In offering three-year work visas to undocumented workers—and many people will take the risk of applying in the hopes of normalizing their situation for the time being—the proposed legislation would set them up for victimization. It would give the government a ready-made list of immigrants they could keep track of and crack down on. To apply for a temporary visa, a worker would have to be sponsored by a boss, who could then threaten to turn workers over to the hated migra police to be deported if they stood up for their rights.

If approved, the legislation could be used to scapegoat immigrant workers during a time of depression by blaming them for unemployment and carrying out mass deportations. This threat is reinforced by the statement in the proposed law that employers could sponsor an immigrant only after “proving” that no “American” wanted the job.

The proposed bill is a response to the world the capitalists themselves have created. The massive wave of immigration from Latin America and Asia over the past three decades has changed the face of the United States. About 14 percent of the U.S. workforce was born abroad, and up to 12 million workers in this country are undocumented. Large-scale agriculture, hotels and restaurants, construction, garment and textile, meatpacking, and other industries are heavily dependent on immigrant labor as a source of superprofits.

The unprecedented number of undocumented workers today, and the underground economy generated by the existence of a large section of the population deprived of basic legal protections, makes it more difficult for the U.S. rulers to keep tabs on these workers and have a stable workforce. The purpose of the proposed bill is to regularize the legal status of a layer of the working class as well as give the government and its police tighter control over these people. Even their right to travel would be limited to visiting their country of origin, unlike those with permanent resident status, which allows people to travel freely to other countries.

The aim of the U.S. employer class is not to drive immigrant workers out but to drive them down—to maintain a permanent layer of the workforce stripped of most rights and subject to superexploitation.

The new immigration proposal is of a piece with the “homeland security” offensive the U.S. rulers are waging to try to restrict workers rights under the banner of the “war on terrorism”—such as the latest practice of photographing and fingerprinting most travelers from abroad coming into the United States. This offensive is part of the bosses’ preparations for the working-class resistance they anticipate in the coming years in face of their escalating assault on the wages, social benefits, working conditions, and dignity of workers and farmers.

The bosses, however, always underestimate the capacities of working people. Their attacks on workers, including those born abroad, generate a response. This can be seen in the protests in California demanding the right to a driver’s license and labor struggles such as the battle by largely Mexican-born coal miners in central Utah, the strike by 70,000 grocery workers in California, and union-organizing efforts by meat packers in the Midwest.

The labor movement, which has backed the demand for an amnesty for all undocumented workers living in the United States, should oppose the latest immigration proposal. Labor should demand:

Stop the factory raids and deportations! No to “registration” programs and fingerprinting of travelers! For the right to a driver’s license! Legal status for all immigrants now!  
 
 
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