The United States has been transformed by the biggest wave of immigration in its history—4.5 million immigrants arrived in the 1970s, 5.7 million in the 1980s, 11.3 million in the 1990s, and 2 million just in the last two years. Today an estimated 8 million workers do not have legal papers. Far from wanting to keep them out, the employers have drawn immigrants to this country in order to create a superexploited layer of our class and to try to keep us divided.

The government has beefed up the immigration police and stepped up workplace raids and the militarization of the borders. Almost 2 million workers were detained on the Southwest border last year. Since 2001, one million “no match” letters have been sent warning bosses to crack down on workers without proper Social Security cards. Even while posing as “friends of immigrants,” Democrats and Republicans have backed the deportations. Pitting U.S.-born against foreign-born, “legal” against “illegal,” and even longer-term immigrants against new arrivals, they have fueled the demagogic lie that undocumented workers are a source of crime, unemployment, and other social ills caused by capitalism.

In resisting the bosses’ assault, many working people are concluding that we must join together, regardless of nationality or legal status, in a common fight. The influx of fellow workers born abroad has strengthened the working class. Workers from other countries bring their class-struggle experiences and culture with them, breaking down divisions among our ranks, and broadening our horizons. A case in point is the successful struggle by immigrant workers in California for the right to a driver’s license, which has helped push back government probes to impose a national ID card on all working people. The strike today by coal miners—mostly Mexican-born—at a Kingston lignite mine in Utah underscores the place of immigrant workers in the struggles today to organize or defend our unions.

Stop the factory raids and deportations! No secret detentions or trials! End the “no match” letters! For the right to a driver’s license! Legal status for all immigrants now!
 
 
Related article:
Immigrant rights caravan on the road across the U.S.
Thousands send off buses for Freedom Ride in California, other states  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home