[WestMALocals] Fwd: [usgp-dx] What's behind the immigration 'crisis' (Progressive Populist)

[Owen Broadhurst]

There has been discussion within some locals questioning the wisdom of our
working in solidarity with "illegal" immigrants. Some who raise such
questions appear concerned over "jobs" and "wages", and the reputed effect
that illegal immigration has on such. Scott McLarty, below, cites an
article that WE are the reason illegal immigration continues apace. WE have
displaced jobs in Mexico.

Why do we work in solidarity with "illegals" in the US? Because WE tore
their families apart, depressed their regional economies, and took their
jobs away.

"Roger Bybee and Carolyn Winter noted in the
6/1/06 TPP that the movement of US agribusiness
into Mexico has pushed more than 2 million
Mexicans off the farms and into the cities,
looking for jobs. Retailers such as Wal-Mart have
moved into Mexico, displacing an estimated 28,000
small- and medium-sized Mexican businesses. And
Mexican factory wages actually have fallen, as
multinational firms force them to compete even
cheaper manufacturing costs in China and other
lower-cost nations...."

"But this year Republicans were looking for an
issue that could excite working-class whites,
since it was apparent that tax cuts for the rich
weren't doing anything for them. It looks like
they decided that they could stir up the rednecks
by ginning up an immigration "crisis." Never mind
that Republicans in Congress voted overwhelmingly
last year to expand NAFTA to Central America and
the Dominican Republic. That trade bill will
further increase the economic squeeze on US
workers as well as their Latin American
counterparts."


OB

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
Date: May 28, 2006 8:17 PM
Subject: [usgp-dx] What's behind the immigration 'crisis' (Progressive
Populist)
To: usgp-media at gp-us.org, natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org

No Immigration Hurry

Editorial
The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2006
http://www.populist.com/06.11.edit.html


Some of our readers take us to task for our
sympathy for immigrants in the immigration reform
debate. "True Populists would never advocate or
defend policies that resulted in depressing the
wages of working men and women in the United
States," Gilbert Fite writes in a letter on page
4. We share his frustration with the economic
forces that have drawn as many as 12 million
immigrants to stay in this country illegally. But
we don't think immigrants are the enemy. Blame
those who take advantage of the immigrants.

It is no accident that an estimated 11 to 12
million people have come into the US in search of
a better life in the 20 years since the last
immigration reform, during the Reagan
administration. That migration accelerated with
the implementation of the North American Free
Trade Agreement in 1994.

Ross Perot predicted in 1993 that as
manufacturing in northern Mexico expanded,
hundreds of thousands of Mexican workers would be
drawn north. "They will quickly find that wages
in the Mexican maquiladora plants cannot compete
with wages anywhere in the US. Out of economic
necessity, many of these mobile workers will
consider illegally immigrating into the US,"
Perot wrote.

If anything, Perot underestimated the threat.
Roger Bybee and Carolyn Winter noted in the
6/1/06 TPP that the movement of US agribusiness
into Mexico has pushed more than 2 million
Mexicans off the farms and into the cities,
looking for jobs. Retailers such as Wal-Mart have
moved into Mexico, displacing an estimated 28,000
small- and medium-sized Mexican businesses. And
Mexican factory wages actually have fallen, as
multinational firms force them to compete even
cheaper manufacturing costs in China and other
lower-cost nations.

The US economy largely absorbed those immigrants
through the boom years of the 1990s. Even with
the Bush recession after 2001, their presence was
little noted outside service industries, building
trades and meatcutting industry, where immigrants
were employed to keep down the pressure for
higher wages.

But this year Republicans were looking for an
issue that could excite working-class whites,
since it was apparent that tax cuts for the rich
weren't doing anything for them. It looks like
they decided that they could stir up the rednecks
by ginning up an immigration "crisis." Never mind
that Republicans in Congress voted overwhelmingly
last year to expand NAFTA to Central America and
the Dominican Republic. That trade bill will
further increase the economic squeeze on US
workers as well as their Latin American
counterparts.

But the threat of a brown horde of illegal aliens
was thought to be an excellent distraction. House
Republicans, working with the White House,
produced a bill that not only made undocumented
aliens criminals; it made everyone who dealt with
illegal immigrants felons as well. The House bill
offers no path to citizenship, which nativists
say amounts to amnesty for lawbreakers.

