Vol. 78/No. 44      December 8, 2014

Labor must champion the fight against deportations, second-class status, background checks, firings, indefinite jailing and the criminalization of immigrant workers. We must say with one united voice: “We don’t care what language you speak, what side of the border you were born on or whether you did time in prison. Your ‘papers,’ or lack thereof, have meaning only to the bosses and their government.”

The exploiting class constantly seeks ways to divide working people and weaken our solidarity. Any chance they get, they pit employed against jobless, young against old, Caucasian against Black, male against female, native-born against foreign-born.

In their eyes the working class is a class of outlaws, honeycombed with millions of criminals — from striking workers to “felons,” from “illegals” born in the wrong country to “suspects” born in the wrong neighborhood who must be constantly stopped, frisked and shot, if necessary. That’s why they build so many prisons, deploy so many cops, and employ plea bargains and other frame-up methods to railroad millions to prison.

The criminalization of immigrant workers is part and parcel of the capitalist assault on the living standards, working conditions, rights and dignity of all working people. This sharply poses the need for working people to organize unions without distinction of national origin or status. At the same time, labor must simultaneously engage in political action, independent of the bosses’ Democratic and Republican parties, and champion the struggles of all the exploited and oppressed.

The rulers’ goal has never been to drive out all immigrants. Their ever-shifting policies are driven by their interests — foremost by their needs for labor and their desire to drive down wages. In pursuit of these two goals, the propertied rulers have brought in immigrants during periods of economic growth, while making sure millions are “illegal” with less rights and less expectations in order to leverage economic disparities and foster divisions among workers.

For the working class, immigration is a strength. It broadens our international scope and breadth of class-struggle experience. In 2006, for example, immigrant workers organized massive mobilization against the Sensenbrenner bill that sought to brand all workers without “proper” papers as felons. On May 1 that year, some 2 million carried out a nationwide political strike. These actions not only pushed that attack back. They won sympathy and respect among native-born working people, and showed in practice that it’s actions such as these that can defend our rights and force the rulers to adjust their policies to our favor.

President Obama’s self-extolled Immigration Accountability Executive Action is just another periodic adjustment in the rulers’ immigration policy. It removes the threat of deportation for some, while increasing it for others. The minority who are eligible for renewable three-year reprieves are supposed to be “accountable,” pay taxes and accept they are undeserving of federal benefits. Meanwhile, the background checks, firings, guest-worker status, criminalization and deportations continue.

There is another important issue raised by Obama’s executive decree. Working people should recognize and be concerned about moves that strengthen the powers of the executive branch of the bosses’ government, treating Congress as if it doesn’t exist. The separation of powers and curbs on executive powers drafted into the U.S. Constitution are good for the working class. They afford us more space to organize and act in our separate interests. Sometimes they even “gridlock” the ability of the capitalist rulers to make and carry out decisions, which is never a bad thing.

Our immigration policy should be simple. It doesn’t require pages of text or bureaucratic red tape.

No deportations! No background checks! No firings! No arrests! No raids! No “accountability!” Unionize! Organize!
 
 
Related articles:
With ‘accountability order,’ Obama decrees shift in immigration policy
Penn. vigil demands release of Mexican immigrants
 
 
 
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