders to keep out terror threats, illegal drugs and illegal immigrants.... People who want to come to America should follow the rules--and we should enforce them. There should be no cuts in line. Moreover, hiring illegal aliens is no joking matter.... We need to enforce the law on employers who hire illegal immigrants no matter who they are. It's not just a matter of fairness--it's a question of national security."

Who said it: Lou Dobbs? Tom Tancredo? No, Democratic Senator Jon Tester from Montana, one of the "new populists" elected to the Senate in the midterm rout of 2006.

These populists were elected in large part because they responded to the economic anxiety of working- and middle-class people, offering a critique of globalization's impact on the lives and livelihoods of American workers. They tapped into frustration with a "free" trade policy that has benefited multinational corporations while driving down the standard of living for workers here and abroad. But when it came to immigration, the populists opted for fiery protectionist rhetoric instead of appealing both to Americans and immigrants as workers with common interests. They opted for fences instead of proposals that would align immigration policy with the real needs of the economy.

The raids struck right to the heart of labor’s organizing efforts in the service sector. It is a reasonable assumption, for instance, that many of the 5300 janitors recently organized in Houston by SEIU are undocumented immigrants who could be rounded-up and deported at the whim of some ICE bureaucrat. Perhaps as a result, in January SEIU modified its earlier support for the Kennedy-McCain reform bill. In an open letter to Senator Kennedy the union pledged continuing support for the bill’s over-all framework but went on to criticize later versions of the bill and to detail SEIU’s  position on each of its provisions. In an accompanying press release, SEIU says

The letter identified core reform principles to which SEIU is committed, including legalization, a new worker program, labor and civil rights law enforcement, family backlog reduction, and border security.

“Successful reform mandates the most expansive earned legalization provisions that would make eligible the largest number of undocumented persons,” wrote [Andy] Stern and [Anna] Burger. “If only half or two-thirds of the targeted population would be eligible for legalization, undocumented workers will continue to fuel an underground economy, with negative impacts on all workers, employers, and communities."

The letter added, “We neither subscribe to nor endorse a repeat of the failed ‘guest worker’ programs. Any new worker program must include worker protections including: portability of visas so that workers can change jobs, the right to join unions and have full labor rights, the right to bring their families with them, and the ability to self-petition for permanent residency and citizenship.”

On worker protections, Stern and Burger wrote, “We must replace the current regime of employer sanctions with vigorous labor and civil rights enforcement. All workers – U.S. born and immigrant – must be protected by local, state, and federal labor and civil rights laws – regardless of their immigration status.”

The letter also noted SEIU’s strong support for “all efforts to eliminate the family backlog and increase the number of visas available to reunite families.”

Other unions have also redefined their position. According to journalist David Bacon: 

[Bruce] Raynor [head of UNITE-HERE] believes Democratic control of Congress means "circumstances have changed. We supported Kennedy McCain as what was possible then. Other things are possible now." …. Raynor says "We'd rather see people get green cards as a pathway to citizenship, than have a guest worker provision." Nevertheless, while UNITE HERE and SEIU call for legalizing undocumented workers and replacing employer sanctions with labor law enforcement, both unions have renewed their alliance with the EWIC, the employers' organization that backs guest worker programs. The AFL-CIO, meanwhile, is standing firm against guest worker programs. Along with their Bush administration allies, the companies in the EWIC - Wal-Mart, Marriott and Tyson - want a Congressional deal on comprehensive immigration reform that includes the weapons they use against workers now - raids and no-match checks - and the ones they plan to use against them in the future - guest worker programs. No such deal is possible without selling out immigrant workers' rights.

Regulating immigration is a legitimate task of government. But immigration reform must use an array of non-punitive methods because, the truth is, that no borders are secure in the era of globalization. Goods, money, jobs—and people—all find ways to cross frontiers legally or illegally. As the US increased the number of border patrol agents and made border crossings more difficult over the past decade, the number of undocumented immigrants continued to climb sharply as people adapted and found other more difficult and dangerous ways into the country. If you shut down the border in one area, the problem moves to another area, and locking down the entire border is simply too politically and economically expensive.

Those who think barriers can stop the flow of immigrants should take a close look at what’s happening in Europe. Each year thousands of migrants risk life and limb to enter the EU to find work. They make a perilous journey up from Africa, across the Mediterranean Sea, and into Europe landing in Spain, Italy, or Greece. Many others seek to enter through the backdoor by crossing miles of the Atlantic from Morocco to the Canary Islands which are attached to Spain. There they seek work or passage to the mainland. The migrants travel in boats of all shapes, sizes and conditions.  And they die in large numbers—last year some 6,000 migrants—most of them from Sub-Saharan Africa, died en route to the Canaries.  Still, 31,000 migrants made it, and many more were caught and sent home. 

Another New York Times story appearing this past week reports on the increasing flow of South Asians moving through Africa to Europe following the migration routes opened by Africans. They come from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Burma over a long and complicated routes costing significant money which is often raised by families. But the lure of work in Europe is such that many feel the trip is worth it.

There is some hope that the apparent withdrawal of support by important U.S. unions for enforcement/guest worker type reforms could make passage of an immigration bill in this session of Congress difficult. After-all, the Democrats owe labor for their contribution to last fall’s election and this is an important issue for labor. But while no bill is preferable to a bad bill— which most likely means any bill that Bush would sign—the raids are sobering call for labor and others to develop a reality-based immigration reform bill that meets the needs of all of the workers in the US and the sending countries.

We at GLS have written regularly and in some detail [click right menu on “immigration”] about what we think are the key elements of a genuinely comprehensive immigration reform bill. But following the raids it’s time for immigrant groups, labor, and their political allies to stop pandering to the enforcement crowd with calls for stricter “border security.” Not only does such talk create the mindset and open the way for the kind of human rights abusing raids now happening, but it is also an obstacle to reality-based immigration reform.
M.O.

Comments

[Borderline Wrong]

US immigration has been a concern of mine for quite some time. I am American and my wife is from Venezuela… so I am very familiar with the racial profiling that occurs when crossing US Borders. This country is far from being the “land of the free”. I created a 5 minute short film that deals with the anxiety and frustration created when passing through US Customs. Please view and share comments:

http://films.thelot.com/films/19561