The goal of the U.S. rulers—reflected in the Senate bill, as well as in the more ominous measure the House of Representatives passed in December—is to maintain millions of immigrants as pariahs to be superexploited by the capitalist class.

The “guest worker” provision of the Senate bill would allow employers to bring into the country some 1.5 million workers a year as temporaries, largely for farm jobs, whose fate would be tied to the bosses.

To apply for residency undocumented workers would have to jump onerous hurdles: pay hefty fines, pass government background checks, prove they are fluent in English, maintain employment for six years as temporaries—making them dependent on their bosses and thus subject to abuse. Many would have to go abroad to apply. And the measure would mandate the deportation of some 2 million workers. Their crime? Living and working in the U.S. for less than two years.

The Senate bill is similar to the House legislation on tightening the frontier with Mexico. The deployment of thousands of National Guard troops there to back up la migra would also be used to legitimize the use of the military on U.S. soil.

Sen. John McCain, one of the bill’s main architects, said demagogically it will “make it impossible to cross our border.” But the U.S. rulers have no intention of doing so. Their goal is not to stop the flow of immigrant labor. The U.S. economy depends on that. It would stagnate without the massive coyote operation the employers organize every day. The objective of the ruling capitalists is to make sure millions of workers remain “in the shadows” and can thus be exploited at lower wages and worse conditions—dividing the working class, increasing competition for jobs, and lowering the wages of all.

The Senate “immigration reform” does differ from the House version, registering ruling-class divisions partly due to the mass mobilizations for immigrant rights. While the rulers work on their problems, let’s keep the pressure on, demanding unconditional legalization of all immigrants now!
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. Senate approves new immigration bill
Lenin: ‘Immigration unites workers from all countries’  
 
 
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