The Senate GOP was split between corporatist
Republicans such as Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., who support a solution
that tightens border controls but provides
illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, and the
nativists led by Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and
John Cornyn, R-Texas, who want to lock down the
borders and deny illegal immigrants "amnesty."

A compromise bill emerged in the Senate that
would give some immigrants a path to citizenship
but would force others to return to their native
countries or go back underground.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., put up a populist
amendment to do away with the low-skilled
"guest-worker" visa program. It was defeated
69-28.

We agree with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
that the three-tiered system that emerged is
unworkable, will create a bureaucratic nightmare
and will lead to substantial fraud. Sen. Tom
Harkin, D-Iowa, said the compromise bill would
force many immigrants to leave his state who have
helped revive small towns by buying homes and
starting businesses.

The White House, perhaps seeing the possibility
of providing more work for Republican-friendly
contractors, embraced the right wing's plan to
install 370 miles of border fence and high-tech
tools to monitor activity along the border. Bush
has sent mixed signals on the proposal to make
English the official language. And of course Bush
knuckled under on deploying 6,000 National Guard
troops along the southern border, a studied
insult to Mexico.

The good news is that, in the hyper-partisan
atmosphere in the House, what passes for GOP
leadership refuses to advance a bill that
Democrats might be able to support. Speaker
Dennis Hastert insists that major legislation
reach the House floor only if it appears to be
backed by a "majority of the majority." As Fred
Barnes wrote in the right-wing Weekly Standard,
"House Republican leaders don't want to be put in
the politically awkward position of relying on
Democrats to approve a comprehensive bill --
while a majority of Republicans holds out for
narrower legislation. But if they persist in
holding out, immigration reform may die."

Bush had hoped Republicans could build on their
support among Latino voters with appeals to
patriotism, family and religious values. But as
the nativist wing adopts increasingly hostile,
immigrant-bashing rhetoric, and Bush feels
obliged to give lip service to the xenophobes,
polls are starting to show Latino voters leaving
the GOP behind.

A survey of 800 registered Hispanic voters
conducted May 11-15 by the nonpartisan Latino
Coalition showed that Democrats were viewed as
better able to handle immigration issues than
Republicans, by nearly 3 to 1: 50% to 17%, the
Washington Post reported. Pitting Democrats
against Bush on immigration issues produced a 2
to 1 Democratic advantage.

Even if Republicans keep a third of Hispanic
voters, Democrats win because Latinos are growing
as a share of the electorate. The Hispanic Voter
Project at Johns Hopkins University conducted a
study that showed, if past voting patterns hold,
Democrats will increase their 2004 vote totals by
nearly half a million votes in 2008. Hispanic
vote growth would move two Southwestern
battleground states -- Nevada and New Mexico --
into the Democratic column by 2016 and add Iowa
and Ohio by 2020. Democrats also hope the Latino
vote could put Texas back into play and push
Arizona and Florida into the solidly blue column.

Texas has 3.38 million foreign born residents, of
which the Center for Immigration Studies
estimates 1.35 million are undocumented. Florida
has 3.2 million immigrants, with 780,000 illegal.
Arizona has 851,000 immigrants, with 480,000
undocumented. It is in the interest of
Republicans to send as many of those people back
to their native countries as possible. Why
Democrats should cooperate in deporting potential
Democrats is beyond our comprehension.

Border security is important, AFL-CIO President
John Sweeney said, but it will not fix our broken
immigration system. "Immigration reform must
include the protection of rights and standards
for all workers including permanent relief to the
millions of undocumented workers currently living
and working in this country; it is long past time
to put this struggling underground community
above ground and recognize their enormous
contributions. To do otherwise guarantees a
secondary class of workers easily subject to
exploitation," he said.

We agree. Instead of joining Senate Republicans
in a flawed immigration bill, Democrats should
let intra-GOP divisions prevent a bad bill from
passing this year. Matthew Yglesias recently
wrote, "Nobody knows exactly how the midterms
will play out, but Dems are all-but-certain to
pick up some seats and be able to pass a bill in
2007 that's better than any possible compromise
in the current Congress." -- JMC




__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________
Natlcomaffairs mailing list


-- 
Owen R. Broadhurst
Candidate for State Representative
Third Hampden District
http://www.owenbroadhurst.org